\nThe author with David Sedaris in the Upper East Side.\u00a0 <\/p>\n
He\u2019s my all-time favorite writer. I have all his books and I\u2019ve enjoyed them again and again. I devour the pieces he writes for The New Yorker, I listen to his audio books, his NPR segments, his podcast guestings. I love his humor, his sharp wit, his writing style. He\u2019s a master of storytelling, of weaving anecdotes effortlessly, and I am always happy to come along for the ride.<\/p>\n
David actually came to Manila in 2006 for a book signing but I didn\u2019t get to see him. I\u2019ve always hoped to make it to one of his readings and so for years, every time I was about to travel, I\u2019d look up his tour dates to see if we would be in the same city. No luck.<\/p>\n
Did I really just run into him in the streets of New York? I thought so.<\/p>\n
\nThe author with David Sedaris in the Upper East Side.\u00a0
<\/p>\n
But wait, doesn\u2019t he live in England now?<\/p>\n
Green chinos<\/p>\n
The man was wearing green chinos and I know David likes cool, unusual pants. He was carrying a white backpack. Does David carry backpacks? I racked my brain, trying to remember if David Sedaris had ever written anything about backpacks.<\/p>\n
We crossed the road, still heading towards hot chocolate\u2014and still going in the same direction as the man who could be David.<\/p>\n
Catherine, ever the kunsintidor, said, \u201cJust talk to him.\u201d<\/p>\n
I shook my head. What if it was just a random New Yorker? Or worse, a random grumpy New Yorker?<\/p>\n
While walking, I opened Google and typed \u201cwhere does david sedaris live.\u201d<\/p>\n
The search results told me that he divides his time between England and New York. He and Hugh have an apartment in the Upper East Side. We were in the Upper East Side!<\/p>\n
Holy crap! It really could be David Sedaris!<\/p>\n
\u201cJust go talk to him!\u201d Catherine said for the nth time. \u201cWhat\u2019s the worst that could happen?\u201d<\/p>\n
I took a deep breath and got ready to approach the man who was still walking slightly ahead of us. He slowed down, pulled out a notebook, and that\u2019s when I knew for sure that it was David Sedaris. He\u2019s famous for carrying around a notebook and jotting down his observations.<\/p>\n
He was writing something when I finally got the courage to approach. He looked up as I spoke. \u201cHi, are you David Sedaris?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYes,\u201d he replied slowly, in that voice I know so well. I have listened to it for countless hours. And now that voice was talking to me.<\/p>\n
\u201cI can\u2019t believe I\u2019m meeting you,\u201d I said to him.<\/p>\n
We had the loveliest conversation, right there, on the corner of 90th St. and Park Avenue. He was kind, warm, funny.<\/p>\n
Nice to readers<\/p>\n
The encounter made me so happy. It\u2019s become my favorite New York moment of all time (and I\u2019ve had a lot of great New York moments).<\/p>\n
And it didn\u2019t end there. Because this is David we\u2019re talking about.<\/p>\n
He\u2019s known for being really nice to his readers. His fans know that when they go to his signings, they need to be ready to patiently wait in line because he doesn\u2019t just sign books, he takes his time to connect with each person who comes.\u00a0<\/p>\n
If David had just said a quick hi when I went up to him, that would have been more than enough. Just seeing him brought me so much joy. But no, he spent time talking to me. He asked about my trip. He joked about Jollibee. I got to tell him how much I love him and his work. He talked to me about his new tour.<\/p>\n
And that\u2019s not all.<\/p>\n
\n\u201cI\u2019ll leave two tickets for you at the box office,\u201d said David Sedaris.\u00a0
<\/p>\n
David said, \u201cHow long are you staying? I\u2019ll be in Morristown, New Jersey tomorrow and I could give you tickets\u2014but I don\u2019t know if you could make it there.\u201d<\/p>\n
My jaw dropped. I clutched my chest. \u201cOh my gosh! Thank you so much! Of course, we\u2019ll go! We\u2019ll find a way!\u201d I said, confident despite not knowing where Morristown is.<\/p>\n
He wrote my name in his notebook (my name\u2019s in his notebook!) and said that he would leave two tickets for us at the box office.<\/p>\n
Then he flipped to another page, wrote down his email address, tore it out and handed it to me. \u201cIf anything comes up, if you can\u2019t make it, if there\u2019s a problem, let me know.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cNo no no, we\u2019ll be there,\u201d I said.<\/p>\n
\u201cOkay,\u201d he said, smiling. \u201cI\u2019ll see you tomorrow, Pam Pastor.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dazed and in awe<\/p>\n
I walked away from the encounter dazed and in awe that it even happened. It felt like a dream. Somehow, we ended up at the right crosswalk at the right moment.<\/p>\n
