A Night with David Sedaris & Co.

Holy shit. What a night. I’m exhausted and perhaps slightly tipsy, but no matter. Tonight rocked.

Our friend Sam is dating a girl named Melena who worked as a tutor for this children’s literacy tutoring place in Brooklyn called 826NYC. Melena knew about this event tonight promoting Children Playing Before a Statute of Hercules, a book of short stories edited by David Sedaris and featuring dozens of famous writers, the profits of which go to 826NYC.

Last night Sam, Melena, Boyfriend and I walked down to the Great Hall at Cooper Union (right on East 7th and Third Ave) and went to this kickass reading. Melena is apparently head over heels about David Sedaris because she almost peed herself with excitement when he came out.

Sarah Vowell, the voice of Violet Parr in The Incredibles and a regular contributor to NPR and author of several books, co-hosted the event with David. Not only that, but the fucking crazy talented Lorrie Moore read some of her work, along with Joyce Carol Oates, Akhil Sharma, and Charles Baxter. It was insane. For anybody who enjoys good books, it was like a night of hanging out with celebrities.

The Boyfriend laughed so hard at some of the stories that I think I still have finger grip marks on my leg. Melena tossed back her big head of lush, black curls and opened her mouth wide and sent her laugh straight to the ceiling. Sam, who was only vaguely familiar with most of the authors beforehand, said now he wants to come over to my book shop and get himself an armload of books. Altogether I think we count the event as a success.

Afterward the four of us got in a cab and went to Babalu in Midtown and sucked down mojitos and performed our favorite passages for each other from the readings we’d heard, getting louder and wilder about it as the mojitos flew by. (Nobody can say that Babalu’s mojitos are watered down. Those fuckers are strong.) The Boyfriend pulled me onto the dance floor and before I knew it, Melena was tossing her curvy body around the floor with Sam left with nothing to do but worship her writhing body.

The Boyfriend gets tipsy easily and soon he was kissing my neck and laughing hysterically, pawing at me. He was really happy because he had an audition that went well this afternoon and we’re both crossing our fingers that he’ll get called back tomorrow. He’d get to play some sort of British schoolboy in a torrid and forbidden love affair, or something like that. The Boyfriend was trying to explain it to me on the dance floor, but we were both dancing, we’d both had a bit to drink, and it was loud.

The Boyfriend is brushing his teeth right now in the bathroom. He’s sitting on the closed toilet lit, knees together and feet askew, hanging on to the countertop. Poor guy. I’m going to go get him a huge glass of water and then throw his ass in bed.