Days Three and Four

(Warning! I am running out the door without reading through this before posting. Which pretty much guarantees typos! I'm sure my Mom will call with with several. So read at your own risk. More later tonight.)

I’ve got about an hour before I head over to the Chandler Arizona B&N store, so I wanted to give you all an update on the first three days of the tour. Let’s see, when last we left off, I was flying somewhere over southern Utah on my way to Houston.

The flight was great and very uneventful. (Which is nice with my history of planes.) Fortunately it was on Delta, and Delta loves me, so they upgraded me to first class. I have to say though that first class is not what it used to be on Domestic flights. Oh well, at least I got more leg room and unlimited snacks.

Anyway, I got into Houston at about 5:30. Even from the air, the devastation of the Hurricane was evident. Lots of broken trees, lot’s of houses missing pieces, and later I saw many streets that still had no street lights, so traffic was quite dangerous. Once I got my car, I was on my way to stay with Tami Norton, who was generous enough to let me stay with her family. For this trip I finally went out and bought a GPS system. For those tech geeks who are curious, I chose the Nuvi750 by Garmin. I almost splurged and bought the one with traffic updates, but I’m cheap and didn’t want to spend an extra $100 and $60 bucks a year for the subscription.

Anyway, the GPS has been a lifesaver, but about halfway to the Norton’s house, it quit talking. Of course I didn’t notice it until I had missed two turns. When I checked out the voice settings, it said no voices were found. What the heck? A GPS with laryngitis? How annoying! Anyway, I did get to Tami’s house. (Passing gas station after gas station with gas in the $3.25 range. Forty cents more than Utah! Grrr.)

Tami’s fam is the best. I met all the kids, and showed them my best magic tricks. Then they showed me theirs. Tami fed me lots of spaghetti. Yum! Fortunately, Tami’s house had the electricity turned back on the day before. The neighbors right across the street still had no power even when I left Tuesday morning. There were many signs of the devastation everywhere. On the way to the schools in the morning, they were announcing what schools had opened and there were lots that don’t expect to open until October at the earliest. And that wasn’t even in Galveston. Also, all the HOV lanes were open to emergency traffic only, and they were still announcing POD locations where people could get ice, water, food, etc.

So Monday morning I popped awake at 6:30 (5:30 my time.) I am not a morning person, but Tami had predicted the Freeways would be terrible and she was so right. I left at 7:00 to make my 8:30 school assembly, and was still ten minutes late. Of course part of that had to do with the fact that, despite checking and rechecking my supplies, I had forgotten a key part of my presentation. So I had to stop by a Wal-Mart to get pens and big sheets of cardstock. My first presentation of the day was to Cornerstone Elementary school. They don’t have auditoriums for the elementary schools, but they had a bunch of really smart kids squeezed into a classroom, and they were really sharp. Much thanks to Stephanie Angelette, the librarian who set it up.

The next school wasn’t until 11:30, so I grabbed some quick lunch and hurried to a Fed-Ex location to print new cards for my presentation. The next two schools were both middle schools—Lake Olympus and Sartartia. It’s a little different presenting to middle schoolers, but both of them went quite well. Both the librarians, Kathy Looper and Maribeth Brooks said my presentation was one of the best they had ever had. So that was good. Unfortunately, they wanted to give the kids order forms to buy books, but Monday was the first day back at school after the hurricanes. But B&N gave them through Thursday to order the books at a discounted price, so that was good.

After the schools, I dropped by the store and saw that they had a big display of my books. Probably 150 or so. I was worried about not selling enough, because of the fact that I had only one day of school visits and somewhat small classes, plus the whole hurricane. I stopped by a great little restaurant nearby and had Pad Thai noodles and sushi for dinner. YUMMMM!

