Star Struck

 CLUCK, CLUCK, CLUCK!!!

  I'm not sure why I added my "clucks" to this post, because - spoiler alert! - it has nothing to do with chickens! Nope, sorry, not today! It does, however, have everything to do with why the Chicken Lady writes. (That counts for something, right?)

 

  So I write every day. I started doing so last year during Lent and haven't missed a day since. I dedicate some days to this blog (I'm glad I've got it going again), other days I try to work on my top secret -I-don't-want-to-say-too-much-about-it-project, and the other days I call my "cheat days" where I just fill up a page in my journal. Most of that stuff is about Carl, so I'll be glad later in life that I took a few "cheat days" and recorded down the daily life with my little boy mixed in with some milestones. (Who needs a baby book?)

 

  I really thought today would be a cheat day, but I wanted to share it with everyone - though I'm sure not many people really care - and "journal it" here.

 

  Above is yours truly with the super-talented Karen Marie Moning. I feel in love with this woman's work in 2006. I remember walking into Boarders and seeing one of her books. Buying it on a whim, I instantly got hooked. Around this same time, I began my office job in downtown Cincinnati, where I never felt like I quite fit in. (Talk about trying to stick a square peg in a round hole!) On my lunch hour I would walk to this "park" not far from my building and sit in the sun and read. As I did so I became more and more enamored with her style and grittiness; the books fulfilling my appetite for some aspects in novels I tried so hard to find, without making me physically sick to my stomach in how flowerily and non-realistic they are. Quite honestly, I have never been disappointed in any of her works.

 

  Besides the Chick-fil-A located in a mall that was within walking distance from my office, the other saving grace I had downtown was a bookstore, which sadly ended up closing before my time in the city was through. After finishing Moning's first book, I went to said bookstore and found even more of her books, which I ended up purchasing and reading one after another. Needless to say, I have read every single book she's put out.

 

  Several months ago I saw where she was going to do a book signing at the Barnes & Noble down at Newport on the Levee. I HAD to go! It was so close! When else would I get the opportunity to tell her how much I love her?

 

 So today, mom and I braved the few hundred other people who also love Karen Marie Moning and who also probably told her that they loved her!

 Even though we got to Barnes & Noble by 10:00 A.M. to purchase our books (or Golden Tickets) in order to meet KMM and have the books signed, we were at least 300 people back in line. The reading and question and answer session didn't start until 1:00 P.M., so we shopped around and got to have lunch at Tom and Chee (I think that's right), a place that I've heard about on the news and that was on Shark Tank. Amazing place to eat and what a wonderful/friendly staff!

 

 After the reading, it was another three and a half hours until the big moment finally arrived! Standing in line my heart started to pound and I felt the blotches explode up my neck (darn pale skin, but it's better than falling apart emotionally like I do whenever I see the Beach Boys!). When I walked up to her table on shaky knees, my words tumbled out and absolutely NOT the order in which I'd rehearsed them. It seemed like yesterday, and not early this morning, when my father-in-law told me (I'll tell you in the cleaner version) that she "uses the bathroom the same way we all do." In any case, she seemed flattered by my praise and not creeped out at all when I told her my dream in life is to be like her. After asking if I was a local, I told her kinda and she seemed to act as if she had heard of Hillsboro.

 

  I'll be lucky if my back supports me erect tomorrow or if it will rebel against the torture I put it through today. It doesn't matter though. After listening to her talk I feel better about my own literary producing ebbs and flows and am even more fueled to pursue my dream on her advice of keep dreaming and never give up.

 

  Because one day I really do want to be the one sitting behind the table with a scarlet red girl telling me on shaky knees that her dream is to be where I'm sitting.