Richardson Reads One Book.... and Mr. Mackey's New Career

Last night, I decided to do my yearly literary outing with my sister. Sarah lives in Richardson. While I've never lived in Richardson, I did go to RISD schools. I began my teaching career in Richardson. It has a special place in my heart.

Each year, they do a program called "Richardson Reads One Book." They select a book and invite the author to come and do a talk. We've seen Jodi Picoult and Jeannette Walls the last two years that we have gone. This is free to Richardson residents (I'm telling you...... free tickets and discounts on the Wildflower Festival.... I really may need to consider moving!)

The two previous years, we've had to park and hike. It's crazy - like every old gal over the age of 60 is there! It's a who's who of retired RISD teachers and librarians. It's held in the auditorium of Richardson High School (BIL Mike's alma mater - gonna mention Mike in my blog every chance I get!!).

When you walk in, there are blue tickets, pink tickets and yellow tickets. Yellow is the preferred color, with choice seating in the front. Pink is good seating, and blue is the free and cheap section. The last two years we've had blue seats, not great seats, but good enough.

We decide this year to have a plan. Mike is going to drop us off at the front right at 6:45 when the doors open so we can bust in and get good seats. He'll pick us up so we don't have to fight the traffic. This is genius!! So Mike drops us off at 6:45 and we are the second people in the door. We rush to the front of the blue section and grab our seats. PERFECTION!! So we spend the next 45 minutes chatting and people watching. (Ed.'s note: There was a plastic rat in my seat. Was it saving the seat for someone? I don't know... I put it in the seat in front of me, the girl was clueless and the rat ended up on the floor by my feet. If you set a rat free and it comes back to you, then it is yours. So it's in my purse waiting to scare the &*%#$*& out of someone sometime soon.)

The featured author is Chris Bohjalian (prounounced Bo-jay-lian). He was a great speaker and very engaging. Time flew!! We were so proud of our choice seats until we noticed that the place was not near as packed as last year!! We did not let this discourage us in the least!!

We decide that for next year we are going to make a donation and see if we can break into the pink/yellow sections. But we are definitely using Mike's shuttle service for the future - it rocked!!

Mike was waiting when we walked out and we were gone before most people had exited the auditorium. We head to eat dinner at a restaurant in Richardson (it's all about Richardson this night!). We get a table and choose to sit outside because it's sooo beautiful out.

Our waiter was a lively jovial fellow who only said.... "mmmmkay" and "thank you." Here's how it started out:

Waiter: What would you like to drink?

Sarah: A glass of wine

Waiter: Wine? mmmkay, thank you

Waiter (to me): And you?

Me: Water

Waiter: mmmkay And Sir? (to Mike)

Mike: Wine

Waiter: thank you... mmmkay, would you like bread?

Basically, it's like this video clip, just insert wine, bread, pasta, pizza in between the mmmkays and you'll get the drift:

You get the idea? It's like Mr. Mackey from South Park!! Dinner was good, th company was better and I enjoyed my literary cultural event. Now we have to wait until April or May to hear who will speak next year!! I can't wait!! :)