my big method post!

Are you ready for the longest post in the history of method lust?...

The email said "Danny Seo and I will be in Charlotte at the end of next (keep this word in mind, it's slightly important. Well, more so just to show how slow I am sometimes!) week for a media tour we're doing with Lowe's. Wondering what your schedule is like Thursday? But wanted to see if you would be free and would even want to meet us? - Rachel, method PR"

Alright, a couple points to note here. A) Would I want to meet Danny Seo, method's Healthy Home 'co-conspirator' and Rachel Goldberg, method's Squire of Scoop? Nah, not really. I mean, I'm pretty busy and all, and it would just be disruptive to my extremely packed calendar, and it's not like I've lusted meeting folks from method for freakin' ever, so well, uhm... HOLY CRAP YES! Oh my word! Is this a dream?!

Oh and B) See that part of the email that says "would you be available Thursday?" Well, I received this email Wednesday night... at 8 PM. Oh oh, and yes, I somehow MISSED that "next" in the "next week" portion of the email. So my hair stood on end, and I jumped to my feet, still dizzy at the whole prospect of what this email was offering me, and screamed "Tomorrow?!?" So I ran to the phone, trying to get a hold of Rachel, to let her know that HECK yes, it WAS ok to get together, and not miss this amazing opportunity! But she wasn't available! (What in the world? Isn't California like, five hours time difference?! Shouldn't they still be at work?! (Yes, yes. I know. No, Nathan, California is indeed, NOT five hours time difference. Did you actually even pay attention in school? I mean, really, ok? Sigh.) So I left a message... With Rachel, and oh, I think about three other folks at method (all voice mail, cause well, see that whole five hours thing.) And then I sent Rachel an email. And then I sent Rachel a Facebook message. And then I twittered Rachel. And then I launched smoke signals into the air to Rachel. And I hired a sky writer, and... Oh ok, maybe not those last three. But pretty much I gave her just enough ammunition to prove I was, indeed, a method stalker who would stop at nothing to meet them! Ha ha!

Oh oh, and this was during the Lost season finale! Ok, you KNOW what that says? Don't you? Because the quote I give to my friends is "Wednesday night, at 9 pm; if you are not dying, or body parts have not been removed from your person and you're in need of immediate 911 assistance, DO NOT call me. Cause I won't answer. CAUSE, it's LOST!" But for method, I was emailing, calling, and cleaning my house like MAD (What if they came over? What if they wanted to see the house that method cleans?! What in the world would happen if this house wasn't spotless! Clean, AND watch Lost at the same time! See what sacrifices I'll make for method! I just hope they don't need an organ anytime soon.)

Then later that evening I get an email saying "So sorry for the confusion!" (or the fact that I couldn't read her email correctly the first time around should have been what she really said.) But it's NEXT Wednesday. Cue huge sigh of relief. Drop omop to the floor, scream "NO, not Juliette!" and fall into bed. (Lost fans will get that one!)

So the big day arrived this past Thursday! Now, here's another email I received that really made me nervous. The paraphrased version was, I was to meet them at a nearby Lowe's at 5 PM, and they were concocting up a bit of a surprise for me; Oh, and would I be comfortable talking to a reporter? Sure, not a problem! A reporter... what?! A tv reporter? A newspaper reporter? (Believe it or not, I'm rather shy until I get to really know you well. Then, you can't get me to shut up. And you wish I were once more, shy. But alas...) I was really scared about this whole reporter business, as Rachel was determined to keep it a surprise!

So the big day arrived this past Thursday (oh wait, I already said that...) and I showed up at Lowe's; and two of my friends were also there to enjoy the experience, and take lots of great pics of the fun! And there standing in front of MY Lowe's (well, not really MINE, you know, I don't own it or anything. Wow, that would rock. I'd be rich! But you know what I mean.) was none other than Danny Seo and Rachel Goldberg!

Now let's pause here for a moment. We're talking Rachel Goldberg! Straight from San Francisco, and the method offices; plastic bag rehab totes at her side; standing there in all her beauty (seriously, I think it's safe to say that, since it's coming from a gay man! LOL She won't think I'm trying to throw her a pickup line! But she's beautiful! If you don't believe me, you'll see what I'm talking about, a few pics further down!) AND Danny Seo. Ok, uhm, Danny does segments on the Today Show. CBS This Morning. HGTV! He has multiple books discussing his eco way of living; a bedding line at JCPenney's; a Wholearth body care line that is being carried by Anthropologie! Uhm, he's got star power here (I like to think of him as the eco-Martha Stewart. I wonder if he'd find that offensive, or complimentary? Hopefully complimentary!), and they're taking time out to visit with ME? (Who spiked their coffee?! Psst - You did good, the check will be in the mail.)

