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January 20, 2005
Being Popular
You can’t believe how many things I had to attend while I was at Midwinter.
It all started on Friday. We rolled into Boston at 1:00, and my first Notable Recordings meeting started at 2:00. That ran until 5:00, when we flitted off to make our dinner reservation at Legal Sea Foods. Then we had to taxi over to a movie theater for an invitation-only showing of Because of Winn-Dixie. Since we got there late, we had to sit way in the front, but that was lucky because Kate DiCamillo came out afterwards to answer questions and we were RIGHT THERE. After all that, we went to a reception at the Ritz Carlton where they gave us chardonnay, crab cakes, cheese, desserts, and really fun lunchboxes and pins. Then we went to yet another party, and – forgive me – I don’t really remember where this one was, but I remember they had Champaign, more desserts, and free books.
Saturday morning, I did the trade show. My best find was a plush rendition of the title character from the cinematic masterpiece Doggy Poo. The scary thing is that a.) I am not making this up, and b.) my godson was totally delighted when I gave it to him. I saw Jack Gantos while I was at the trade show. He is at every single conference I go to; perhaps he is a closet librarian or harbors a librarian fetish. Maybe he’s stalking me. I don’t know. Anyway, I totally love his books, but he’s just popping up too often to maintain his celebrity glow. I also picked up a lot of the three P’s: posters, pens, and pins. The Nation had the best pins, as usual, and I got a few galleys I’m happy to have. It’s no BookExpo, but it’s good enough for me. And Jason picked up a bunch more galleys and posters for me the next day, so I ended up with a pretty good haul.
Saturday afternoon, I had another meeting. Saturday evening was the duck escapade and a wandering trip to a Tex-Mex restaurant and a comedy club.
Sunday I had meetings from 9:00 am until 6:00 pm, then again from 8:30-9:30 pm. Our committee did get a nice break for (what I was led to believe was a $58 a plate) brunch at Aujourd'hui at the Four Seasons. They were making mimosas with fresh-squeezed orange juice. You just have to be impressed with that sort of attention to detail. I had all sorts of delightful mismatched foods: fruit, shrimp, scrambled eggs, crème brulee, and chocolate moose. Yum! Between meetings, I went to a buffet dinner put on by Houghton Mifflin, also at the Four Seasons. After my last meeting was done, I went out to see White Noise. Then there was the post-scary-movie ice cream and South Park Movie binge. I was up till about 3:00 am. Oops.
Monday morning was the big awards press conference at 8:15. 8:15! I had to leave my hotel at 7:30. I did not feel good about this. Then I came home.
The End.
Up tomorrow, a few feature: Frequently Asked Question Fridays
Posted by adrienne at January 20, 2005 08:22 PM
Comments
However can you return to "common life" after mimosas with freshly squeezed orange juice? ;)
Posted by: Olivia at January 21, 2005 08:03 AM
It's been a trial, but I manage. It turns out I'm pretty popular here at home, too. Who would have thought it possible???
Posted by: Adrienne at January 22, 2005 07:34 PM
Aww... what happened to FAQ Friday? I need something to do during my lunch break, after all...
Posted by: Sabrina at January 24, 2005 01:09 PM
Well, "About Me" was the first installment of FAQ Friday b/c, you know, it's the most basic question: "Who is this chick?" And I think I shed some light on this important and thought-provoking subject. This Friday coming up, I think I'm going to tackle an almost equally burning question: "Who are these people Adrienne's always talking about?"
Posted by: Adrienne at January 24, 2005 09:45 PM
Oh....oops! For some reason, there wasn't any entry for Friday when I looked. Honest.
Posted by: Sabrina at January 27, 2005 12:52 PM