The DIANA Exhibit in Grand Rapids, Michigan

One late morning, I was getting ready to make up our dinner for that night and I flipped on the tv.

eightWest was on.

eightWest is a local talk show that has been on for a year now. It's not a show I follow faithfully but if it happens to be on I watch it. This particular episode they were talking about the Diana exhibit that was coming to Grand Rapids and since my mom and I have been planning on going since we first heard it was arriving in our city, I ended up just standing there watching the whole segment.

It ended with the hosts, Rachel and Terri, offering 1oo free pairs of tickets to a special showing of the Diana exhibit to the first 100 people to email them.

I didn't know their email. It was up on the screen and my fingers were flying over my blackberry curve. I sent the email as fast as I could type out my message letting them know I wanted to go. Don't even know what I said but I do know I sat there wondering if I sent it right and if I didn't should I retry and if I retry and the first message DID go through would I be disqualified and if that happened how crushed would I be?

I won two tickets.

I called my mom and left her a message. She called me back, nearly able to speak she was so excited.

My mom is the biggest Diana fan I know.

I grew up knowing all about the princess in England who had boys just a little younger than me. My mom knew it all. She woke up early to watch THE wedding, she had a trunk that was filled with magazine articles and what-nots of Diana's life. She had just gotten rid of a vast majority of the magazines the summer Diana passed away and my mom totally kicked herself for that.

I do remember, vividly, the day she died. I called my mom on the phone in the apartment on the first summer Jake and I were married and my mom and I both cried. I watched the funeral and heard about the wedding, my mom watched the funeral and remembered the wedding she had seen there.

There is no one else at all that I would take with me to see the exhibit.

And we got to see it a FULL DAY before it opened to the public. Thrill!!!!!

I knew there was no way I could go see the Diana exhibit without wearing heels and a dress, hello, its DIANA and it was so much fun to dress up to head out. There were ladies there in jeans, and there was a girl in a formal gown...quite the variation and eightWest went all out for us. It was decorated beautifully with fresh flowers, the elaborate cake that imitated the wedding cake of Prince Charles and Lady Diana...we even each received little goodie bags with a few mementoes and were served cupcakes and punch while live music played.

But we were all there for one thing...to see the exhibit.

There are no cameras allowed. It is understandable, the flash could ruin the clothes. But eightWest took oodles of pics of the "reception" (none have my mom and I in them! :) ) and you can see them on their Facebook page.

This is a timed exhibit...only a few people are allowed through in a certain amount of time. When one is purchasing tickets, you purchase them for a set time. I find this to be brilliant. Even with us all there, they allowed us in a few at a time to keep it from bottle necking. I appreciated this.

When you first walk in, there is the crown. Glowing. It's breathtaking and no photos or video footage of it have done it any justice at all.

There is an introduction of sort following that, introducing you to the Spencer family and showing a few of the prominent women in the Spencer line and the jewels given to them. Loving history, I found this part a nice addition.

Next was bits of her childhood, including some home videos that you can't help but smile over. It was fun to see all the bits and pieces of her young life.

We went through a hall filled with pictures of Lady Di and Prince Charles and the history of their meeting and so forth. Then you round the corner and

There.

Is.

The.

Dress.

I think my mom cried.

She could not leave that room. She read it all. She watched the short film off different scenes from the wedding. She studied the dress and it's long train, walked around it numerous times. She said later that seeing the dress made the world seem so small...never in a million years would she believe someone if they told her that early Saturday morning she sat there watching a kindergarten teacher become a princess that she would one day get to see that dress herself, in her state, in a nearby city....

She can never finish her thoughts on seeing the dress.

We then view many of Diana's charities and her handwritten notes to those whom she appreciated.

And then it was the funeral.

The room is scented and filled with a large screen showcasing bits of the funeral and at the foot of the screen are piles of dried roses.

No one spoke in this room.

Everyone sniffed.

It was painful to be there and yet awful to leave it.

Following this room was a large room filled with many of her outfits and pictures of what she was doing when she wore them. This woman had great style. The last gown she wore on her birthday, days before the crash, are in this exhibit.

And then it's done.

You walk out and see piles of books behind glass. I found this an odd place to have us walk out at, as though they had no other place to put the library. And then I read the sign...these were SOME of the books signed by thousands of people who stood in long lines to write their last thoughts to Lady Diana. It's amazing.

Seeing this exhibit was amazing. This is the tenth city this exhibit has been in the entire world and it is all of 40 minutes from my little farm out here. I am so glad eightWest gave us the special opportunity to see it before anyone else.