So here they stand, with a newspaper/online reporter for our local paper the News & Record, Morgan Josey Glover. She writes for their gogreentriad.com (which I didn't even know existed! I've learned something new and great so I can now follow going green in my home town more easily!) Cool!) I felt SO much better now that I knew it wasn't a tv reporter (me and photos/video, GAH! We don't get along well at all. Uhm, you can tell by these photos here! Photogenic, I am not! And you're not even seeing the ones I DIDN'T put up here!) She asked me a multitude of questions pertaining to how method lust got it's start, the first method product I bought, my eco habits, what I was doing to help the environment, if I was clued into the green movement in my hometown (something that honestly, I haven't been following! But will begin doing so now!), and what my next eco-challenge might be? You can read the interview, AND win method goodies too! (The link is further down this post. Hold on, patience is a virtue, my lustful friends!)

Meanwhile, Rachel and Danny had gone into Lowe's to scope out the method section! We actually have a really great set up at our local Lowe's, two end caps (you can only see one in this pic) full of method products! Hmm, what were they up to?

Once the (painless) interview was finished, Rachel and Danny came out to take us inside, and we all stood around the method products! Now, (as far as I know) my local Lowe's had no clue what was going on, so I thought it was rather funny that as more photos got snapped, and method products got grabbed, more employees started roaming around us wondering what was going on!? Oh oh, but I'm getting ahead of myself... (no surprise there!)

So we all stood around the method end caps,and Danny started giving this oh so sweet speech about how he'd suggested at the method office that they go meet their #1 advocate (out of thousands!) and who would that be, and everyone at method yelled "Nathan!" Crazy, seriously! That's so freakin' nice! And because of that, they took a little side trip during their Charlotte Lowe's tour, JUST to meet me, and vice versa. They had no business plans in Greensboro! But drove an hour and a half out of their way for me! I was quite overwhelmed!

He continued "So since you mean a lot to us here at method, we wanted the opportunity to..." and then he stopped, and said "Wait, wait, it sounds like I'm about to give you a brand new car! That's not the case, sorry! This is a recession! No brand new car!" and everyone cracked up laughing! "But we're going to give you a shopping spree! A method shopping spree! No shopping carts, but whatever you can carry on your arms from these shelves, you can keep!" CRAZY! Freakin' crazy! I was so excited! I had no idea (and had literally, just two hours earlier, bought some aroma pill refills at Target. Yeah, I am that obsessed! But it was to make the house smell all pretty in case they stopped by! I knew they probably weren't going to, but you have to be ready for these things! Well, I do, cause, I'm nuts.)

BUT first, before I could start grabbin', just in case my newspaper interview hadn't been stressful enough, Rachel had me do another interview while she recorded it, for the method offices! She tells me it's for internal use only, but I'm not sure I believe her! (Joking!) I could never be a politician or uh, anything dealing with quick reponses to questions, because I'm the worse. I know on more than one question she could probably insert the sounds of crickets chirping to cover up my delaying as I pondered her questions! I'm not good at this stuff! I'm sure what I lacked in answers, I'll more than make up in crazy facial expressions! And then, once the interview was over (which included the question of "what one method product would you like to see them make? ANYTHING!" Whoa, that question is so wide open! I couldn't think, I started sweating, I was feeling light-headed! So I just ended up going with a rather pedestrian (but oh so honest) wider range of body care products! Toothpaste, shaving cream (I'm down to only four bottles! I lust this stuff!), deodorant, all of it!

...And then the grabbing began! Danny told me I needed to start with the big stuff first, and layer! Ha! So I first grabbed two big bottles of laundry detergent (I was going to go for the new squeaky green detergent. But the only big bottles of that which were available were in sweet water. I went "eh, sweet water." and Rachel said "oh, not a fan of sweet water?" and I said "not really, can I say that out loud?" Ha ha! And then, an omop! Come on, you gotta grab one of those!

From there on out, Danny went nuts! (Though he did mention at least once "Don't forget, we're in a recession!") I'd mention like, one bottle of lil' bowl blu, and he'd grab three! it was hard work getting this stuff to stack and stay. A couple items did the jump of death, but luckily they survived their fall!

Danny, what ARE you doing?! In the end, they were putting products on my belt loops, and in my shirt pocket, anywhere they could fit them! It was madness, and I was loving every minute of it! The list of products is insane! Ok, ready?

