Robin Benway: Get your runway stride home and keep it goin'...

Okay, so really, how can I compete with a not-quite hotel fire? It's a hard act to follow, but I will now try to do my best to recap my book tour experience for you crazy kids. Behold!

ROBIN'S FIRST EVER BOOK TOUR EXPERIENCE, POST-SAN FRANCISCO!
(With photos and musical accompaniment. This should not surprise you.)

So I have to say that Seattle was not nearly as action-packed as San Francisco, but only because I was there for 11 hours. I know, right?! That's just enough time to go to my hotel, get coffee at Starbucks (hey, when in Seattle...) and listen to Kanye.

Here's the thing: sometimes I get a little nervous before talking to groups of people, so I need some musican encouragement. Kanye works well for this. Sometimes I even think, "What Would Kanye Do?" but then I realize he would probably just complain about not winning any literary awards, so I let that drop. Anyway, here's what shakes me out of my nerves.

Kanye West, "Champion"
"For me, givin' up's way harder than tryin'..."

So then it was time to go to the signing at Third Place Books with Polly & Jody.

There was a band at our event! They went by the name Shotty and they did a 9-minute Santana cover that sort of shook the roof. Was I expecting to hear a Santana cover that night? Absolutely not, but it was a pleasant surprise!

Another pleasant surprise was that my friend Anna-Lynne came to see me. She and I grew up together and she made me my first mix tape. (I don't have enough room to explain how life-changing that tape was, but trust me, it was epic.) Anyway, she's in the band Trespassers William and now has her own solo deal, Lotte Kestner. It's very shoegazey and I think you will dig it.

Anyway, this is me & Polly & Jody looking all author-ly at Third Place. Don't be fooled, we really are professionals.

After that, I ate dinner at a place that I cannot remember, slept for a few hours, and made it out of the hotel the next morning in time to sit at the Seattle airport at 6:11am. Here's what that looked like:

(I swear to God, some of the loudest people in the world are in airports before 7am. WTF?)

I landed in LA, safe and sound and very tired, only to discover that my baby-friend Luke had sent me good luck wishes for my LA event that night! How cute is he!

(If you don't have a baby-friend, I recommend getting one as awesome as Luke.)

Anyway, so after that, pretty much everyone I have ever met in my life--like, at least 30 people--showed up to see me & Polly & Jody. I know some pretty amazing people. Here are the backs of their heads:

Not the most flattering shot, I'm sure, but that's all of them. Not a bad-looking crowd, huh? I read the dedication in my book and made my mom & brother cry (sorry, guys!) and then read a little bit of "Audrey" and people clapped and my knees finally stopped knocking together.

This is my littlest fan, Claire. She was eight days old when this picture was taken. You can't tell from the photo, but I'm holding my breath because I didn't want to breathe my adult germs all over her and ruin her babyhood. She is very tiny and is obviously going to be a prolific reader.

By then, Jody & Polly & I & everyone else in the room was ready for a party, so we trooped across the street and talked and danced a little. You know how sometimes, you can hear a song a million times and not really think about it, but then you hear it in a certain environment and all of a sudden, it's like, "Holy cow, this is the best song EVER!"

Yes. Enter Beck.

Beck, "New Pollution"
"She's got a carburetor tied to the moon / Pink eyes looking to the fruit of the ages..."

(I'm dancing to this song even while writing this entry. That's how good I am.)

But then it was time to say goodbye to Polly & Jody. A word of advice: if you ever become a writer and do a book tour, I highly recommend doing one with authors as cool as these two people. They were my favorite traveling buddies. I miss you guys!

So after traveling and dancing and reading and talking, where do you think I went? Where else?

Vegas.

Now, I'm not exactly a "shake your booty at the club" type of person, so some parts of Vegas and I don't get along. However, I definitely got along with the Bellagio, which is where we stayed. Any hotel that has a gelato store built into it gets two thumbs up in my book!

They also have a botanical garden, which is way prettier than most places in Los Angeles. Now, I don't know what the world is coming to when you have to go to freaking Vegas to see beautiful pieces of nature, but there you go.

Another interesting thing about Vegas is that towards the end of the Strip, there are 4 HUGE screens that constantly blast the 30-second Mary J. Blige iPod commercial. It is relentless. RELENTLESS. So if I have to have that song stuck in my head, so do you. It's only fair.

Mary J. Blige, "Work That"
"You can look at my palm and see the storm coming / Read the book of my life and see I've overcome it..."

So after Vegas and gardens and Mary J., it was time to come home and realize that I have a lot of laundry to do. But it was totally worth it! I had the best time meeting all of you--you might not realize it, but one of the best compliments I could ever get is someone coming up to me and saying, "I liked your book!" It will never, ever get old.

I hope you are all having lovely days and weeks and months, and I can't wait to see you again!

In conclusion, my favorite song that I heard while I was in Vegas. Turn it up, kittens.

Ella Fitzgerald, "The Lady Is a Tramp"
"I like the theater, but never come late / I never bother with people I hate..."