it started pretty impromptu.

google alerted me to the fact that jon acuff (blogger and author) was going to be doing a book signing in atlanta…

so, i emailed b about it…

and how we should go (kidding)…

and he emailed back…

about how we should and what we could do (kidding)…

and after brainstorming and emailing back and forth for a bit…

we both kinda realized that we weren’t kidding anymore.

so, he got off early from work.

i got off early from, um, nothing (read previous post).

we grabbed hanc (my garmin), an address, and a camera, and we were on our way.

we detoured for dinner (yay olive garden and gift cards and chicken marsala!) and a couple of hours later, felix (my car) pulled up at a rather large barnes and noble. b & i enjoyed a brief author scavenger hunt and found ourselves with some locals, other non-locals, and jon acuff plus kin (kin include a beautiful wife and two gorgeous little girls).

the conversation flowed pretty smoothly, especially for a larger group (with the exception of  this one guy that had a special place in his heart for italian skinny jeans that you don’t wash for six months in order to get good creases.  how do i know this, you ask?  oh, he told us.  he told us all.)… and as the numbers dwindled a little, we were able to talk about Christianity, satire, writing, blogging, tweeting, and the most important thing that we can do: communicate Christ and his Truth…  and how that communication is far better than creating funny or having a large reader base.

i admire acuff’s satire on my subculture– and like most humor, he hits on a lot of truth in his jest.  but i must admit, my favorite posts of his are his “serious wednesdays.”  and honestly, it was that portion of our group’s face-to-face conversation that i enjoyed the most as well.  hearing just a bit of his heartbeat about his ministry, and what he enjoys the most about it, was the highlight of the signing time.

i love for my sense of humor to be engaged.  i enjoy being academically stimulated.  but the absolute best is to be spiritually challenged and edified.  the 45min – 1 hour spent at the signing incorporated all three.

i love it when that happens.  :)

(as a sidenote… another thing i loved was just observing the support the acuff family has for each other.  you can tell that he loves his family and that his family completely support him in what he’s doing.  sure, a lot of people can try and portray that sense of family just to gain a bit of popularity… but honestly, you can’t act that.  you can tell if that support is legit.  and it was with them.  that  impressed me.)

so, b & me got a few books signed,

(they look like this…)

grabbed a pic with jon and his wife and his cardboard side-hugging cut-out,

(see?)

and split a piece of chocolate raspberry cheesecake before hitting the road.

(the cheesecake was eaten too quickly for a non-blurry pic.  sorry.)

besides a creepy detour for gas (on a scale of 1-10 for creepiness, it’d be a 6.7), b & me made pretty good time back.

so, i would say that a good time was had by everyone– straight-legged-jean-man included.  :)

i deem our impromptu adventure a most definite success.

i’m ready to plan for more.