Had we done just one thing differently, we wouldn\u2019t have met David. If the guy who took our order didn\u2019t delay lunch by forgetting to ring up our wings, if I hadn\u2019t insisted on taking multiple photos of every cherry blossom tree on Roosevelt Island, if I hadn\u2019t gotten lost on the way back to the tram, if we had decided to wait for the next tram like I wanted to, if Fifi had not asked me to buy her moisturizer, if I had squeezed in a visit to Tiny Doll House like I was tempted to, if we had gone for hot chocolate on a different day, if I had even stopped for a bathroom break, we wouldn\u2019t have seen him on that street.<\/p>\n
Catherine thinks it happened because we had frozen hot chocolates at Serendipity that morning. Maybe she\u2019s right. Because what happened really was serendipitous.<\/p>\n
I tried to explain to Catherine just how huge it was for me. \u201cIt\u2019s like how you\u2019d feel if you met Kim Kardashian on the street and she asked you to go to Calabasas.\u201d<\/p>\n
It was a done deal. Just like Catherine wouldn\u2019t have turned down Kim\u2019s invitation to Calabasas, there was no way I was missing the chance to see David Sedaris in Morristown.<\/p>\n
Over the past few days, I\u2019d been entering every online lottery for discounted Broadway tickets. An hour before we ran into David, we found out we\u2019d won the chance to buy tickets to Death Becomes Her\u2014for the 2 p.m. show the next day instead of the 8 p.m. one. It felt like a sign: we could see the show and still make it to Morristown. (But let\u2019s be real\u2014I would totally give up watching a Broadway show to see David.)<\/p>\n
Off to Morristown
\n
\nCard for David\u00a0
<\/p>\n
The next day, Catherine and I went to Penn Station and got on the NJ Transit train to Morristown. As the train started moving, I brought out the card I had gotten for David. On the front is a little mouse clutching a bagel, looking up at a pigeon. They\u2019re in the middle of what I assume to be an unusually clean New York bodega. Beneath them, in yellow letters: \u201cThanks for everything!\u201d<\/p>\n
\nThis adventure brought the author to Morristown, New Jersey.\u00a0
<\/p>\n
Somewhere between Secaucus and Orange, I wrote a message to David. By the time I was done, Catherine was asleep.<\/p>\n
Eleven stops later, we reached Morristown.<\/p>\n
\u201cDavid Sedaris Tonight at 8 p.m.!\u201d read the electronic board outside the Mayo Performing Arts Center.<\/p>\n
Inside, at the box office, a nice lady handed me my tickets.<\/p>\n
\nThe author\u2019s signed copy of The Selfish Sister\u00a0
<\/p>\n
Catherine and I walked into the lobby which was packed with David Sedaris fans. My kind of people, I thought. Many were at the concession stand ordering drinks while others were perusing his books that were for sale. I already owned all of them except for the children\u2019s book Pretty Ugly. I bought it and put it in my bag next to the copy of his other children\u2019s book The Selfish Sister that I had picked up at The Strand.<\/p>\n
David has a new book coming out in May, The Land and Its People, which will feature new essays. I grabbed one of the bookmarks with the QR code so I could preorder it.<\/p>\n
\nDavid Sedaris’ new book, The Land and Its People, \u00a0will be out in May.
<\/p>\n
\u201cPaper tickets! That\u2019s unusual!\u201d said the cheerful usher who led us to our seats. They were great seats\u2014orchestra left, towards the middle. We were seated next to a stern-looking man with white hair\u2014one half of an elderly couple.<\/p>\n
The show<\/p>\n
Soon, David was onstage, greeting the audience while wearing white layered Dior cargo pants. (What did I say about him and cool pants?)<\/p>\n
He introduced his opening act\u2014a young writer named Christopher Crespo who read a funny piece about helping his sister write a letter to her accountant.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Then David returned to the stage. It was time for him to read.\u00a0<\/p>\n
In New York, I had said to him, \u201cYour readings are the best. I love listening to you read your work.\u201d<\/p>\n
Smiling, he said, \u201cTomorrow night will be horrible. I just started this tour last night so I have new material and I don\u2019t know how to read it. It\u2019s gonna be awful.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cNo, it will be amazing,\u201d I replied.\u00a0<\/p>\n
And it was. I spent the entire hour or so smiling and laughing as he read his new essays\u2014about attending the Oscars, about feeding animals in the wild, stories that took us to unexpected places and pulled us in from beginning to end.<\/p>\n
Catherine, who had never read his work, instantly became a fan.<\/p>\n
Before he started taking questions, David said, \u201cThere\u2019s someone very special in the audience today\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n
I craned my neck, wondering who was seated among us\u2026 Maybe one of his sisters? Then he said my name. Catherine and I stared at each other, mouths open, our eyes wide in disbelief, as David told that full theater of people about me\u2014how I\u2019m from the Philippines, how we met on the street, and how he invited me to New Jersey.<\/p>\n
I waved limply, shyly to the crowd, again feeling like I was in a dream.<\/p>\n
He mentioned me again minutes later, when someone asked him about encounters with fans.<\/p>\n
