BEA Wrap Up Post - FINALLY

BEA. Oh BEA. How I miss you daily. I feel like I've been avoiding writing this post in the hopes that if I put it off I could pretend my blogging friends (new and old) were still in my city. Alas, as each day passes and I find myself no where near the Javits every morning, I guess I have to admit its over. And also, if I don't write my recap now I'm going to start forgetting specifics and NO ONE wants me to forget the specifics...

DAY 1: BLOGGER CONFERENCE

Oh yeah, you heard me, blogger conference. On Wednesday morning I ventured over to the Javits for the very first time (I may live in NYC, but why the heck would I be at the Javits?). Was the blogger conference itself fun? Nooooot so much. Some of the morning panels were interesting but by the afternoon I was ready to leave (and I did. Just one panel early, I promise). 

So why was blogger con GREAT, even though the panels were just meh? Well, I went into blogger panel not really knowing anyone (oops). So. I basically got there, saw a group of four girls carrying "I Read YA" totes and FOLLOWED (they seemed like a likely bunch). Who are these 4 girls who saved me from sitting all alone (no friends, no friends) that morning? Katie, Jen, Lindsey and Steph. AKA the loveliest people ever. And just so you guys know, meeting them wasn't just amazing because they were so nice to me and let me sit with them, but ALSO because then I knew more people on the floor over the next few days - which sounds less exciting than it feels, but it IS exciting, I promise. 

I also met April, Alison, Jamie, Tara, Asheley and more that day, which brought me extreme joy because, I've said probably a million times by now, my FAVORITE PART of all of this blogging stuff is meeting other bloggers. So woohoo! Also, a special woohoo to Tara and Asheley whose lunch I crashed. I'd spilled diet coke all over myself so to say I was a hot mess they took pity on is an understatement. 

Anyway, after ALL of this, I went home, changed and hopped over to the Teen Author Carnival where I met up with Alexa, Betty, Kelly, Elena, Rachel, Rachel and many more. I think I'm just going to let the pictures speak for themselves. Mostly because I have no pictures to go with anything I mentioned above.

<3 Betty

And then found Sarah Maas and took a picture for my friend Lexi.

DAY 2: WELCOME TO THE JAVITS

Another reason I blogger con was REALLY great for me was because it let me get the lay of the Javits land. I got my pass a day early and was ale to scope out the situation. So come day 1 I was as prepared as I was going to get. Which, in all honestly, wasn't all that prepared. But I did find Lili and Gillian pretty quickly. Gillian and I had spent Tuesday afternoon with Christina so we were already acquainted and I was SUPER excited to meet Lili because, we'll, you guys know I love ARCycling right? I've only mentioned once or a million times. 

Anyway, I quickly lost Lili and Gillian. We each had different priorities and game plans and since we all take BEA super seriously no one took anything personally when we split up. BECAUSE THAT'S JUST HOW BLOGGERS ROLL DURING BEA. Anyway, soon after that I ran into Elena and we proceeded to spend the morning together - which included BEA MadLibs and getting into Diana Peterfreund's line and grabbing a signed ARC of Across the Sar Swept Sea.

And then the rest of the day was a blur of book grabbing, not eating because I was ACTUALLY always moving, making new friends (HI ANNA AND TARA AND STEPH!) and running into "old" ones (AKA ones I'd either met the day before or people that I talk to all the time on Twitter but only just had the chance to meet). 

THEN. ON THURSDAY NIGHT.

Thursday night I started off at the Rainbow Rowell event, which was amazing because A) I love Rainbow Rowell and 2) SHE REMEMBERED A TWITTER INTERACTION WE HAD. Ok. So you MIIIIGHT have already heard this story but basically my friends decided I look JUST LIKE Rainbow and so I tweeted at her and she was like "No you're prettier" and I was like "NOOOOO." And then I met her that Thursday night and she was all: "You actually look more like my grandmother she was young - we could be sisters, maybe we're related" (that's not a direct quote, my brains just short circuiting remembering how flattered I was by this whole situation). Then we too pictures. You know. For you guys to weigh in on the situation.

SO?

Anyway, I had to leave THIS party early because the great, lovely, wonderful, fantastic, etc. Liza got me a last minute invite to her ROOFTOP PARTY. This is another moment where I'm going to have to let pictures do the talking.

But seriously, special mention and hugs to Katelyn, who I spent the whole night with, Liza, Jeremy and Jeffrey West, Adam, Katie and probably like a million other people for making that night so fantastically fantastic. 

DAY 3: BACK TO THE JAVITS

Aaaaand it's time for another enormously long day at the Javits. It was on this day that my body was like "WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING WOMAN?" Thursday at the Javits was LONG and then I went to a party and didn't get home until midnight so when I dragged myself out of bed at like 6:30am after going to bed at 1:30am to get ready for the CHILDREN'S AUTHOR BREAKFAST I really thought I was going to die.

But honestly, the whole thing was so worth it, I can't even.

RICK RIORDAN

I'd learned from my mistakes and actually ate my lunch in a timely fashion. I also did a lot more sitting when waiting in line. And I put my bag down a lot more. I made the conscious decision NOT to bring a roll-y suitcase with me on any of the BEA days and that MIGHT have been the wrong decision, but I didn't want to bring home TOO many books and no roll-y bag encouraged me to only take what I really wanted. Which just meant I grabbed 20 books each day instead of 30.

Anyway, I think I caved and left on Friday a bit early. I grabbed all the books I wanted and I was so tired I wasn't even bouncing anymore (check with everyone linked in this post. I was Tigger on Thursday and DEAR GOD IT WAS FUN).

 So I went home and took a nap and slept RIGHT THROUGH the blogger picnic, which I wanted to be at, but yeah. I was so tired. So. Tired.

DAY 4: THE HOME STRETCH.

I got there a little later because I was SO FREAKING TIRED. I actually biked down for multiple reasons which ended up being really fun and great for my back because I have a basket on said bike (YAY LIVING IN MANHATTAN). But I went back to grab an ARC of A Darkness Strange and Deadly by Susan Dennard, which I won through a raffle the day before. And to grab The Dream Thieves by Maggie Stiefvater. I ended up getting a bunch of other things, including a *book shimmy* shirt from the Epic Reads ladies - that wheel was so much fun I don't even know what to tell you guys.

So after spinning the Epic Reads wheel, I ran into Sarah Maas, Susan Dennard, Erin Bowman, Kat Zhang, Jeremy and Jeffrey West, Elena, Alexa, Mitali and I don't even know who else. We all just stood around and talked for like an hour, which I loved because making friends and talking is my favorite thing ever.

Then I hopped on my bike and went home and BEA was over.

*CRIES*

PS: In case you wanted to check out my other BEA posts...

• BEA BLOGGER SLAM BOOK
• STACKING THE SHELVES: BEA EDITION

Fact: I still miss all of my blogging friends. PLEASE COME BACK TO ME. NOW PLEASE. NOW. Did you see me during BEA? No? Yes? Were you there? Do you wanna go next year? I will be there, so let's start planning.