Then back to the store. Let me just say that JoAnne Cochoco is one of the coolest CRMs I have ever met. She put me right at the entrance and took great care of me. Normally we start a signing at 7:00, but the store had been closing earlier the week before, so there was some confusion on when to start the signing. I basically sat down at 6:00 and stayed till 9:00. Not really a lot of line this time. I was a little bummed by that. But there were fairly constant visitors throughout the three hours, and it was great to see lots of the friends I had made throughout the day come by. By the end of the night I think I had only sold 30-40 books, but JoAnne assured me that by the time all the orders came in, we would sell out, and had me sign all the books plus another 40 or so book plates (bless her book-selling heart.) I’ll check in with her Friday and see how we did.

Then it was back to Tami’s house where I did a quick update here and chatted with the family before calling it a night. The next morning, I was up at 5:00 to get to the airport. Big ouch! I hate mornings. But I was deathly afraid of missing my flight. I didn’t, and I slept all the way to Phoenix. I brought the Foundation trilogy to read on the plane. But I was out before we left the ground and didn’t wake up until we landed in Phoenix.

Tuesday was one of those, “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times,” days. I got in at 8:50 and went straight to my rental car. Funny note there, the car was a Nissan Altima, and I could not for the life of me figure out how to start it. The “key” was a weird little fob thing that has the buttons for lock, unlock, etc. But no blade. I finally figured out that you put the fob in this slot way down on the left, next to the hood release. Then I pushed this button that said start. But it wouldn’t start. Finally I saw the little light showing me to push in the brake. Once I did that, the button worked. Is this somehow supposed to make my life easier? Cool car, but what the heck? By this time, I’d figured out how to reset the GPS and it had its voice back. So that was good.

Feeling like I was on top of the world, I drove to my first school, Andersen Elementary. It wasn’t until 10:30 and I got there at quarter to ten. So I figured I’d call the other schools and check in. As I was talking to the last school, Jane Starkey—who is a doll—said casually, “I guess you talked to Laura at Weinburg?”

“No. Who is that?”

“Well they were disappointed you missed them this morning.”

“What? When? I don’t have them on my list!”

“You were supposed to be there at 9:00.”

Lots of panic on my part and a quick call to Laura. Somehow, there had been a major miscommunication. I felt terrible that I had missed seeing her kids. So then I tried to see if we could reschedule for the next day. But when I called the first school for Wednesday, I found that not only were they unable to reschedule, but that they expected me to be there from 9:00 to 11:30. Great, except that I have a school already scheduled for 10:30. But the first school has two assemblies scheduled. I tried not to use too many bad words in my head. But I was freaked out. By then, I realized it was time to get into the first school of the day. Except that I suddenly realized I was still wearing jeans. I had planned on changing at the airport after my flight, and completely forgot!

Talk about paranoid, try changing pants in your car. In front of an elementary school. I just knew someone was going to pop out and arrest me. So I at least pulled out of the parking lot and down the street. Anyway, the day turned out fine. Much love to Kit Parcell and the students of John M Andersen Elementary School, Kathy Ryan and the students of Erie Elementary, and Jane Starkey and the students of Ryan Elementary School. You all rock! I even got to me interviewed by the students at Ryan for their TV station and their newspaper. They have promised me a link to the interview and I will share it as soon as I get it! I also got to have my picture taken for their reading Hall of Fame. Whoo hoo! It was a great way to end the day.

Today was much smoother, although somehow we still didn’t get things worked out with Laura at Weinburg Elementary. Through no fault of hers, we didn’t tell here I wouldn’t be able to make it this morning. Laura and the students of Weinburg, if you are reading this, I am on my knees begging your forgiveness. I have scheduled to come back out and spend a ton of time with your school on the 21st of October I think. I just want you to know, I would never intentionally leave a bunch of kids hanging. Especially not twice. You will get my best presentation ever. I’ll even bring extra magic tricks!!!

Today I met with Mary Cooper and the students of Santan Elementary, and Jeanie Sanders and the students of Fulton Elementary School. Jeanie is my new best friend because she told me my presentation was the best author visit ever! She also told me she is going to personally make me as big as Brandon Mull, right Jeanie?
Well my hour is up and I need to run to B&N. I’ll give you a sales update when I get back. Then it’s a 6:30 flight (Uggg!) back to Utah for two days in Bountiful and Farmington. I’m a little hoarse, but rearing to go see some more students. Thanks for following along!