I’ve mentioned before…I love the change of seasons. As I look out my window on this rainy Sunday afternoon, I see bright green rolling hills, the wooded areas are lush and dark like a tropical forest. And I sigh contendedly. I love Pennsylvania and I love not having to water my gardens everyday. My meager attempts never make them flourish as vibrantly as when God waters them!
I finished reading the last book of the Hunger Games Trilogy, Mockingjay. It was incredilbly exciting. Somehow the author made each book better than the one before it. I was completelty blindsided by the ending and that rarely happens to me. Guess you can tell I loved the series!
I forgot to mention a few weeks ago I was able to fullfill one of the biggest dreams of my life…I traveled to Harrisburg with my husband and another couple, dear friends… bless them all for sharing my desire to see Garrison Keillor live on stage. It was not a sold out venue but it was a very large and attentive crowd. This man is a master story teller, he walked out on the stage in a dark pinstriped suit and white shirt wearing his red high top sneakers, with a coordinated red tie. Thick dark rimmed glasses and a shock of thick dark hair– I don’t think he spends the kind of money former presidential candidate John Edward did having his hair cut and styled! He proceeded to tell us stories about coming of age in Lake Wobegon, Minnesota. We laughed till we cried listening to his self depreciating stories on narrow escapes and those not quite escaped from…
After speaking two hours, perhaps telling these stories for the thousandth times and making it sound so spontaneous like he was telling us for the first time ever. Then he wound up his final story, thanking us for coming, bowing before walking off stage. A standing ovation brought him back for a final wave of good by. I have to say he is much more handsome in real life than I expected from photos I’ve seen of him and even from the movie he made a few years ago with LillyTomlin and Mery Streep, Prarie Home Comapnion. (It is very good if you haven’t seen it yet.)
After the show I had to walk several blocks to the parking lot …in a downpour. When I arrived back at the theater with the car, my husband had gotten his autograph for me! He signed it: ’Love and strawberries, Garrison Keillor. ‘ What a hoot! They sat in the car and insisted I join a very short line and meet my hero. He was so shy, couldn’t even make eye contact with his fans. A short elderly lady in front of me told him she never missed his radio shows and loved the stage show she’d just seen. He stared at the ground and almost mumbled, “Not much of a show, just an old man standing on the stage talking.” Oh, it was soo much more than that! A few minutes later we pulled out on the street and there walking beside us on the sidewalk was Mr. Keillor, our favorite genius, without an umberella, pulling his carry on luggage behind him as his red sneakers slushed through the puddles of fresh rain water.
If you haven’t checked out my website lately, all connections are up and working again…finally! My books can be ordered by clicking direct page links on B&N.com or Amazon.com, both are available in paperback and ebook. You can also send email messages directly to my webmail: ann@annmccauley.com or through ‘Contact Ann’ on any page of the website .
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Till next time, keep reading!