Camping Out for The Host

Today, The Host, a new book by Stephenie Meyer, was released. It’s not part of the Twilight series, so I would’ve been willing to just get my book when the stores opened this morning. However, because limited tickets to a signing by Stephenie Meyer were involved, I camped out with my buddies.

A couple of weeks ago, my friends and I started to discuss when we thought we should show up to Borders. At first, we thought 6:00 am would be early enough. Then, after a lot of thought, we changed it to 3:00 am. On Friday, paranoia started to sink in, so we changed it to midnight.

I had suggested to Nancy on Friday that we should do a drive by earlier to see if a line was forming, so we could go earlier if needed. So, at 5:00 pm yesterday, Nancy drove by and a line had already started to form! She did what any obsessed fan would do and bribed the people in front of us with $20 to watch the camping chairs she just happened to have in the back of her Mini and keep “our” place in line while she took her husband out for his birthday dinner.

Around 11:30 pm, Kayla, Lori, and I joined Nancy in line. To our excitement, we found that Nancy had secured us as the fifth group in line. Most people had blankets/sleeping bags and pillows, but there were a lot of people with tents, air mattresses, and camping chairs. That was nothing compared to the smörgåsbord of items Lori had with her. She had propane heaters, hot chocolate, a movie projector, camping chairs, etc. Needless to say, we were sitting pretty.

A little after midnight, a group of people, including Kayla and Nancy, got up and started dancing in the street. Lori had set up her iPod in her car and was blaring it so we could hear it while they danced. They had a lot of fun learning how to do the Cha-cha, Merengue, Samba, and Electric Slide. If you know me, you know I hate to and can’t dance, so I just enjoyed watching them have fun while trying to keep myself from falling asleep.

There were a couple of people that kind of gravitated towards our group because we were having so much fun. Mostly, however, everyone else in the line was trying to sleep. As we were told to shut up a few times, I thought, “Um … what do you expect sleeping out on the sidewalk at Borders!”

Before we left for Borders, Kayla had sent an e-mail to the rest of us with the subject, “Camp out … or should I say stake out?” I had forgotten there was a Steak-Out restaurant by Borders, so of course, when everyone saw it, we had to have our picture taken.

Around 1:30 am, Danylle joined us from Salt Lake. We were excited to add someone else to our party. We decided to play Imagine Iff, Twilight style. That kept our attention for about an hour.

After a potty break, which involved finding an open gas station at 3:00 am in the morning, Lori set up her projector and we watched 27 Dresses on the side of the Borders building. I didn’t think I’d be able to stay awake because I was so exhausted, but I ended up making it through the movie. During the movie, the winds from the canyon started and it got really cold really fast. Luckily, we had our propane heaters and blankets to keep us warm. We were glad the “chance” of light showers didn’t come to fruition.

After the movie, we talked for a bit and I ended up falling asleep around 6:15 am. I woke up around 7:15 am when everyone started to pack up and put all their camp out gear in their cars. I was so tired, but it was all worth it!

You could tell everyone was tired because some people behind us became upset when they thought people were butting in line. They yelled at us and told us, “Only those who slept out should be in line.  Everyone else should go to the back of the line.” We told them we didn’t sleep out, but all five of us had been there all night.

We missed the rest of our group that couldn’t come with us because of family, work, or not wanting to give up the comfort of their beds. But, we had a good time and we walked away with books and tickets for everyone we came for, including ourselves.

I got six books, one for me and five of my friends. As we left Borders with our books in tow, all the people still in line kept giving us nasty looks because they could see we had bought several books. We high-tailed it out of there for fear of getting mugged by the obsessed fans.

I got home around 8:30 am and went straight to bed. I didn’t wake up until 4:00 pm. Needless to say, I won’t be finishing The Host today. But, I’ll be done very soon.