Friday.....Adventure

My daughter and I ventured on a field trip today.

As I wrote earlier, my current favorite author is Mary Kay Andrews. She was having a signing of her new book at the Little Professor's Bookstore in Homewood.

Though the weather was yucky, I am terrible with directions and Ally does not like to ride in her car seat any longer, I could not resist meeting the author and getting an autographed copy of Deep Dish, the newest tale by Andrews.

So we set forth. I printed directions and we were out the door by 10- knowing my penchant for being late, we left extra early.

As we approached the exit from the Interstate, I looked down at my glorious Yahoo map directions and realized it printed directions the the center of the ZIP CODE for Homewood and not my destination. I had looked the address up earlier and did think for half a second that this map was not correct or at least not like the prior one I pulled up to the destination...., but thought for sure it was just a short cut!

My husband called on the cell phone. He was at the Sam's Club- right where we were exiting!

I didn't even tell him of our adventure this morning- so talk about good luck !

I pulled in beside him as he came to his truck and looked up the place on his laptop and wrote down the directions.

Yes, it was close, only 3 turns, but nevertheless, I wrote it down.

Even as I pulled out, concerned for his child's safety-he called out that if I got lost to call him. He knows me well.

We found the area, or a shopping district close to where I thought it should be. We got out in the cold and wandered aimlessly for several minutes, not finding the bookstore.

And low and behold, we passed Mary Kay Andrews, also roaming around. I smiled and spoke, but did not want to appear "stalkerish", so I left it at that. She loves junking and antiques and was looking in the cute shops in the area. I did not tell her we were lost, searching for her!!!

SO I KNEW I WAS CLOSE.

Did you know that you can text the name of a place and the city to GOOGLE and "they" will send you the address and phone number ???

SO HANDY for people like me. So I pulled out the phone, keyed in 466453 as the recipient of the message, typed in Little Professor Homewood Al.

Literally less than 1 minute later, I had the address and phone number. I called and told them the name of the store I was standing in front of and she told me the way to them..

We just parked a block too far away and had the weather been nicer, I would have loved to walk browse and spend money, I am sure my husband will be glad it was cold because there were some killer shopping opportunities out there.....

So we piled in the car and found the place.

Ah, with 30 minutes to spare. I can't believe it!

There were lots of amazing restaurants in the area as well, but since my date for the day was my baby girl, we ate chicken fingers and fries before our adventure continued. ( I must get back down here when the weather is nice so I can explore all the opportunities I missed today.

I told Sally we were going to a bookstore to meet a lady who writes books- Mama's favorite books. She knew right where my books were and said "Those?"....

I told her we could get a book with her autograph.

She was all excited about autographs because we play that she is Hannah Montana and she signs autographs for me, her brother and his friends as her fans. So she took her own index card for Mary Kay to sign. Too cute. She even packed it in her Hannah Montana purse.

So we entered and met Mary Kay.

She signed a cute little autograph for Sally in pink pen oh her very own notecard.

Sally wrote her name for her!

And my fresh, new copy of Deep Dish, that I AM DYING TO START- I haven't started it yet because I have to wait until I have nothing to do hence I will not put it down once I start--.

(I did read on her site that it had made it to the NYTimes Bestseller list ! I believe she said #13!)

She was a very sweet, southern lady.

She recognized us from the street and said she thought I had recognized her by the way I was looking at her, or else her pants had fallen down.

Is that good or bad?

She was very kind and funny, just like her writing. When she started writing my name, of course, with my unique name-- she remembered my email and my review of her books that she saw on my blog. My, My I feel important. And smart!!!!

((( And to think,It only me took 2 laptop mappings, a text message to Google and a lucky rendezvous with my husband to find her! ))

It was a great day and a great adventure. I found my way home just fine, thank you!

So favorite Spot Friday:

Home.

With a new book

on a Wintry Day.

(Yes, Mom there are 2 in the picture. Did you think I would not get you one????)