Don’t say you weren’t warned.

I don’t want there to ever be a single day where I don’t realize how lucky New York City public librarians can be.  Ours is a weird, privileged, one-of-a-kind world.  When I moved to this city, I knew it believed itself to be the center of the universe and that by moving here I would slowly, over time, come around to its point of view.  It also scared the crap out of me.  My vision of NYC was formed by bad 80s films where you can’t walk the street without being mugged in an alley (Fun Fact: There are almost no alleys in New York City).  But I took a position as a children’s librarian in Greenwich Village and it soon became clear that there was something awesome about this place.

One plus?  Celebrities.  They’re friggin’ everywhere.  I mean, they live here so if you keep your eyes open you can spot them with great frequency.  And in Greenwich Village they actually use the library.  Our library guard was particularly good at catching them as they entered.  Of course, she had her own specialized list of who ranked as a celebrity.  Michael Richards, yes.  That guy in the movie The Warriors who clinked the bottles and said “Oh Warriors, come out and playeeeeeee!!”, yes.  I had the pleasure of helping Julia Stiles with a reference question about Long Day’s Journey Into Night on one occasion and doing a toddler storytime for Hope Davis and her tot on another.

Then there are the publishers with their celebrity books.  Once I started getting on those lists I was able to meet folks putting out the books.  Folks like the Vice-President’s wife (current) and her book about bringing the troops home, for example (see what I meant with the title of today’s post?). Or Chris Colfer from GLEE and his middle grade novel (which I was invited to and didn’t attend).

But through it all there was only one celebrity I ever wanted to meet.  Only one that I wanted to see firsthand.  The one . . . the only . . .

Friggin’ Julie Andrews.

I mean, come on.  Who wouldn’t?  We’re talking one of the greatest Broadway and movie stars of all time.  The woman who manages somehow to be just as nice in person as she is in the public persona.  I knew she was in New York City promoting her books from time to time.  I was tempted to swing by to see her at Books of Wonder whenever she did something there.  But all those people . . . surely my day would come.  Surely I’d be able to meet her myself, if only for an instant.  I just didn’t expect that it would happen when I was 8 months pregnant is all.

Little, Brown & Co. was kind enough to extend an invitation to myself and several other social media types to a lovely tea with Ms. Andrews in the building where their offices are kept.  I had never actually been anywhere near the Little, Brown offices, and thus COMPLETELY neglected to look for the Mr. Tiger Goes Wild statue made entirely out of LEGOs.  It reportedly looks like this:

Blast!

In any case, I arrived to a little room full of cupcakes, teacups, and tiny chocolate desserts.  This is a bad position to be in if one is a pregnant woman.  Unlimited cupcakes.  Think about that for a minute.  The women (for they were all women) started to arrive and they included bloggers and writers from places like Parenting Magazine, PopSugar Moms, GeekMom, and others.  That meant I was present as press, not as a librarian.  Duly noted.

When Ms. Andrews did arrive she did so through a surprise door on the opposite side of the room.  And she was not alone!  In her presence was her daughter and co-writer Emma Walton Hamilton.  Together the two have penned the Very Fairy Princess books over the years.  You may or may not be familiar with them.  Well, in this interview with Stephen Colbert from about two years ago she explains them better than I ever could: