at long last: pics from the signing

What follows is a series of pics in roughly chronological order, taking us from the book signing's humble beginnings to the speech made by the outgoing president of Mom's Korean-American wives' club to pics of my brother David playing cashier, me doing a reading, and various friends and family members milling about.

Pics 1-3 = The desk where David and I sat. Attendees signed a guest register, paid David the cashier, and got their new book signed by yours truly. The first pic also once again features my ass, visible in the doorway.

Pic 4 = Dr. Steve, my buddy since 8th grade, brightens up what could have been a dull photo.



Pic 5 = Food prep in the room off to the side.



Pics 6 and 7 = David and his big big brother at work, doing their thing. Christina Chong is in the corner, snapping her own pics. My brother Sean snapped many of the pics you see here.





Pic 8 = A glimpse of the gathering crowd. We ended up with close to 50 people.



Pic 9 = Another shot of the table where the action was. I signed books from noon to 12:30, then stopped to do my presentation: a spiel about me and my book, a reading of two passages (this was a snoozer for most of the audience), and a Q&A session which was somewhat livelier than the reading.



Pic 10 = A rare glimpse of the back of my head.



Pic 11 = Altered photo. Kevin gives himself a jawline as a joke.



Pic 12 = The outgoing president of the women's society gives a short speech before my 12:30 spiel.



Pic 13 = My reading, as seen from the back of the audience.



Pic 14 = Luminaries.



Pic 15 = In the back are Dr. Steve and my two brothers, Sean (left, black shirt) and David (right), along with a friend from church (foreground, left) and one of Mom's many Korean acquaintances (foreground, right).



Pic 16 = A surprise visit from my Georgetown friends! All praise to Mike D (tallest of the bunch), who reads my blog and who alerted the others to this event. I was floored when everyone from my past showed up. That really made my day. I've pixelled out my buddy Joe's son (he's got two sons, and a sister is on the way) based on other parents' feeling that one shouldn't display pics of the kids online.



Aside: along with my GU buddies, we had some stars from the blogosphere show up as well: Jason was there, as was Corsair, and somehow Charlie the KimcheeGI managed to show up despite his demanding job as a drill instructor, kicking ass and taking names. The amazing Pastor Bled also made it over, which was fantastic.

Pic 17 = Two big-shots, whom I won't name here lest they Google themselves.



Pic 18 = Many of the ladies in the Korean women's society, including Mom.



I was going to make the above into a Photobucket slide show, but you need Flash 9 to view it, which seemed like too much of a pain for everybody. I hope you enjoyed the above quick overview of Saturday's event. It was quite something. My thanks go out to the local Korean community for all their effort, and especially to Mom and Dad for having worked so hard to put this together. I literally did nothing but come, talk, and sign. (Yes, that's the correct use of "literally," Steve. But be warned: some "misuse" is warranted.)


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