I arrived in Fairfax around 6:30 pm on Friday Dec. 4. I swung through the BJ's parking lot at 7 pm and there were already 30 people camped out. I was hoping that the threat of snow would not keep people away. A little later that night, I was on my computer and happened to talk with Greta Van Susteren on skype. You can watch our conversation here. Greta and I discussed the book signing that was to occur the next day. I wasn't sure if Greta even had heard about the book signing. But the next day to my surprise, Greta showed up at BJs and spent about an hour talking to Sarah and her family as she signed books. Greta even posted some pictures on her blog, gretawire. I was lucking enough to be a volunteer at this event and on her way out I spoke with Greta again and even got a picture with her (I'll post this later).

Now, the book signing itself was incredible. Here is a short video I shot as Sarah entered BJs.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ufvVT-aGRUg]

The crowd inside the store couldn't wait to get their 3 seconds in front of her!

This is the set up provided by BJ's where Sarah and Todd Palin met the 2800 people who braved the cold and rare snow in Virginia just to get a chance to get a few books signed.

Here is picture of me and Sally, the other volunteer. We had such a great time!


It is very rare in Virginia to get snow so early in December and the funny thing is that the weather reports did not even predict that it would be as bad as it was. Here are a few shots I took of the parking lot of BJs on my way out after the book signing.





The first job I had was to instruct the people in line on how to prepare their books for signing. I walked up and down the line demonstrating to them that they had to open their books and flap the book open to the title page "Going Rogue" so that when they reached the signing table the focus was on the signature and time was not wasted trying to open books.

Pictures of the first group in line:




After a few minutes of instructing the crowd, I was pulled for another job. This time I was working with Sally again. She was handing out bookmarks from SarahPAC to the people leaving with their signed books. I was giving out information for Shealah Craighead on how the fans could go about purchasing the pictures that were taken as their books were signed. If you are interested you can visit http://www.shealahcraighead.com/ to view the pictures from each book signing event. It was a long event from 11 am to 2 pm but it sure didn't feel long. I was working in the same area where Chuck and Sally Heath and Sarah's Aunt Katie were shaking hands and talking with supporters. I was able to talk with each of them at length over the 3 hours we were there. Sally Heath remembered me by name and Chuck remembered my face. That was nice treat because I know that they have met so many people over the course of the last year and for them to remember me after a few meetings made my day. I talked with Chuck about his teaching days and even asked him, "what would you rather be doing teaching middle school students or working these book signings?" His answer was quick, "here of course! I loved my teaching days but after 30 years you have to do something different." Teaching is great, but meeting all of these people in the lower 48 who admire Sarah Palin and support her views of how government should work have opened the Heath's eyes to how much support there is for Sarah.

It was such fun to watch the Heaths and Aunt Katie work the crowd. Sally and Katie even took a break to go shopping around BJ's! That left Chuck by himself for awhile and he would stop people and say "don't you walk by Sarah's daddy without saying hello". I cracked up every time he did that because people were shocked until they realized it was Chuck! One woman screamed and hugged him while saying I loved reading about you in the book. To which Chuck replied, "don't believe everything you read." These are real people who care about our country and tell it like it is. That is attractive to the rest of us when we don't feel that the majority of our elected officials care about what we want or feel that they even hear us.

When the event was over Sally (the volunteer, not the mom) and I got to have our books signed. Sally introduced herself to Sarah and Sarah smiled back saying "Sally, just like my mom!" Next was my turn. I was having books signed for friends, I shook Todd's hand and he said nice to meet you,. I told him that I met him last year in Juneau. Sarah looked up from signing my books and said "I remember you! What are you doing up here." I shook Sarah's hand and said "I drove 3 hours from Yorktown to work for you and support you today." She said thank you several times and I told her that I would be in Wasilla again this summer and hoped to see her again. It was a long day but it was so worth it. I would gladly do it all again to see the smiles on the faces of those who had never before expected the thrill of meeting Sarah. There were people of all ages and ethic groups who braved the snow for Sarah. That is no small feet! Think about it...Fairfax county is the largest, bluest area of Virginia. It was mainly Fairfax county that turned Virginia blue in the 2008 election. Virginians typically hunker down when the weather prediction involves snow. And were these people who waited over night in freezing temperatures and rain for Sarah Palin. The rain turned to snow and still more people came. Seeing the turn out in this county minutes from Washington D.C. cements the fact that people want Sarah Palin to stay on the front page. We want/need her to run for higher office but also understand if she chooses not to. Her grassroots, boots on the ground are ready and waiting for our orders. The key phase these days is "Run Sarah Run!"

So, the big question that I hear being asked of all Sarah Palin supporters is this... why do you like Sarah Palin? The answer is in this video clip of her interview with Barbara Walters. She is a common sense, everyday American, who feels and hopes just like the rest of us and she isn't afraid to speak her mind.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5BgDdiZfek0]