Last Saturday I spent the afternoon in San Diego at American Icon Autographs for an appearance & to sign some collectables. It was a beautiful day for the drive from Los Angeles to San Diego. I don’t know about you, but a long drive is when I do some of my best thinking & no doubt my absolute best day dreaming. Don’t worry I am also paying attention to the drive lol, but one thing I don’t do is play with my phone. No texting, no tweeting, no emails. I actually put my phone away so I am not tempted! If you have a chance to make that drive, it is beautiful, there is a stretch along the coast where the beach looks just beautiful & there are a couple cool spots to stop, take a break and enjoy the sights & the fresh air.
Now that I have fallen into this mini obsession of fantasy sports, traffic isn’t even an issue because I always have a list of shows on SiriusXM Fantasy Sports Radio that I will listen to on demand, so I can learn. So you see, it’s pretty clear that I am totally happy in my car for a couple of hours lol. Years ago I realized it was just easier to submit to traffic, plan for it, accept it & after that, it doesn’t even bother me at all. It just is what it is.
The drive took about 3 hours & I enjoyed every minute of it. I have been to American Icon Autographs enough times that my photographic memory served me as I pictured a Starbucks down the street from AIA- so the plan was set. I allowed enough time to be early & knew that would be a great place to stop, get coffees for the crew & take a moment to check my phone, texts, emails, tweets, before I was going to get it at and be to busy to do those things for another couple of hours.
In my years of learning about the world of collecting autographs (because I am a collector myself) I learned about the need for an “authenticator” to ensure legitimacy of the items & allow them to start to have a value to grow from. So Sean from AIASE gets the best, Steve Grad. You may recognize Steve Grad from being the authenticator on Pawn Stars! Steve Grad is in the photo with me in the header of this post.
I was also joined by another start at the signing. The ONE & ONLY Andrew Bryniarski. I know Andrew from his roles in Any Given Sunday, Necessary Roughness & Rollerball. While the rest of the world knows him from movies you all know I don’t watch, scary movies. I had to admit to him that I may be the one of very few people in a select group that has never had the courage to watch The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. LOL- Even he laughed! Sean from AIASE was cool enough to give me a poster to have signed by Andrew for me. He even captured the moment for us!
Here is the finished product. In the most beautiful handwriting (that none of us had seen all day) he wrote “Lisa Ann is a sexy boss bitch! Nice Eating you! Your Next!” How totally awesome is that!? Something really special to add to my collection!
When I get to walk around the warehouse at AIASE, I am like a kid in a comic store. There are so many incredible collections from all walks of celebrity & collectables. You can see what I see if you go and check out the site for yourself!