Up until about six hours ago, I had no idea I had an “adoring public”.  Turns out more people have seen “What The Chic” than I thought.  During an autograph signing today at Halls, I got to meet some of my fans.

Now, I’ll talk to anyone.  I make a friend wherever I go.  It’s called the gift of gab.  And, boy, did it come in handy today.  People would walk up and stare at the monitor playing my webisodes.  Then they’d glance over at me.  Then look back at the monitor.  Back to me.  This would go on half a dozen times until I broke down and said, “Hello.”  The people would literally jump back like they’d seen a ghost.  Seems they never expected me to say hi.

Halls was kind enough to print up some killer 8×10 glossies of me to autograph.  Once I saw the pictures I actually squealed with glee.  I’ve never looked better.  Amazing what a talented Photoshop artist can do.  He (or she) erased 10 years and about 10lbs.  Too bad I don’t look that good in real life.  I had two pictures to choose from and a few people couldn’t decide between them.  So I ended up signing both copies.

When I walked in to Halls, I was immediately whisked away by Halls mad-crazy talented make-up artists.  I think they see me as their little pet project.  I mentioned I could use just a hint of bronzer to make me look … uh, alive.  They then proceeded to spend a whopping 20 minutes reinventing the wheel — turning me from an ugly duckling into a swan.   Actually, when all was said and done they made me look like one of the members of Duran Duran, circa ’82.   Delightful, yes.  Appropriate, no.  Once they removed a majority of my guy-liner, I was ready to see and be seen.

The first wave of groupies was my friends.  Bribes work wonders.  That ensured there were, at a minimum, a few peeps waiting to get my autograph.  The second wave were befuddled shoppers who saw a line and, of course, decided they had to be in it.  A few were disappointed I wasn’t giving away anything other than my autograph.  (Seems the line on the opposite side of the department store offered free samples of chocolate.)

I probably signed 50+ autographs today.  Years from now when I become hella-famous, those will be worth something.  It the meantime, I still have about 950 pictures in the back of my car.  I’ll be carrying around a Sharpie with me until they’re all gone, probably sometime in 2014.