The final tally would be (if I can actually remember everything!) 1 omop, 3 bottles of lil' bowl blu, 2 large detergent bottles, 2 bottles of le scrub, 2 aroma pills (lavender + lemongrass), 1 lavender + lemongrass aroma stick set, 1 squeaky green free + clear wet dryer sheets (haven't tried the new ones!), 1 pink grapefruit all surface cleaner (haven't tried this scent before, either!), 1 lavender all surface cleaner, 2 daily shower spray refill bottles, 1 wood for good spray cleaner, 1 lavender hand wash refill bag, 1 best in glass spray bottle, 1 all floor one (cute name! I hadn't noticed they named their floor cleaner!) lemon ginger floor cleaner, 1 almond wood for good floor cleaner, 1 floor cleaner cloth, and 1 package of leather wipes! Whew! Oh my word! AND, if that wasn't enough, they brought along two Plastic Rehab Totes for me (and one for the news reporter, which was so sweet!) and my tote had some pink grapefruit dish cubes in the new pouch packaging (oh, and hey, method lust note here; these dish cube pouches are now showing up at your local Target stores!), a Danny Seo Simply Green Parties book, an empty hand wash bottle signed by both co-founders (so cool!), and a t-shirt! Madness!

See that facial expression? Here's where the weight of all those products was starting to take it's toll. Now mind you, I'll usually bend over backwards for anything! So Rachel was asking "Are you alright? Is it too heavy?" and I responded "No, NO. It's FINE." Which, if you knew me as my friends do, my voice had raised pitch to a high soprano, meaning I was totally lying. Darn that body language! But it was all fine, I survived! Danny grabbed around four or so items from the stack (luckily I didn't have to walk to the register carrying all this stuff!) and went "Wow, these are heavy!" and I said "Trust me, my arms agree! I won't be able to pick up my fork for dinner!" Cause not only were they so amazing and did all this wonderful stuff at Lowe's for me, but they took me out to dinner (at a restaurant of my choice), too!

So Danny started piling up the products in the check out lane, the cashier rang them all through, and then EVERYONE, Danny, Rachel, my two friends Crissy and Sam, and the reporter, Morgan, all whipped out their cameras to take a photo of the total on the register! At which time the cashier says "Uhm, so what IS going on here?" and they just simply stated "Oh, we're just letting Nathan buy as many method products as he wants." and she just went "Oh, ok." Ha ha! A hysterical plastic bag incident ensued, which I won't even get into; and off we went!

At that, we said our goodbyes to my two friends, and the wonderful Morgan for being part of the fun! And drove over to Lucky 32, this great local Southern kitchen restaurant here in Greensboro. I didn't want to take them to just some chain restaurant, but rather some place in Greensboro that they couldn't find anywhere else. It was delicious, from the sweet potato hushpuppies (man, they were like dessert!) to the black bean cakes, crab cakes, and potato cakes with smoked salmon. Yes, apparently we liked our fried "cakes"!

Danny mananged to snap this one photo of me inside the restaurant. I had my camera with me, but remember that shy thing, so I should have taken a pic of them, but didn't even think of it! I was too busy chatting them up about method (expect some great things coming this year! But trust me, that's ALL I got out of them! And I tried. I even told them I wouldn't post about whatever insider info. they told me (and therefore wouldn't have been able to share the news with all you lusters, sorry!) but they STILL stayed tighted lipped. Sigh!

Hopefully they had a great time as well! It was a long day for both of them, so again, taking the time out of their schedules to do this was just amazing. And I'll remember it forever! I hope I was witty and chatty enough at dinner, and they weren't bored to death. Ha ha! At the very end, as I gave them hugs goodbye, Rachel told me I definitely had to make a trip to San Francisco (I've never been there!) and if I did, we'd all get together and have dinner with the co-founders (hear that Adam and Eric! Get ready!) I swore to her I'd be seeing her again, and would definitely do that! I'm already saving up my pennies, and dreaming of all the fun we'll have!

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And now, here's your chance to not only read the interview by Morgan Josey Glover over on gogreentriad.com, BUT win everything I snatched up! How freakin' cool is that! Hurry on over, the contest ends May 28, 2009!

Oh, and this pic? Why does everyone look so unhappy? Did Danny and I get into a yelling argument? Nah! I was just teasing and tormenting you guys! He's the greatest! I actually thought this photo was hysterical when I saw it, because I really don't know what was going on. I think my friend Sam just happened to capture all of us at some crazy moment "inbetween" and I thought all of our facial expressions and body language were too funny! So I just had to share it with you all!

Oh, and PS. Now everyone at method thinks my thing is to place my thumbs into my front pants pockets, cowboy style. For some crazy reason I picked this nervous habit up during this method fun, and in all of the photos, my freakin' thumbs are stuck into my pants pockets! I swear I never did this before, who knows?! Ah, what can you do... (therapy, Nathan, therapy.)