Love in the Time of Cholera...and Oprah

So many of my Memphis friends are aware of my efforts to meet Ms. Oprah Winfrey back in November. When I say meet I mean get tickets to her show, sit in the front row, and be such a good audience member that she would immediately ask me to have coffee after the show and she, Gayle, and I would become BFF.

I sent a mass email requesting that someone, anyone who read Love in the Time of Cholera please contact me and give me the full run down. When no one responded I went as far as to contact all the local bookstores in Memphis to see if they had the Cliff's Notes (felt like high school).

You see, I had been trying to get Oprah tickets for 3 months. As soon as I booked my flight I began my search. What I found was Oprah tickets are about as hard to find as a shower caddy at Target (and that's a whole other story). So the day before I left they posted on her website that they were looking for audience members who had read Love in the Time of Cholera. And I was PUMPED, it never crossed my mind that I had never read this 300+ page book or that I was having a party at my house that night (no time for reading) or that I had to write a detailed description on her website about how my life relates to the book. I actually had a way to get on the show!

Within the next 24 hours I recalled another Oprah book I had read, A Million Little Pieces. Remember that one? Remember what happened with that one? Ms. Winfrey got pretty mad at the author of that book, and for what? Lying!! He claimed his story was 100% true and when it turned out he took a little more poetic liscence than initially thought...Oprah got mad. And here I was, crafting a lie to meet my best friend who hadn't even met me yet. The guilt set it. Truthfully, it was half guilt, half fear. I mean, she was really mad at that guy. So I bailed on my plan and spent the day at the Chicago Art Institute instead, where I got to see some really tiny doll house rooms that were very cool and Picasso's old man playing the guitar painting!

So the point of this email was not to talk about my predicament. It is to tell Oprah, in the event she is reading my blog today. I don't think anyone has ever read my blog, but I suppose Oprah would be a good start. I want to tell Oprah that I have read Love in the Time of Cholera, unfortunately not before my Chicago trip. What are the odds of my book club picking that book the month after my trip? Oprah, call me, my book club meets Monday. Bring Gayle.