Deputy field reporters Margaret and her friend Natalie volunteered to head to the Drew Brees book signing and to report back to BS with the experience. What follows is their story, after the jump.
Our really long story about the coolest day of our lives.
By Margaret and Natalie
Let us start off by saying that today was one of those days where nothing went exactly according to plan…
We think everyone involved sat upright in bed this morning with that feeling of anxiety only associated with the biggest and best days of our lives. The problem was, we sat upright a little bit later than anticipated, and got our butts to Follett’s a lot later than expected.
Natalie did a drive-by in the morning around 07:30, and to our shock and surprise, there were only about 25 people in line. Our scout #2 was dispatched at 08:15, which was good planning on our part. The stragglers (girls) cut in line at the very last minute before the doors opened at 09:00.
As to how the actual day differed from our gloriously imagined plans....we were prepared for a full-on Paint Crew style attack. We had tailgate chairs, Natalie had devised a schedule wherein we all rotated buying rounds of Blizzards at the adjoining DQ. All of this turned out to be thoroughly unnecessary, but we were in line with an Eagle Scout, so preparedness was the name of the game.
The real process followed something like this: Get in line outside. When doors open, proceed to the registers with either brand-new beautiful books that smell of success and glory, or have ready your receipt, but I sure hope you bought those books at Follett’s, otherwise grab three more and get back in line!!! At the registers you received a lettered pass indicating priority grouping in line. Southwest Airlines anyone?! We estimate that they put about 50 people in each letter group.
Somehow we still managed to catch the tail end of A passes and the beginning of B. Margaret got the A pass, and poor Natalie was the very first B (B for BREES!!!)
Since there was no need to stand outside in line for hours, we parted ways and went about the first few hours of the day like we normally would. We returned to Folletts around 1:45, but unfortunately, our letter grouping separated us. Through body language and obvious facial expressions, there was clearly animosity being expreed between the letter groupings. When eye contact was made, the stares said “Don’t you dare come close to me if you’re not in my letter group or I’ll hit you over the head with a book.” Follett’s had employed an efficient group of TSA-esque bag checkers who also checked “boarding passes” to make sure everyone was in the right place at the right time with the correct amount of books. At around 2:30, the A group was granted access to the upper level signing area, and the anticipation grew as we approached the signing table that was decked out in various medias of Drew Brees memorabilia.
The man of the hour finally arrived. He was about 5 minutes fashionably late, and was greeted with some hearty cheers and a big round of applause, even though 90% of the people present at the time couldn’t even see him, so their happiness was based on faith alone. The line moved quickly, he must be as quick signing things as he is finding Reggie Bush for the TD. Speed-signing was of the essence because Follett’s had distributed boarding passes to the masses which extended to at least an “L” group. Margaret finally approached the table with 3 books in hand ready to be signed. As a starstruck 20 year old, there wasn’t much she could think of to say, but her mom was ready with camera in hand to take candid paparazzi photographs. Then, Mom interjected with “Hey Margaret, tell him about the last time you saw him at Purdue!” That’s another story, but it involves Margaret running into him near the golf course and staring at him with her jaw dropped the entire time looking like a complete idiot wondering if what she had seen was real and afterwards calling her relatives in Louisiana to gloat that she had seen Breesus. Brees chuckled at the story, but we may never know if he was laughing with her or at her…
Poor second class Natalie accidently chatted herself all the way to the back of the B line, and was promptly deserted by her A class “friends.” The line moved just fast enough to accommodate her breaking all the rules. Even though the press releases explicitly stated that only books would be signed, she threw caution to the wind, eyes welled up with big sad tears, and asked (very nicely) if Drew would sign a letter to Officer Candidate Husband. (OC Husband is going to pee his pants in a week when that letter shows up.) We’re pretty sure she wasn’t the only reckless rule breaker though. There were little boys with footballs all over the place, but we can’t confirm that any of them were signed.
This was (clearly) an experience that we’d like to share with fellow Purdue sports fans all over the country. If you aren’t fortunate enough to live near another book signing location (Nah’leans, San Diego, New York, etc), we have a fool-proof recipe for recreating this experience at home!
1) Gather everyone from your town that you’ve ever met, and also the ones that you haven’t met.
2) Dress them all in various BREES jerseys.
3) Shove them all into a not-so-deluxe steam room clutching copies of their new books, and wait until Breesus King of the Saints shows up.
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Thanks to Margaret and Natalie for the on-the-spot reporting.