Ha, this was so great!  Lovely twist at the end!

Author's Response:

Glad you liked it!

Since I've written this, I've kept an eagle-eye out for Meredith/Creed interactions on the show.  ;) 

Oh, this one was wonderful, too!  Poor Toby.  Such a sweet guy that rarely gets what he wants.  Great writing!

Aww, a very different side to Ryan.  I think I like your Ryan much more than the show's Ryan!

Oh, this was beautiful!  Beautiful while still keeping a perfect characterization of Dwight.  Wonderful writing!

Oh, that was hilarious!  Nice take on Andy's return.  I used to love that song back when it first came out, by the way.  I would blast it from the radio and put on a mean face while I grounded out, "Cause Earl had to die!"  Oh, I can so see Andy doing that.  Great fic!

Oh wow, this was amazing, I loved it!  Especially Andy's bit, it's so like him to desperately grasp onto one little positive thing in his life and try to make it seem bigger.  Michael's bit was great too, I loved how Pam leaving affected him personally, because as we all know, everything is all about him (in his head anyway).  And Toby's part broke my heart, that was wonderfully written.  Brilliant fic, I loved it!

Just wanted you to know that I thought this story was wonderful!  Each chapter was absolutely beautiful, and I have to say that the first one was my favorite.  Such a nice touch to have their first kisses be with each other.  Wonderful!  I don't normally enjoy Jim/Pam fics too much, but I loved this one.  Excellent writing.

Oh god, this was so heart breaking, yet darkly funny at the same time.  Absolutely wonderful, I can totally picture Andy being that kid and failing miserably at trying to be normal.  The part about smelling girls was so hilarious, I loved that!  And you managed to capture Andy's personality and put it into a little kid absolutely brilliantly.  Superb fic!

Author's Response:

Wow, firthgal!  You're really reading the old fics!  I'm so glad that you liked it. 

Some of it was inspired by my own children, so I really understand Mrs. Bernard's point of view.  I feel like Andy still just sort of wants to be normal and have people like him. (I'm pretty sure he's still smelling girls, also.)

Thanks so much for reading and reviewing. 

10

I would so be singing "Did you ever know that you're my hero..." to you right now if this review thing had audio.  But it doesn't, so your ears are safe.  OMG, I LOVED THIS!!!  His bullet list was SO PERFECT, particularly the nicknames one (Unibrow!).  The detailed story about his resume killed me, especially since the whole drawn out process reminds me so much of my own experience, as does his work history, which is sad... but so very funny.  I kind of died a little at the Weight Watcher's prank and Andy's obliviousness to the fact that they were all laughing at him and not the jerky guy.  And Little Tapioca sabotaging Andy's resume on purpose and him having NO CLUE.  And oh, how you made my heart sing with the Andy/Karen bit.  And that closing paragraph was pure genius.  I loved this entire fic like crazy.  I adore how you can portray so many of the outside forces that impacted Andy simply through his innocently oblivious views.  The writing voice that you gave him is just so him that I wish this Andy really did have a daily blog that I could laugh with and get heartbroken with.  Anyway, AWESOME FIC!

Author's Response:

I love how you get every nuance of my Andy chapters!  I'm sure there were a few people who read through this quickly and didn't get just how long it took Andy to get that resume together and get the job. 

When posting this Andy chapter and the last one (the firthgal era ones), I have to say I wait with bated breath until you've reviewed. I wonder if you're going to think I've done right by Andy. I give a big sigh of relief when you review and of course you've "gotten" it. Andy's such a wonderful character.  I'm not a fan of the season 3 Jim/Pam angst, but season 3 gave us Andy, so that part is a pretty big win.

I actually thought about changing the title of this, because to me (and to my regret, really) it didn't end up being so much about the forces that shaped him and "how he got that way," it ended up more being "this is Andy, this is how he is" and showing how the Andy-ness has manifested itself at different times.  I didn't end up renaming it because I couldn't think of another name I liked and also I sort of didn't want to wrench its identity from it, if that makes any sense.  When I think of this story, by the way, or speak of it to my betas, it's just "the Andyfic."  I thought you'd think it was funny to know that.

By the way, this chapter was done a long time ago, like early last summer when the first chapter came out.  It sat around and waited for me to write the 2nd chapter.  Then it sat around and waited until I finally decided recently that the junior high chapter and college chapter may never get written to my satisfaction, and I couldn't let this chapter die on the vine, especially since it so nicely (for me) practically wrote itself. ;)  If I ever do make those other chapters behave, I'll fit them into the right places here.

By the way, I added a comment in the fanfic section of the Andy Bernard Chronicles and I noticed cobwebs in there.  (Not really, but you know what I mean.)  Have you been too busy for the Chronicles?  Have there been no worthy new Andy fics, or do you just add them and not have an "updated activity" section?

You probably recall that Andy did compare Karen and himself to Sam and Diane, in Diwali: "Roller-coastery friendship. Hot. Cold. On again. Off again. Sexual tension filled type of deal. It's very Sam and Diane." " Wow." "From 'Cheers'."  "Yup."  Given that and Karen's sensible "throwing out the Jagermeister" decision, it was easy to jump to a conclusion that Karen had perhaps imbibed the Jager a prior time and done something she then regretted, like having a little spin on the 'Nard Ride. Karen fervently hopes that anyone who reads this blog thinks that Andy's making the whole thing up.  He isn't. ;)

Thanks so much for reading and reviewing, firthal!  I'm especially glad that you liked this. 

So incredibly Kandy, I loved it!!!

Author's Response: Aw, thanks!

Hilarious, I loved it!  Especially when Andy thought it was his mom!

Author's Response: haha thanks!

Oh, BlueJeanBaby, I know exactly what Cornell's colors are!  I looked it up a while back for a fic that I wrote called "I Can Be Your Hero."  They are white and carnelian (a reddish color).  Uh, so sorry if I'm not supposed to reply here!  Am totally new at this.

Haha, I love Kelly's nicknames for Andy!  So cute.  I just can't get enough of these little Kandy moments, you write them so perfectly!