Neil Gaiman Friday

As many of you know I am a huge Neil Gaiman fan. I've read many of his works ranging from children's picture books, to graphic novels, to full on adult length novels and have loved everything he has done. So it is with great excitement that I came across a tweet from him (yes I even follow him on Twitter) stating that he will be making an appearance in Chicago for the Printers Row book fair. Even more exciting it turns out I will be in Chicago that weekend (I'm going to Bonaroo in June as well and was worried that dates would conflict). Events at Printers Row are free and open to whoever shows up except those held in the Harold Washington Library which, while still free, need a ticket to get in. Ticket information for Neil's visit will be posted on May 18th. I'm so excited I've even written in my planner to go online that day and try and get tickets so I don't forget (as it's the day before my monstrous work event I will probably be very scatter brained).

In my love for him I read his blog when I get the chance. Over the past year or so he has mentioned his work on the project "Who Killed Amanda Palmer" for the full story of how it came about click here. The end result is what sounds like a fabulous photography/art book with stories attached to the pics written by Gaiman. This sounds absolutely delightful to me so when I saw the post with the link to pre order I actually almost giggled out loud at my desk. The catch however is twofold. A) the book costs $34.99 plus shipping and I'm hard up to drop that much right now trying to save for all the things I want to try and do this summer (though the fact that it will be very, very limited printing is quickly pushing that fear out of my mind) and B) it will not be available until July so I have no idea where to have it shipped. I'm hoping (secret cross my fingers hoping) that I will be starting new employment around that time so I don't want to list my work address for shipping which is what I normally do since shipping to my house is a nightmare. Nothing larger than a letter is ever left for me which means a trip to the post office (if it's USPS) is involved and the post office near me is somewhere between the sixth and seventh layers of hell. If it's UPS or FedEx the gods only know what will happen to the package if I'm not there to receive it.

So I find myself in a dilemma. I could ship it to my mothers house though since that is in Wisconsin I won't be sure when I would be able to go get it, and I have a terrible time waiting for something once I know it's arrived. I could wing it and ship to the house or find a reliable friend with better delivery services than I and have it shipped to them. I think I'll mull it over through the weekend and hope that I come up with something (and convince myself to spend the money as well).