Welcome to Ramble Street: surprise book launch party

In my library, there's nothing unusual about coming into work on the day of your late shift and finding the back work room empty. It's a busy branch. We're running all over the place. However, it is unusual to have your supervisor say she wants to meet with you in private. I've been there for 2 1/2 years and that's never happened...not even once. So when the head of Info Services said she wanted to speak with me in the back room, I was more than curious. Okay, I admit it. As a chronic worrier, I was stressed.

While I came up with a multitude of possible scenarios about what the meeting was going to be about, a surprise book launch party was not one of them.

Thanks to my supervisor's considerable acting talents and my colleagues' stealth planning, I had no idea it was party time. It's funny how you can be in a total state of shock and yet take in every detail at the same time.

Imagine walking into a room filled with music from the sixties, lots of people, amazing food, the first moon walk video on the TV, a table filled with vintage toys, cut outs of images from the book, Apollo 11 postcards and so much more.

And the food...let's talk about the food. Any morsel mentioned in my book was on that table. Oreo cookies. Apple jacks. We drank Tang! Plus there were tons of old time treats. Remember Pop Rocks! And pop corn.

There was a beautiful home-made cake, shaped like the moon, with Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin on top of it.

This party was filled with surprises. All those goodies they had on the table, they gave me a gift! So now I have kick balls, a Barbie doll (by the way, this is my very first Barbie) a gigantic Slinky, a coin of the moon walk, ice cream cones filled with bubbles, cards filled with good wishes and wonderful memories.

To all those who came to the party and to everyone who planned it, I never imagined anything like this. I am overwhelmed by your support and enthusiasm. And I am grateful for your friendship. Thank you.

Here are some pictures. I don't have one of the incredible food table. But here's the other table.

These are the cut-outs. Check out the attitude on Barbie.

Here are some of the party goers. The woman standing in the very front is Elaine McConnell, director of the entire library system. She's reading the review from BookPage http://tiny.cc/yAcsN which came out on the same day as the party.