Hilary Duff in-person success!

[Luis27]

Excerpts from my journal entry, if you care to read it all.

Saturday, 15 October 2011, 1227p
Last night went really well! For the most part.
.....I got in line outside the Barnes & Noble store at around 840a, listened to Ryan Seacrest in my ears until 9a, then followed the small line in when the doors to the store opened....Inside the store the staff expected people would be buying Devoted, the book that Hilary would be promoting, so they were at the ready with several copies at the registers. The people waiting in line went straight to the cashiers, and the cashiers handed out wristbands to each person that bought Devoted. This was good news. When I bought my copy, the lady who assisted me explained that people would start getting lined up at 530p, and they would be placed in line according to the letter on their wristband. That would save everyone the trouble of waiting in line all day. Since I was one of the first people in line, I got an “A” wristband, essentially guaranteeing I would get to meet Hilary. I walked out of the store pleased....
By 435p I was at The Grove (again)....About 10 minutes before 530p I started wandering around the third story area where the line would be organized, and finally when they started arranging people, I was one of the people that got to go near the front. It wasn’t THAT close, but it was close enough that I felt very comfortable about getting a chance to meet Hilary before time was up.....
.....The rest of the time I spent....waiting for Hilary to arrive. She was scheduled to arrive at 630p and 7p (I saw two different times listed). I was obviously hoping for the former, but I wasn’t hopeful about that one. I tried my best to focus on reading Elixir while I waited, but the closer the clock got to 7p the harder it was to focus. Finally I stopped trying shortly before 7p and pulled out my camera phone to get Hilary the moment she passed by.
Minutes passed without Hilary in the room, and minutes turned into several minutes, with still no Hilary. I could hear the crowd becoming restless. I heard an amusing conversation from a couple of people behind me in line.
Person 1 (male): “I’m going to propose to Hilary.”
Person 2 (female): “Not if I do it first.”
One girl came up to me and the guy behind me in line and asked if either one of us would take a picture of her with Hilary when it came time for her turn. I was prepared to say yes if, in exchange, she took a picture of me with Hilary too, but the guy next to me beat me to it.
As we got closer to the front of the line I asked the same guy that was going to take a picture of the girl if he would take one of me too. He seemed hesitant, and started saying something like “if we have time…” However, I then added, “…and I’ll take one of you too, if you want.” That was more acceptable to him then, and he agreed. One guy started coming down the line and instructing us to put the book cover flap of the front of the book on the page that Hilary would be signing, which was the first page with the title of the book on it. He said it made no difference where she signed on “paperbacks,” so I accordingly arranged my Devoted book and did nothing with my Elixir book. Another girl came down and started asking if we wanted our books personalized. I told her I did and she wrote down my name on a Post-It note, so Hilary would know exactly how to spell it and not waste time asking me. Now I was about as ready as I was going to be.
Hilary arrived at about 730p, which was late. When she entered the room, however, media people there started flashing their cameras, and some females shrieked. I tried taking as many photos of Hilary as I could with my camera phone, but the zoom was not good enough, so the photos weren’t particularly good. I saw one girl was wearing a shirt that said “I Love Hilary Duff” and had a photo of Hilary in the middle. “Do you like my shirt?” she asked.
“I LOVE it!” Hilary responded as enthusiastically as she could. When the girl that requested a photo from the guy behind me had her turn, she got her photo and left. When the guy behind me and I were up, he got to go first and I took a photo of him with his camera. Right before I was taking the photo, one of the people organizing the line at the front asked me how I found out about the event. I almost ignored her because I was too busy getting ready for the photo that I didn’t realize she was talking to me. “Oh, uh…online,” I simply said when I realized it.
“Online,” she repeated to someone next to her, in an “of-course, I should have known” kind of tone to her voice. Another of the organizers at the front of the line took my books from me so she could hand them to Hilary when it was my turn. Finally it was my turn.
“Hello,” Hilary said simply when it was my turn and I approached her.
“Hello,” I responded. I could see my hands start to shake, but she wasn’t really noticing because she was looking down at the books in front of her. “My name is Luis,” I said to her.
“Luis…” she repeated, then started signing one of the books. As she signed, I told her what was on my mind. “It’s such an honor to meet you.”
“Aww…thank you,” she replied. In my mind I wondered whether I should say out loud the next thing that I was thinking, but my mouth was about a step ahead of my mind. “You were my first celebrity crush,” I told her. “I just had to tell you that.”
Hilary paused writing for a brief second, as if she was thinking about how to respond to that. She looked up slightly, with a slightly bigger smile than she had while she was signing, then just said, “Well thank you.” She finished signing the first of my books, then moved to the second. “You want both books signed to you, right?” she asked me.
“Yes,” I replied. She signed my second book, and as she did, I wondered if I should say something else. I decided against it (or maybe I just took too long to decide that I ran out of time), because I had done well in keeping my cool up to that point, and I didn’t want to ruin it by saying something stupid.
Hilary closed both books when she was done, put one on top of the other, and started saying, “Enjoy the books” to me. I interrupted her slightly by asking if I could have a picture taken with her. She said yes, then I turned behind us to where I expected the guy with my phone to be waiting for us. He started signaling to me that he would be taking a photo with his camera instead, which caught me off-guard, but it wasn’t like I could do anything about it right there and then. He took a photo of Hilary and I, then I said “thank you very much” to Hilary and walked away with the guy.
When I started walking out of the building with the guy, he explained that he couldn’t find how to take a photo with my camera phone, so that’s why he took one with his camera instead. I was displeased because now I didn’t have the photo myself, but he said he would e-mail the photo to me. I asked if he could do it right there and then, but he said he would do it “after 10,” presumably from his home. I agreed, because I had no choice. We exchanged e-mails then went our separate ways. I thanked him for agreeing to send the photo to me, but I left the store wondering whether he would actually do it. It’s not like he would ever see me again.
......I kept admiring my newly autographed Hilary Duff books as I was taken all the way back (home)...I quickly went to the e-mail I gave the guy, in case he had already sent me my photo. He had. I was surprised and pleased at how fast he was....