May 14, 2001
Douglas Adams
Everyone is pointing to Douglas Adams quotes and obituaries, so I guess I should share my story.
The girl had brought him in to speak at school, and I was able to be one of the volunteers to guard the doors while wearing a dorky t-shirt with the weird tongue-face thing on it. The girl told me that he had gotten to the hotel room and needed an adaptor for his PowerBook, and I told my mac-friend, but M. Adams was able to get help from the hotel's electrician. Oh well. That evening, Mr. Adams gave a speech, it was ok, but uninspired. I made sure no one came in the door. Some of us stood around beforehand, discussing how irregularly we need to shave. After his talk, which included a reading from his endangered animals book, he answered questions. He hated the tongue-faced cartoon character. Someone gave him a little pig. He was excited about the prospects for the movie, which was being worked on with the guy who directed Austin Powers.
After the speech was the signing. I stood close enough to hear a lot of the questions. Some people went crazy and had boxes of stuff to sign. He managed to get through it somehow, but never seemed to particularly enjoy himself.
After the signing, the kids who helped organize it and myself took him out for dinner, to a pizza / brewhouse in a former church. I was one of the people with a car, so I drove. Since I was parked nearby, I got to drive Mr. Adams. It was raining. He seemed nervous. I was nervous. As I slowed to stop at a stoplight, I mustered the courage to ask him about the computer game he wrote that my mac-friend loved. While I asked, my foot relaxed on the brake a little and we slipped into the car in front of us. I felt like the biggest ass in the world. The woman in the car in front of us got out, there was no damage, I got back in. We rode the rest of the way in silence. I still felt like an ass.
Dinner was fine. Mr. Adams drank a lot. We ate. The conversation was a bit forced, although conversation with a large group of college kids is probably never too easy. But Mr. Adams came across as kind of a jerk. But I hadn't been a huge fan for a long while, and other people's attitudes towards him may have biased me. After dinner, we drove him back and that was it.
The next day I noticed he had left the pig that someone had given him in my car.
Hmmph.
After reading this article about him, though, I wonder if he was as uncomfortable with the whole situation as I was.
Posted by babar at May 14, 2001 11:51 PM