Now I know what monkeys in the zoo feel like

Saturday, we had our card signing and it turned out to be quite an interesting experience. After weeks of having nightmares that every guy I ever dated showed up to see how much I've aged, I was finally going to see how this was going to turn out. They wanted us to come early, so they had to open the gate for us to get in. People that were walking by kind of gave us strange looks as I stood there holding a plate full of pink frosted cinnamon rolls-wasn't that a cute idea? One of the women that worked there gave me the idea when I stopped by a week ago.

They had a table set up for us with a table cloth and flowers and even had crayons and paper for Emily to keep herself busy-thanks, I didn't even think of that. They opened the store and we sat down and waited. And waited. And waited. I was beginning to think that we maybe started it too early in the day-heck, I never go to the mall before noon. Only people that were there were old people that were probably mall walkers just getting ready to go home. So, we had one old person walk by. Then another. Then another. So, I got this idea. I told Emily to say "hi" to everyone that walked by in her most sweetest voice and with a smile. She was game, so the next old lady that walked by, she sits up tall and says very loudly, "Hi!" The lady stopped in her tracks and comes over and asks what all of this was. Emily tells her that she's on a Hallmark card and we're in a contest and would she like to buy a card? The lady thinks this is so adorable and buys one! I know. I know. Use your kid to sell products-I'm terrible. But, all I could think of whenever she tried to coax another unsuspecting victim was all those little Girl Scouts that sit out front of Walmart all cute, asking if I want to buy cookies and feeling too guilty not to. I figure that it's a little payback.

Emily was having fun signing cards and was really getting into the "celebrity" thing. She was all like, I want to sign a card! Someone needs to buy my card. I also think she finally "got it" about this whole card contest thing and that if we won, we would get money and money buys toys. She started trying to sell our cinnamon rolls to people and I had to calm her down a bit.

So, after an hour of strangers coming up to us, I realized that no family or friends had showed up yet and I started to think that everyone forgot. Hard to believe that they could forget after I sent about a zillion email reminders to them daily. I was concerned about my dad not being there yet because he's always the first one to show up at any of my events. I used the Hallmark store's phone and called my husband and told him to call everyone to remind them. Just as I sat back down, my dad rushed up to the table and admitted that he didn't realize that it was Saturday. You know those lucky retired folks that don't have to worry about what day of the week it is because everyday is a Saturday to them.

My dad bought like 5 or 6 cards and gave the stack to Emily to sign. Then, everyone that said they were coming just all showed up at once. We were like bombarded with family and friends and they all had at least 5 cards a piece to sign. So, Emily and I were busy trying to sign cards and talk to relatives I barely see all at the same time. People that were passing by at that time started staring and trying to see what all the commotion was about. Surely, there was some famous people at that table with a line of eager fans waiting for an autograph. I was having a blast with it, but Emily quickly grew tired of it. Celebrity life became tiresome for her and she didn't want to sign anymore cards after that. She even started feeling warm and I thought, is it possible for a body to reject fame? Just kidding about that philosophy.

After family left, it was getting close to our end time so the ladies at the store wanted Emily to sign 10 more cards to put out for customers that didn't come and I guess some of the other women that worked there wanted to buy one or two. Emily was all like, NOT MORE CARDS! I told her that they count for votes and make us closer to winning, so she got through it. (I didn't have the heart to tell her that the other Hallmark store at the mall wants us to do a signing May 2nd. Now I see why childhood actors become alcoholics-oh, the agony! lol)

I thanked the them for being so nice to us and for doing this and we left the rest of our cinnamon rolls for customers and when we were leaving, we found out that the flowers were for us-how cool!

Unfortunately, we both landed bad colds and sore throats from that day and I dragged through the rest of the weekend, but on Sunday I managed to go out and we went to Walmart on the other side of town. I found my cards and my oldest and I put our card in front of all the other cards-isn't it fun to be childish for your own gain?