The Blind Side

A very very cool thing happened this weekend. I read about a book signing at the Enoch Pratt Free Library Central Branch in downtown Baltimore. The book signing was by Sean and Leigh Anne Tuohy. If you have seen the movie, The Blind Side, then you know who I am talking about. This is the couple that took in Michael Oher, a very tall, large, black guy in Memphis that ended up becoming a Baltimore Ravens first round draft pick. They "adopted" him into their family and now he is their son. They have a ton of money. Michael did not. He came from the projects with a dead beat mother and no father. This is the stuff that movies are made of. A book was written and a movie was done about it. Sandra Bullock played Leigh Anne and won an Oscar for it.

Sean and Leigh Anne have since written their own book, In a Heartbeat: Sharing the Power of Cheerful Giving, which tells their own back story about how they became the giving people that they are. The challenge us all to be cheerful givers. When I first read that they would be so close to our house, I went out and purchased the book at Costco. I knew Peirce would be mad that I spent $13 on it, but he got over it because after dragging him to this book signing, he had the time of his life.

We walked in and we were actually put into an auditorium. For an hour, the Tuohys spoke and took questions from the audience. One of the highlights was right when we sat down. The first thing they said was, "Now, there is one error in this book. Does anybody know what it is?" Peirce's hand shot up. Mind you, my dear husband does not read many books. Occasionally a Star Wars one or something deep will end up on the nightstand and he reads right through it quickly. But, overall, he's not one to take up a book as a hobby. But, before the presentation, I went to the restroom and left Peirce alone with my book. He flipped to the end and was reading some pages. In it, they described how Michael Oher was playing at Alliance Bank Stadium in Baltimore. Well, that isn't, nor ever has been, the name of the football stadium here. So, when they asked the question, Peirce's hand shot up. He seemed to be the only one in the place with his hand up. The Tuohys looked right at him and said, "Well, what is it?" Peirce yelled out that the stadium name was wrong and we all had a good chuckle. We were star struck. Absolutely geeked out star struck. By the way, our stadium is M&T Bank Stadium.

After the hour long presentation, we stood in line to have my book signed. I felt like I was going to throw up and Peirce even admitted his legs were giving out. Nobody else had a camera, but I went in for the kill and asked for this photo. I still haven't come down off the clouds.