We Meet Again

The first time I met David Sedaris was in New York, at Cooper Union. It was at a reading to promote his collection of short stories, "Children Playing Before the Statue of Hercules." I was in New York to take my oath for admission to the NY bar. I was there for 7 days. The Sedaris reading was on my first night. I didn't have a ticket, I just took the train downtown and said I'd wing it. If I got in, great. If I didn't, I could walk around the City and reminisce about the greatest year of my life. Win-win.

As it turned out, I did get in. Went from person to person asking for an extra ticket and on the fourth guy, I was handed one with a smile. (This technique by the way, is also how I got into the Dave Matthews Band concert at the Park.) I thanked my benefactor profusely; he waved me off.

God I love New York.

A number of authors came to read their work, including Joyce Carol Oates, Lorrie Moore, Akhil Sharma and Sarah Vowell. I felt I had died and gone to heaven.

At the book signing afterwards, I told Mr. Sedaris that he had a strong following in the Philippines. He said he was very happy to hear it. On my book he wrote, "The Philipines? Who knew?"

This afternoon I met him again at a reading sponsored by Power Books at the Shangri-la Edsa mall. There was a mid-sized crowd, about 50 or so people waiting in line to see him. When I handed him my books I said, "See, I told you you had a following in the Philippines."

His eyes lit up and said, "Oh, it's you!"

Well, that's what I had wished he said. Instead he warmly replied, "Have we met before?" I told him I was at the Cooper Union reading. We went on chatting about New York. He asked me what I was doing there. I said something about the bar. He told me horror stories about the French IRS going after him and he the lawyer he had to hire.

Walking back to the car I looked at the inscriptions he made. One read, "Nice to see you again." The other, "I wish you were my lawyer."

I felt I had died and gone to heaven.