But seeing this with my mom will go down in my life book as one of my most favorite memories. Seeing her experience this exhibit made this exhibit. And for that, I cannot ever thank eightWest enough.

Thank you.

Although you cannot take pictures, I did find some video footage of the exhibit that you can see HERE. And if you are interested in seeing this exhibit at the GRAM, you can find all the information you need HERE. And if you do go to the GRAM, be sure to plan to go visit the 1913 Room, Cygnus (visit here so you can see the sun set, did that with my handsome hubby once...fairytale like, I promise!) or Bentham for some of THE wedding cake...which is on my mom and my's short list of things to do. We didn't have time Monday, we fully intend on getting a piece though!!!

All in all, go see this.....

And thank you ever so much, eightWest, for a beautiful, memorable day.

How I Met David Baldacci (part two)

After getting Sue and I on the guest list to meet David Baldacci, I called my local library and begged our librarian, Alicia, to help me out.

She also had never read David Baldacci. But she had lots of his books there!

So the boys and I made a library run where I picked out two of his books, True Blue because it’s the latest and Absolute Power because it seemed to be the top of all his book lists and I don’t like to read books out of order.

These books also seem to be about 500 pages or so. When I checked the two books out I asked Alicia if she thought I could finish one that night. She looked over at my boys playing and chuckled “With your four boys? No.”

(Note here: Alicia really does love our boys)

Alicia was right, I never even cracked open the book. I was just too exhausted.

The next day I had a meeting with Sue to get our magazine done (ohhh, it’s gonna be great!) and we had Pioneer Woman dinner to make and then it was home to get snacks for the boys and then it was…WHAT TO WEAR???

I literally tried on four different outfits. Because our full length mirror broke, I stood on a chair in the dining room, in front of some funky mirror I bought at a garage sale when we first moved in, snapped photos with my blackberry and then sent them out to get feed back.

No one answered.

I found out later that they DID answer; my phone just didn’t recognize it until the NEXT day. A little late...

When Sue stopped to get me, I was panicked but she took one look at the outfit I had on and said “Yes, that one”. So I slipped on my most favorite heels, kissed my boys goodbye, had them snap this photo and away we went.

To Watermark Country Club.

I have never stepped foot in a Country Club.

If you have to visit a country club for the first time ever, I highly recommend this one. Wow.

And I’d have taken pictures for you but, really, that might seem…un-country club like. So look at the site…and then notice the floors. I think Tonka Trucks run over those floors would be so loud but I think the floors could withstand it. What do you think?

The Author Reception was all around classy. The room held about 100 to 120 people we guessed, all excited to meet David. We bought ourselves a book, I bought a book for my friends who are apparent huge David fans, had our books signed, realized we should have gotten a picture with him, took a picture with David and ate an appetizer like dinner while chatting with two ladies from Grand Rapids Magazine who were truly sweet, truly funny and truly a joy to chat with.

David chatted with anyone who came up to his table to have a book signed. He stood to have numerous photos taken. He remembered my name, and I just find that sweet.

Then a woman (forgive me, I completely forgot her name, but she worked for WGVU) interviewed him and I was awed by what he had to say. He spoke candidly, he was very funny, a great story teller, and answered the crowds’ questions.

He stressed, “To Read is To Think. They are the same verb.” David spoke on the foundation he and his wife have created, Wish YouWell, to help the fight against illiteracy.

Impressive.

What really pierced to my heart, as a girl who had no idea who this man was, was him talking about writing. I have always heard that you must write every day. Not only must you write every day, you must right about 1,500 to 2,000 words every day to be considered a writer. David said that there are days he writes all day long, and there are days he doesn’t write at all. The key is, he writes what is in him to write, what story he has to tell.

I loved that. As a girl who has to get to the computer to pour out the words jumbled up in my head, I drank that in.

David told some hilarious stories too. Uproariously funny. Just some fun facts are…Mark Twain is his favorite author. He has gone boating with the first President Bush, but I think he will head Barbara’s advice and not go again. He is privy to some serious military information. When researching True Blue, he walked with a DC cop who arrested some guy and when the guy had his face down on the pavement getting cuffed he looked up at David and said, “ I love your books!” David will never ever approach you if he sees you reading one of his books because he has a rule against doing that and one time he broke that rule, offered to sign a guys book, and quickly realized he had made that rule for himself for a reason.

Great great great funny stories.

After the Author Reception, we drove the short distance to Forest Hills Fine Art Center to hear his speech on “Why Read?”

