Arriving at our local Borders, we were bummed to see the long line of people outside.

However, because I was smart enough to call the store yesterday, they informed me that wristbands wound be passed out at 9:00 am in order to secure a place in line. Different colors meant that you'd stand further and further away. The Borders manager said the wristbands would simulate how Southwest Airlines boards their planes in groups. I don't remember Southwest passing out wristbands.

As you can see, Giada was happy I got a red wristband because you get to be near the front of the line.

We're near the front, for all the Red Wristband holders. Giada shows up at 7pm. These folks got here at 5pm. The lady at the very very front brought some red roses for Giada.

What you don't see is a Borders employee coming around with some Post-it notes to write out the bookholder's name so that Giada could spell it correctly. The guy directly in front of us (not shown) had two books, one for his wife and one for his wife's friends. When his turn came, he only got Post-it notes for those two women. About ten minutes later, he was begging people for a pen so he could, we surmised, add his name to the Post-it. He must've overheard us talking about how cool it would be to get her to sign a greeting to the both of us in Italian. Sure enough, my wife and I pretended to read out recipes aloud as she leaned over to see his name scrawled on the Post-it next to his wife's.

These folks were the start of the Orange Wristbands; each color contained about 60 to 75 people. As you can see, the lady in the yellow shirt was there early enough to get a stepstool as a chair, but not early enough to get a Red Wristband. Hah!

The Yellow Wristband folks, after the Orange people. Coincidentally, they were stuck in the Food and Cooking section.

Outside the store were all the Green Wristbands. I ran into a friend in the parking lot that was a holder of a Green Wristband. I let her know that all the First Class citizens got Red Wristbands. She didn't think that was funny.

Take note of this bag. Two guys were in line behind us had two big bags all full of Giada's books. Or, one book on top of several new blouses for Giada to try on. Strangely enough, the guy in the jeans to the right thought I was taking a picture of his crotch as I zoomed in my camera (to shoot the bag of course).

Unfortunately, the Borders Patrol forced picture-takers to stand behind a thin fabric dividing line. Woman in Green was one of the unhappy people telling us to where and when we could take pictures.