Richardson Reads One Book..... and Mo goes first class!!

As you know, each year my sister and I enjoy going to Richardson Reads One Book, brought to us by the City of Richardson, which loves to celebrate literacy!! We've seen Jodi Picoult, Jannette Walls, and Chris Bohjalian. This year, we were excited to see David Oliver Relin, one of the authors of "Three Cups of Tea."

Tickets are released in August, so Sarah goes to get tickets and they are all given out!! This can't be!?!?! Sarah and I don't know what to do - they tell us that we can show up the day of the event, but there is no guarantee. That is not going to work for us, we are die hard Richardson Readers!!

So we learn that for a contribution of $50, we can get a sacred yellow ticket and have preferential seating and other special privileges. $25 to celebrate literacy is a small price to pay for Sarah and me, so she writes the check and gets us on the list. She's worried because she's not sure how well her request was processed, but we are optimistic for the event.

Our golden tickets allow us to go to the reception prior to the event to enjoy some food and drink. We go get a plate of food, rub elbows with the literacy lovers of Richardson, get our tickets, and then head back to Sarah's. Mike takes us to Richardson HS (we learned this last year after the second year we had to park soo far away), drops us off, and we wait for the doors to open. We are surrounded by people with pink and blue tickets, but Sarah and I proudly stand with our special tickets.

We get in, get a program and settle ourselves in the third row center with an amazing view of the podium and the stage. We check the programs and we are listed as donors!! The public will see our support of literacy - how exciting! We visit and my friend Diane from high school stops by to say hi.

David Oliver Relin spoke for almost 1.5 hours and his talk was amazing. We are able to dip out quickly after and get in line for book signing (another first for us!). We wait, get our books signed (mine says: For Martha, The real enemy is ignorance"), Mike picks us up, and we celebrate our success with a trip to Snuffer's. Literacy and cheese fries - could a better night be had?

I think Sarah and I agree that this is the only way to go to Richardson Reads from now on - total class and style, baby!! I can't wait for next year!!