This is me missing you

Hat: thrifted/Nine West
Tank: Target
Shorts: Boden
Wedges: Target

YOU GUYS I'M BACK! I've missed you all terribly. I'm kind of surprised at actually missing blogging; I thought I'd not want to come back to it but really I'm glad to return. I actually don't have a lot of outfit photos to share--the one above is from today--but I thought I'd post some other pictures from my trip.



I saw a ton of my heroes speak this week. Craig Thompson, Jane Lynch, and above, the one and only Jeffrey Eugenides. I'm incredibly excited for his next book, The Marriage Plot, which will be out this fall. He read the first paragraph and I am mesmerized, to say the very least. He was also funny! Everyone who spoke that morning was--also on the panel were Mindy Kaling, Diane Keaton and Charlaine Harris. Every person I mentioned in this paragraph has a book coming out this year.



Here's Rockefeller Center. I pretended to be Liz Lemon for a second and went blerg while my camera buzzed to life.



Thursday afternoon/evening was free time for us since the convention ended at 1pm. I took that opportunity to drag my boss to Central Park and while she looked for an I love New York t-shirt for her son, I wandered through the Met for a few hours. Amazing. I didn't get to see everything, of course, but I viewed the Egyptian art, Greek & Roman art, and 19th-early 20th century European galleries, which were my top picks. What an extraordinary place.



Jimmy Fallon, you guys. I met Jimmy Fallon. And he said my name! I just can't even. Seriously the highlight of my life week.



Our hotel was swank. It was my first time staying in a hotel room alone and by far it was the nicest hotel I've ever stayed in. I loooooooved it. By day two my boss and I were calling it "home" and I really did not want to leave.



On Wednesday night my three best friends from high school and I all met for dinner and this is what I wore.

Top: Anthro
Jeans: Walmart
Flats: Target
Bag: Target

It worked but my feet were still exhausted. And by the end of the day Thursday they were even moreso.



Cardigan: Target
Jeans: Gap
Wedges: Target
ID badge: sooooooo coooool

Here I am at the Dork Diaries steps. Adorable, right? The steps, not me. I spent 90% of the entire convention wearing this cardigan because it was freezing inside. Thursday morning I actually had to leave a panel because it was too cold in the room for me. And I never get cold!



There was an entire room (room is undercutting it--the place was massive) dedicated to shipping things home. Table after table of boxes filled with thousands of free advanced reader copies of books yet to be published, posters, free bags, pens and other swag. My boss and I sent home 40+ pounds' worth of books to our library.

I think it's fair to say that I was really underprepared for exactly how big BEA was going to be. The convention center it was held in is truly massive; the exhibition floor was split into three giant parts with conferences, panels and author conversations all simultaneously operating on two separate floors. I waited in line for James Patterson's new book--signed by him--for half an hour (for my mom, who flipped OUT when I surprised her with it!); I was 38th in line and by the time he started signing there were at least 150 people waiting. And that was in Hatchette's (his publisher's) booth; there was another section specifically dedicated to signings and that place was a zoo.



Really, though, my only major complaint was the crowds. I saw some amazing authors and met some great people and I'm already brewing ideas for how to integrate what I saw and experienced at BEA into our library system. But as much as I loved the trip and what we accomplished, I can say I'm glad to be home. I got very little sleep while I was there! I'll try to do a post of upcoming books you might want to look out for, but for the next couple days I'm just going to relax. Good thing it's a holiday weekend. At the latest you can expect an outfit post Tuesday. Maybe sooner if I feel like it!

Glad to be back, y'all. Fill me in on what I've missed!