HAPPY WEIRDAY!!!!

Johnny during his interview with Meredith Viera

on The Today Show yesterday,

in one of the all-time best photos ever

from a TV appearance.

Special thanks to photographer Lauren Ashbaugh,

to whom I must offer a heartfelt WOW!!!

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Twitpic from @GeralynK of Johnny

during his skate to “Dirty Love” at the Rockefeller rink.

And again I say: WOW.

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YES!! TODAY’S THE DAY!! FINALLY!!

JOHNNYWEIR 11, 2011: Welcome to My World release; “Dirty Love” release; book-tour launch; nirvana!!!

And I’ve been waiting and waiting and waiting and waiting for it to be today and in all that waiting it never once occurred to me that I should maybe write some kind of special blog post for today since it’s kind of, you know, a big day here in WeirWorld.

Oh.

See, I’m mostly a “now” person, pretty much fully engaged in whatever I’m doing right NOW—sipping a Starbucks, listening to my children, reading a text message, singing “Dirty Love,” railing against USFS, cursing creatively and enthusiastically ... whatever is “now” usually has my full attention (though I’m also a pretty good multitasker, so I can be doing all of those things now ...).

So now is where I live. I don’t look back much except to savor special memories, I’m not much of a planner, and I tend not to worry about the future.

(Which is a warm, self-actualized way of saying I have the attention span of a gnat. On crack.)

So now showed up all of a sudden here at midnight.

WITHOUT my copy of Welcome to My World.

Actually midnight came at 11 pm CST, when “Dirty Love” surprisingly became available on iTunes (which actually I had been checking about every 10 minutes for the last hour going, “Now? Now? How about now?”) so I bought it now and listened to it now and asked my son if he’d put it on three different CDs for me now, one for each car (but I don’t think he was listening to me then or now ... ), so I’m tapping him on the shoulder now ...

See, I had thought by pre-ordering Johnny’s book, I’d also be pre-reading it by now, and I had some vague thought that if I wasn’t done by the time now got here, I’d just post this:

Shhhhh. I’m reading now. Please come back tomorrow.

But US Snail Fail did NOT deliver my copy yesterday. Which annoyed me when it happened, but then I moved on to some other now and I did some stuff which I forget what because I’m not doing it now, whatever it was, and so now I need to actually write something. Which just occurred to me now.

So: He was BRILLIANT on the Today Show interview. Poised and beautiful (see above) and well-spoken and charming and just completely Johnny. My friend Deb Walsh tweeted afterward, “Doin’ Patti proud.” Yes.

LOVED the “Dirty Love” performance—even with the icky city-rink ice, which I’m sure made the skate a bit more of a challenge (that, and the fact that it was about -80 degrees out there ...).

And I hope Welcome to My World becomes a NY Times bestseller; I hope “Dirty Love” races up the charts; and I hope the book tour (OMG he’s going on a BUS. Johnny. On. A. Bus. With his face plastered on the side of it, I hear. I’m planning—yes! planning!—to go to the book signing in Chicago next week and I have just GOT to see this bus roll into town) is one of the most fun things ever for him and everyone involved.

I also hope USFS actually gets a clue and invites him to perform in the Seriously-I-Cannot-Believe-Smucker’s-Name-Is-On-This-Thing-Well-Apparently-Everything-Is-For-Sale-These-Days Skating Spectacular after all, at which he’s scheduled to receive the Readers’ Choice Award/Michelle Kwan Trophy for the second time in his career. I know it’s a long shot, but I’m big with the hope—even though hope is kind of a future deal, but I’m hoping right now for him, so that counts.

I also hope that he’s really able to pull off his own Skating Spectacular, because if anything should truly be called “Spectacular” in every sense of the word, it would have to be his own ice show. Which I wish was happening right now since I don’t have my book to read.

And above all, I hope that every moment of it all, every bit of the now, is wonderful for him. He’s worked so hard most of his life, with single, intensely driven purpose, and now he’s in somewhat unfamiliar territory. Normally he’d be gearing up in a big way for Nationals. But this year, for the first January in more than a decade, he’s not.

(OK, a quick look back to savor this: It was exactly ten years ago, in January 2001, that he won the gold medal at the World Junior Championships.)

This is not the now he’s used to. All those years of the same schedule, the same events, the same rhythm to the skating calendar, grueling practices and soaring performance moments and bitter defeats and heady triumphs—and now this year is completely, utterly different.

That has to feel weird. And maybe a little scary. Ever since Vancouver, this has been and continues to be a “NewNowNext” kind of year, where a lot of stuff is new and it’s happening really fast right now and who knows what’s coming next?

But whatever happens, I hope it’s all amazing. And I hope more and more people get to really know who he is through his interviews and his song and his book and his book tour and BGJW (Season 2! Yes!) and his Spectacular.

And I hope he knows how proud we are to be his fans.

And how much he is loved.

Now.

And always.

Here’s another look at the photo,

with one of our signs in the background!

Thank you so much to the fans who braved the bitter NYC cold

to support Johnny at his Today Show interview

and Rockefeller rink skate!

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BRB alternating between rolling around

in this new excerpt from Welcome to My World

and running to the door every five minutes

to check for the mail ...

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Read the official press release on Johnny’s website!

It’s a glorious explosion of glitter:
WeirDate JohnnyWeir 11, 2011,
is TODAY!
Finally, the release of both
Welcome to My World and “Dirty Love“!
Check Johnny’s website for upcoming book tour dates!

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Please vote for Johnny on Twitter
in the #sports category of the “Shorty Awards”!
Just tweet your vote at this link!

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Designer T. Rains and Johnny have teamed up to raise money and awareness for The Trevor Project! This organization is “determined to end suicide among LGBTQ youth by providing life-saving and life-affirming resources.” Proceeds from the “Army of One” t-shirt sales will go to The Trevor Project foundation. Order yours today! Your support is greatly appreciated!

For more information, please visit www.thetrevorproject.org.

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Yes! You can own a fine art print of Johnnyperfect for any/every room in the house! Prints of artist Peter Jurik’s “Showtime!” are available for purchase from his website.More info here!

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Special thanks to Mel Lockhart for the phrases,“Happy New Weir” and “JohnnyWeir 11, 2011,”and to Karen Weeks for “Happy Weirday!”

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Please remember to register to receivethe JW Art Project’s email newsletter!
They have great tidbits to offer,
and you get a special sneak peek at an exclusive photo
from the Artbook when you sign up!

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copyright 2010 / Binky and the Misfit Mimes / Lynn V. Ingogly / all rights reserved

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