Not Meeting Famous People

I've twice missed the chance to meet Salman Rushdie, and today I skipped what would have been a great opportunity to meet Kate Beaton.

I thought about it, really I did. But the only way I would have gotten to meet either of the above was if I had bought one of their books for autographical purposes.

And, first of all, I don't want to shell out for hardback, and secondly at the end of it all it would be me standing in some line waiting for a famous person to write my name in something so I could say "I really like your work" and they could say "thank you."

So... well, there's always the opportunity of skulking around without buying a book, but then it would be like going to some event just to stand at the back and get the glimpse of the top of a famous person's head.

So it makes sense not to go.

At the same time it feels weird. Like, shouldn't I be at SPX so I can say hey to Kate 'cause I read her webcomic, like, every single day and I've even bought some of her merch as gifts for friends? (And, like, Jeph Jacques was going to be there too but he totally bagged at the last minute, so like, if he had been there I could have met both of them!)

And then my economical head says "and you're going to pay the SPX entry fee so you can stand at the back of a crowded room and see the tops of their heads? Or, at best, go up to one of their booths and paw through the merch even though you're not going to buy anything and then be too embarrassed to actually say anything to them if they happen to be at the booth at the time? And what exactly would you say? "I like your comic?" Obviously. You don't need to pay money to be the 100th person to tell a webcomic artist you like his or her work."

Meh.

What would you do?