Arizona Sunshine

It was so nice to have a kick back morning and get some laundry done on Tuesday. The weather is perfect in Mesa this time of year and Janette Rallison was a wonderful hostess. We left for the signing at the Glendale Deseret Book and quickly realized that Glendale-Chandler-Mesa are isn't like Sandy-Sugarhouse-Murray in Salt Lake. They are all their own cities rather than suburbs of each other and driving from one to the other is like driving to Provo from Salt Lake. And so we were late--again. Argh. I really hate being late and yet you wouldn't guess it by how good I'm getting at it.

Anyway--great store, fun signing. Marjean is a resident of the Mesa area who volunteered to help us with our signings here. She made up mailing list sign ups, directed people to our table, and was a kind of director for the signing. It was fun to meet her and the employees and we had a good time at Glendale. Then we went to lunch with Peggy and Cindy, the manager and assistant manager of the Seagull bookstore in Mesa. What fun women, and what a wonderful meal! They took us to the Landmark restaurant in Mesa which is in a building that was the first meetinghouse in Mesa. It was a beautiful building and the food was phenomenal.

After the meal they announced that Julie had received a delivery to their store that morning. Ooooooooo. It turned out to be this awesome cookie boquet sent by Julie's sister in law, Pearl. It was awesome! I've heard about those but never seen one. Wow. It was such a thoughtful (and delicious) gift. Julie shared with all of us at the signing, I beleive I was the first one to finish my cookie despite the big meal we'd just had. Go me.

The Mesa signing was great. Wendy and Mary--online friends--came out to see us, as well as Kim C.'s aunt who about cleaned Julie out of books. It was really, really fun to see these people in real life--thanks for the great support. Peggy at that store was just wonderful--what a bundle of fun energy. And I found christmas gifts for my visiting teaching sisters that are darling but I can't tell you what they are because they sometimes read this and I don't want to give it away. and because I bought the same thing for my sister Crystal (who will get hers in Cedar City on Saturday) and Melanie J (who will get hers as soon as I get to a post office to mail it). Now they are going to get all excited and think it's amazing, so I totally set myself up.

Anyway, once we finished that signing we hurried to a  book group in Mesa and got there just in time. Janette joined us for a presentation where we talked about our experiences in writing and how we got here. It went really well and the women there were just wonderful, warm, and very engaged. Sandra, the woman who put it all together, insisted we take some of the leftover refreshments. Twisted our arm terribly. We said we were taking them home to Janette's kids but instead we're eating cream-puffs and grapes for breakfast. It was delicious.

All in all it was a really great day, full of wonderful people who really went out of their way to take great care of us. Today we're bumming around Janette's house for a little while before we head for Thatcher where we have a signing and presentation.

Topics discussed: We didn't drive much, and when one was driving the other was talking to her husband on the cell phone where we talked about school, laundry, church talks, and when we will be home.