IT'S A BIRD, IT'S A PLANE...NO IT'S NICHOLAS SPARKS!

Ok so all week I push and push and push...waiting, anticipating the weekend! Cannot wait until the weekend.

So it's Friday 5....4....3...2...1... I'm out the door! Off to meet Tara and Anna at Barnes and Noble...they are getting books signed by Mr. Nicholas Sparks! I go all the way to the book store....it is literally a MAD HOUSE. People absolutely everywhere! People running to see this man who writes novels.... popular he is, (I think in Yoda speak), who knew? So I circle the parking lot for 20 minutes until I find a spot. Phew, ok good, one hurdle down....now to find my friends.

I walk through the doors of this huge wonderland of printed pages......I love book stores....if only I could take more time to actually READ! Anyway, I start scanning the aisles slowly and carefully looking for the two ladies that I was to spend my evening with....no sign of them....so I pick up my cell phone and call....Tara's voice mail...so I call again....Anna's voice mail. As I leave the second message...I survey the crowds of people hoping to catch site of my friends.

What I see is a bit "novel-ish" in and of itself....clusters of people...(mostly women) standing, leaning, and sitting all over the aisles of the book store. Some reading Nicholas Sparks, other cradling the novels in their arms and chatting excitedly to their companions about how nice he will be, how cute he is, or what their ABSOLUTE FAVORITE "Sparks Creation" is. Again, who knew?

I turn to see a man standing on a table at the far end of the store with a micro-phone in his hand...he talking about something...what is he saying....Oh he's talking about books....HIS books...Ok, that's Nicholas Sparks! So again I scan the enraptured audience in hopes of finding the girls. Nada! But he was cute!

So I call again....and again and yet again....no answer and no sign of Tara or Anna. So I am just about to sit myself down at the coffee bar (obviously!) and relax when miss Anna rings my phone....she says "Hey Jaimers where are you?" I said I'm here, where are you....she said you're here where I don't see you? I thought that response was a bit odd given the fact that it would be virtually impossible to look up and "see" anyone....so I said Uhm, where are you? She said we're at Moes, did you go to the right store or do you know how to get here? (couldn't quite understand due the the noise on both sides of the conversation. I said MOES? Why are you at Moes....Tara told me to come here....after work....so I'm here.....Oh no! She laughs, sooooo sorry! I didn't know....we got done early and we decided to meet everyone else at Moes. Do you want me to come there? No...actually we're just about done here....just go to Tara's we're going to watch a movie.

So I leave the mayhem of the Sparks Fan Club and rush to my car....run all the way over the Chipotle's...because of course I had come straight from work.....I order my lovely steak burrito and for the first time in ages...I ate the WHOLE thing, while driving down US 1 towards Apex....please don't tell Trooper Vick! But hey, I didn't spill it!

So I did finally meet up with the girls at 8:00pm...and all was right with the world once again!


Moral of the story....never underestimate the popularity of a Romance Novelist!!!


Run with patience
Jaime