There we were given reserved parking passes, Sue and I were given reserved seats that put us in the SECOND ROW FROM THE STAGE. Then we were able to enjoy about an hour and a half speech by David that had the whole place roaring with laughter. He basically gave a quick run down of his beginning writing career (found this enthralling), a bit of his life as a lawyer and some of his adventures in travel.

When he was finished with his speech, he also took questions from the audience. Wish You Well is the book dearest his heart and the Camel Series was his favorite series he has written thus far. Shaw and Michelle are coming back.

I have no idea what any of that means that I just wrote, but fans will.

And I have a feeling that I am going to be digging into True Blue here shortly and then becoming one of David’s biggest fans.

In hindsight, I wish I had grabbed the library books I had checked out. How cool would it be to have signed David Baldacci books in our little library?

All in all, the night was a dream. It was funny. It was inspiring. It was great to meet some new people (hello Mary and Kimberly!), and it was truly enjoyable to meet someone who has written 19 best sellers, writes full novels in 6 to 8 months and still – from where I was sitting – appear to be totally humble and down to earth.

Then next morning, my good friends over at Fox 17 interviewed David. Here is that interview…

Thank you ever so much to Grand Rapids Magazine for the tickets and the great conversationalist at the table.

To Kent District Library, thank you for this wonderful night out. For years you have sent books and movies and Cd's to me via the inner library loan. You have been in our home and enriched our lives and we have never met. I know how hard all the cuts have been on the library, and how drastically the inner library has been cut back, but you still have had an impact on our lives and I thank you for that. Thank you for doing the best you can, you do a wonderful job!

Thanks to you both, Sue and I had a night we will not ever forget. Thank you.

And to David Baldacci, I am sorry I have apparently lived under a rock and never read any of your books. Thanks for being so gracious to Sue and I. I look forward to reading every one of your books. Thank you for giving up your night and time from your family to talk and meet us West Michiganders.

The night had great impact on me, and it was a delightful time. Thank you for all the stories and laughs.

Oh, and Twitter totally rocks. Sign up and get connected with our local businesses if you aren't already! It is definitely worth it!

How I Met David Baldacci (part one)

On September 24th, I was cleaning the house and making food in the kitchen when I paused to check twitter.

Now, when I check twitter it means I have just scanned the first four or five tweets, maybe I might say something back, and then I move on.

But the tweet I read was this….

“grmagazine CONTEST: Win 2 tix to Tues night’s @KDLNews “A Novel Experience w/David Baldacci”. Reply w/your fave author to enter!”

So, I got to wondering who my favorite author is. And I just couldn’t decide. The question drove me insane as I went about my day.

Who is my favorite author? Who is YOUR favorite author? I just didn’t know.

I retweeted their contest and went on to the kitchen.

But I thought about the books that had influenced me, really stuck with me, and I realized at this time, I haven’t read much lately…

I blame four boys and a farm but I tell my kids they can’t make excuses.

I finally sent this tweet back… “Barbra Kingsolver just cuz the book The Poisonwood Bible truly stuck with me. Pick a FAVORITE author, don’t think I can!”

And then I tweeted... “Who is YOUR favorite author?”

And only Becca answered, Diane Chamberlain.

I never gave it much more thought.

Over the weekend, my Internet went out, the home line went down and it was Monday afternoon before someone could come out and fix it. It was also later in the day when I realized I had a twitter light blinking on my blackberry.

It read “@grmagazine Congrats to @life4boys, winner of 2 tix for tomorrownight’s @KDLNews “A Novel Experience w/David Baldacci”

Um, who? How?

I received an email confirming it and the rapid fire back and forth of emails figuring out if I wanted to go and whom I would go with and how to get the tickets began.

Thank goodness for my blackberry.

There was only one person I would really want to go to this with, Sue Cramer. So I emailed her saying “hey, want to go meet this author?”

She replied with “I have soccer practice for Lauren.”

Now, honestly, I thought she could pass up a soccer practice because I was looking this David Baldacci guy up on the internet and he appeared to be rather well known and I was beginning to think this might be a not to miss opportunity. And that maybe I live under a rock, because I had never heard of this guy before. Ever.

The Farmer’s Wife nearly strangled me through her message on Facebook. “GO SEE HIM! HOW DO YOU NOT KNOW DAVID BALDACCI! I AM SWOONING OVER HERE!” Well, the message was something like that.

I had won dinner at a Country Club and tickets to a speech to see David Baldacci.

When Sue realized I wasn’t joking, she called me…

“How did you win these?”

“We should know by now, Sue, strange things happen to me.”

And then she squealed she would go and I squealed hooray and we squealed girly squeals together because we were going out on the town! Together! Minus the children we so love!

Squeal!