It’s been a rough week for Mindy Kaling. She almost didn’t make it to her only NY reading on Wednesday night: “You know, it’s just been really hard…with all this Kardashian stuff.”

Cheer up, Mindy! After starring in eight seasons of The Office as Kelly Kapoor (and writing 22 of those episodes), gaining 1.5 million followers on Twitter, and now publishing her widely-anticipated and excerpted memoir, I’d say things are gonna be okay.

This reading was the most insanely packed Barnes and Noble event I’ve yet seen. After taking the podium, Mindy revealed her excitement about the UWS location, since it was the basis for the big-box bookstore in You’ve Got Mail—her fave rom-com.

Onstage, Mindy launched directly into Q&A—a smart move, given that she’d be hustled off the stage 15 minutes later to sign books. Most of the audience members were clearly The Office fanatics, shooting up hands to ask about The Office’s Subtle Sexuality music video, courtesy of Kelly and Erin (“Listen, I would do that every day if I could”), as well as the infamous “fashion show at lunch” (“We have a lot of chanting on the show…maybe it’s just bad writing”).

When asked about her influences, Mindy cited Greg Daniels (writer and director of The Office), Tina Fey (for her ability to write a wide range of jokes) and Nora Ephron (since it’s hard to be both funny and romantic). Speaking of rom-coms, Mindy has actually written one with Greg Daniels, though she says it’s currently in “development purgatory.”

Mindy talked about her beginnings in comedy, which started with a supportive environment at Dartmouth College: “I fucking killed it in college. There was not a ton of people in theater, so everyone’s standards were really low.” She spoke of writing awful sketches that her peers seemed to love. She added: “I’m sure if I’d gone to Yale or NYU I’d be a paralegal or something, entertaining my friends on coffee breaks.”

After moving to NY in her twenties, Mindy found herself jobless and literally stuck in Brooklyn after 9/11. Around that time, she and her bestie Brenda Withers were fascinated by Ben Affleck (“He was dating J-Lo; he was everywhere”), especially his intense friendship with Matt Damon. After thinking of convo’s Ben and Matt might be having, they eventually formed their ideas into a two-woman show. Ironically, playing a man was the impetus for Mindy getting hired to play girly-girl Kelly on The Office.

Of course, the big question is: has she ever met Ben? “Well, we met and we hit it off,” she started with a grin, grabbing her ring finger. “We actually have a big announcement…”

Nope, they’ve never met.

Shortly after Mindy left the podium, a mustachioed and be-wigged woman stood on her chair, went topless and started talking about her performance art group. Yeah, that really happened. A scene that would make even Michael Scott cringe.