Johnny Weir
Feb. 8th, 2011 12:53 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
pyrosgfLife has a funny way of working out. Or I just have the dumbest luck ever. I don't really know which. Saturday January 29th, I saw Johnny Weir tweet he was in Greensboro. I of course replied that I was jealous because he was only a couple of hours from me. One of his fans saw my reply and tweeted me that Johnny was doing a book signing in Greensboro on Sunday.
I remember all the buzz about Johnny during the Olympics, but I've not watched figure skating consistently in years. I watched back when Elvis Stojko, Tara Lapinski, Brian Boitano, Oksana Baiul, Kurt Browning, Michelle Kwan, Scott Hamilton, and Rudy Galindo were the big names. As I got older I drifted away from the sport even though it was a wonderful memory of my childhood and a way that I spent many afternoons awing over the TV with my mom. Johnny didn't draw me back into that world. I didn't really take notice of him until a few weeks ago when I listened to his interview on Howard Stern. He grabbed my attention with his honesty and snark. Then came a late night with my TV and seeing he was going to be on George Lopez. I DVRed the show so I could forward through to Johnny and watched it the next morning with my aunt. The boy dressed George in one of his skating uniforms. It was official, I was infatuated with Johnny Weir.
Then comes Be Good Johnny Weir on LOGO. The first two hour episode premiered the week before he was, unknown to me, gonna be accepting the Readers Choice Award in Greensboro. Be Good Johnny Weir I knew was to become a staple in my television watching habits, but I never realized I would also end up purchasing his book Welcome to my World and falling in love with it too.
After discovering he was doing the book signing, I offhandedly mentioned it to my step dad. Yes I'm 25 and live at home, the economy forced me back here and I don't have a car so it was more a comment in passing. Just the irony that Johnny was this far south only a few weeks after I really started paying attention to him made me laugh.
My step dad offered to run to Greensboro if I wanted to go and next came the hours of fretting over whether to go or not, which![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
vampyvet and dovesland got to hear first hand. I have social anxiety, and up until I finally decided to go I hadn't been off our property in over a month. Johnny drew me out, and Sunday at five in the morning, I was awake with a headache and wondering to myself if I was going to be going or not. After a couple of Excedrin I finally managed to get a shower (so early because anytime I have to be ready for something early I have to get the bathroom before my aunt gets up to get ready for work) and dry my hair. After the Dakota finally left for work and the rest of my family finished their bathroom needs I did my makeup and it was nine and we were gonna leave in thirty minutes.
I was completely shaky nervous the whole way there, and in the line waiting at the signing I was #14, and of course Johnny was running late. All was well though and in the end after watching him with the other people before me I completely calmed down. I've never met someone that I've watched on TV without shaking like a leaf, so to be able to walk up to Johnny and not be shaking like crazy was interesting. I asked him how he was, he returned the greeting, didn't really know what else to say, but he signed my book. Adorably enough he dotted the 'i' in my name with a heart and then it was back around to have pictures taken. When it was my turn to have my picture taken he looked at me and asked me to come to his other side 'so that all the pictures wouldn't look the same', which I thought was too funny. One picture later and I thanked him and it was done. Totally the least intimidating person I've ever met. Tiny, adorable, and very warm with his fans. Totally worth the long drive and I even got an awesome book out of it.
And finally me with Johnny Weir, Jason Michael Carroll, and Adam Lambert.
I remember all the buzz about Johnny during the Olympics, but I've not watched figure skating consistently in years. I watched back when Elvis Stojko, Tara Lapinski, Brian Boitano, Oksana Baiul, Kurt Browning, Michelle Kwan, Scott Hamilton, and Rudy Galindo were the big names. As I got older I drifted away from the sport even though it was a wonderful memory of my childhood and a way that I spent many afternoons awing over the TV with my mom. Johnny didn't draw me back into that world. I didn't really take notice of him until a few weeks ago when I listened to his interview on Howard Stern. He grabbed my attention with his honesty and snark. Then came a late night with my TV and seeing he was going to be on George Lopez. I DVRed the show so I could forward through to Johnny and watched it the next morning with my aunt. The boy dressed George in one of his skating uniforms. It was official, I was infatuated with Johnny Weir.
Then comes Be Good Johnny Weir on LOGO. The first two hour episode premiered the week before he was, unknown to me, gonna be accepting the Readers Choice Award in Greensboro. Be Good Johnny Weir I knew was to become a staple in my television watching habits, but I never realized I would also end up purchasing his book Welcome to my World and falling in love with it too.
After discovering he was doing the book signing, I offhandedly mentioned it to my step dad. Yes I'm 25 and live at home, the economy forced me back here and I don't have a car so it was more a comment in passing. Just the irony that Johnny was this far south only a few weeks after I really started paying attention to him made me laugh.
My step dad offered to run to Greensboro if I wanted to go and next came the hours of fretting over whether to go or not, which
vampyvet and dovesland got to hear first hand. I have social anxiety, and up until I finally decided to go I hadn't been off our property in over a month. Johnny drew me out, and Sunday at five in the morning, I was awake with a headache and wondering to myself if I was going to be going or not. After a couple of Excedrin I finally managed to get a shower (so early because anytime I have to be ready for something early I have to get the bathroom before my aunt gets up to get ready for work) and dry my hair. After the Dakota finally left for work and the rest of my family finished their bathroom needs I did my makeup and it was nine and we were gonna leave in thirty minutes. I was completely shaky nervous the whole way there, and in the line waiting at the signing I was #14, and of course Johnny was running late. All was well though and in the end after watching him with the other people before me I completely calmed down. I've never met someone that I've watched on TV without shaking like a leaf, so to be able to walk up to Johnny and not be shaking like crazy was interesting. I asked him how he was, he returned the greeting, didn't really know what else to say, but he signed my book. Adorably enough he dotted the 'i' in my name with a heart and then it was back around to have pictures taken. When it was my turn to have my picture taken he looked at me and asked me to come to his other side 'so that all the pictures wouldn't look the same', which I thought was too funny. One picture later and I thanked him and it was done. Totally the least intimidating person I've ever met. Tiny, adorable, and very warm with his fans. Totally worth the long drive and I even got an awesome book out of it.
And finally me with Johnny Weir, Jason Michael Carroll, and Adam Lambert.
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