Fan Base

As mentioned, it was a busy weekend for Valley Girl between the Art Walk Friday night and Palmfest Saturday and Sunday.

One of the stores I wrote about recently--Bath Junkie--had a booth at the Palmfest mercado. I stopped by to say hello and the owner effusively complimented the VG article and said she'd forwarded to the franchise owner and various people at corporate HQ. I asked if anyone had come in after reading it. The owner said no, but she hoped people would see it and stop in.

I posted an extra column about Palmfest Sunday morning and Mike and I went over for a couple of hours after I picked him up at the airport. We bumped into his department chair and his wife at the book sale. Linda mentioned she was a faithful VG reader and recently took her mother to the tea room/antique shop I'd written about. She gave me a couple of suggestions for future VG field trips.

On the way out, we walked by the Bath Junkie booth again. Just as we walked up, one of the workers told a woman standing at the booth "That's her right there," meaning me. "That's Valley Girl?!" she said. Yup, that's me. We introduced ourselves and Sandy told me she LOVES the column, LOVES Pink Martini and gets ideas for things to do with her Girl Scout troop from Valley Girl. Tee hee.

I also checked the email account I set up for VG mail and found 23 messages. Most were weekly arts announcements, but there was a note from a woman who moved here recently and asked my advice about how to make friends, so I dropped her a line. And the next day, I received another email from a faithful reader in Harlingen suggesting I visit the corn maze in Donna.

Aside from the occasional email, people rarely leave comments on VG posts. I don't know people read it unless they TELL me they read it. When I've asked the deputy managing editor or the online editor what VG readership stats are, I never get a response. So to have a few more people tell me they read faithfully and really enjoy the column, well, it makes my day. :)