Book signing<\/p>\n
When the program was over, we joined the line for the book signing. I stared at the stacks of books available for sale, tempted to buy copies of titles I already own so he could sign them all. But he had already done so much for me. And my baggage allowance couldn\u2019t handle all those extra books.<\/p>\n
As the line moved, I kept watching the clock. There was one last train leaving from Morristown and I was a little worried we\u2019d miss it. We couldn\u2019t\u2014Catherine had to catch her flight back to California in just a few hours.<\/p>\n
She went off in search of sustenance while I waited in line. I watched David talk to people as he personalized their books\u2014at one point giving a gift to a little girl who had come with her parents. In between signing and talking, he took bites of his dinner. Soon, there were only two people ahead of me.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m getting to Pam!\u201d David said, spotting me.\u00a0<\/p>\n
I grinned at him.\u00a0<\/p>\n
As the woman in front of me walked the few steps to the signing table, he said, \u201cDid you know you were standing in front of Pam?\u201d<\/p>\n
She smiled at me. They talked, he signed her books, and then it was my turn.<\/p>\n
\u201cHow were your seats?\u201d David asked.<\/p>\n
\u201cGreat!\u201d I said. \u201cThank you so much, this has been wonderful.\u201d<\/p>\n
We chatted as he signed my books\u2014about our train ride, about the show, about my newfound obsession with pigeons.<\/p>\n
I handed him a gift bag\u2014it was covered in pigeons. \u201cI wish I could have brought you something from the Philippines but I didn\u2019t know I was going to see you.\u201d<\/p>\n
Instead, I gave him a miniature Magic 8 Ball I had won at a cruise ship arcade.<\/p>\n
Cookies
\n
\nCookies from David Sedaris\u00a0
<\/p>\n
\u201cDid you eat dinner?\u201d David asked. When I said no, he offered me cookies. \u201cTake one for Catherine, too.\u201d<\/p>\n
And when he found out we had 20 minutes left to catch the last train, he asked, \u201cOh gosh. Will you be okay?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYes,\u201d I assured him, thanking him again. Knowing there was still a long line of people waiting for their moment with him, I said my goodbyes.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m so glad you could make it. It\u2019s so nice to meet you. I\u2019m glad this worked out,\u201d David said.<\/p>\n
I floated out of the Mayo Performing Arts Center, buoyed by the kindness and generosity of my favorite writer. It was freezing that night but I felt so warm.<\/p>\n
Outside, I handed Catherine her cookie and the copy of The Best of Me that I had asked David to sign for her. She flipped it open and laughed when she saw what he had written: \u201cBack on the train, you.\u201d<\/p>\n
Oh sh*t, the train!<\/p>\n
Memorable encounter<\/p>\n
Don\u2019t worry, we made it\u2014with seven minutes to spare. Safe in my seat, I opened my own signed books. \u201cWe met on the street!\u201d he had written in one. In the other, \u201cTo Pam, a lady journalist and a swell person.\u201d<\/p>\n
As we rolled back to New York, I thought about my friend Kimi who also had a memorable encounter with David Sedaris some years back.\u00a0<\/p>\n
She had traveled to Poughkeepsie to go to his signing and she didn\u2019t just meet him\u2014she rode back to Manhattan with him in his car.<\/p>\n
I reminded him of that moment and he said matter-of-factly, \u201cOh yeah, she didn\u2019t have a ride so I offered her one.\u201d<\/p>\n
That struck me: the ease in the way he said it, how naturally kindness seemed to come to him. There\u2019s something magical about discovering that someone you admire is as great a person as he is a writer\u2014and to get to experience it firsthand is such a privilege.<\/p>\n
I leaned back in my seat and closed my eyes, grateful that, in this messy world, David Sedaris exists.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"He\u2019s my all-time favorite writer. I have all his books and I\u2019ve enjoyed them again and again. I…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":202246,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[2408,157,232,75,84,83,9,24,63,36138,21640,36137,36139],"class_list":{"0":"post-202245","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-manhattan","8":"tag-celebrity","9":"tag-entertainment","10":"tag-lifestyle","11":"tag-manhattan","12":"tag-manhattan-headlines","13":"tag-manhattan-news","14":"tag-new-york","15":"tag-new-york-city","16":"tag-nyc","17":"tag-philippine-star","18":"tag-philippines","19":"tag-philippines-news","20":"tag-philstar"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/202245","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=202245"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/202245\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/202246"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=202245"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=202245"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=202245"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}