BEA - My Adventure

It's still hard to believe that BEA was almost a month ago ago. I keep reliving the week over again in my head :) I had such a wonderful wonderful time! It really was just as amazing as everyone said it would be. The books! The people! I was pretty much in heaven!

I've heard that in years past the Exhibit hall was open 3 days - this year it was 2 and even though I have never been, it did seem like the schedule was pretty packed. I have heard it through the grape vine that next year they will be going back to the 3 day format. Mark your calendars!

BEA 2011

May 23 - May 26

This year, I went to BEA all three days - although Tuesday the Exhibit hall wasn't open. What I did do was get my Press Pass - which made me feel very cool. I was pretty nervous but soon after meeting these three great ladies, I felt right at ease - Eleni from La Femme Readers, Taschima from Bloody Bookaholic and Jennifer from Reading with Tequila.

We hung out at the Jacob Javits Center for a while and then after Jennifer headed home, Eleni, Taschima and I took a trip to The Strand. It was awesome! Made me pretty happy I don't live in NY anymore because I know I would spend way too much time there if I did.

Wednesday was the day things really got started! Eleni and I met at Penn Station and found Sherry of Flipping Pages for All Ages. The Jacob Javits Center was hopping! People everywhere! We found Jennifer (who was there way eariler then us and scored me some tickets to some supper cool author signings! Thanks Jenn!). We also met up with Lexi of Poisoned Rationality and later in the day I met Sandy from Pirate Penguin Reads. The day was full of author signings, sore shoulders, frantic text messages and books everywhere! There were some pretty funny moments and some awesome ones too! The above mentioned bloggers really made my day!

Oh - and in case you didn't know - I'm a HUGE dork and one of the few pictures I managed to snag was this one:

Oh yeah - that would be Jason and Grant from Ghost Hunters. I was in heaven!

Wednesday night was a little crazy for me. Because, even though I have been ridding the Long Island Railroad my whole life I manged to buy the wrong ticket, get on the wrong train AND get off at the wrong station :) My dad managed to find me though and I made it home safe and sound with all my books!

Thursday morning I almost couldn't get out of bed...but there was no way I wasn't going back! A little less crazy then Wednesday - a few less people (maybe?) but deffinatly less author signings. 

I did get these awesome signed books though:

Thursday night was the Book Bloggers Convention meet and greet. (it probably had an actual name but I can't remember it! ). It was pretty cool though. There was a bunch of bloggers, and a bunch of publishers, authors and publisitcs. Oh - and there was a guy with a puppy! (He wrote a book about a dog...so it kinda made sense). Before the meet and greet was halfway over, Jenn and I realized we were way too tired to mingle and took a break sitting at a back table. Apparently it was the cool place to be because tons of people came over to talk to us :) Oh yeah, we were the cool kids that night!

Even though I was very tired, my night wasn't over yet. Eleni and I went out to dinner with the fabulous Jacquelyn Wheeler! If you haven't checked out her Soterians Series - you should! She is the best and I'm so glad I met her! 

Friday was the Book Bloggers Convention - the first ever! I really didn't know what to expect but I'm really glad I went. I was pretty much wiped out by this point in the week but I did feel like I got a lot out of BBC, even if not all the panels pertained to me and my blog. I took a lot of notes and met a lot of people. If they hold it again next year, I'm deffinatly going.

So that was my adventure! So much more happened then I could possible bore you guys with :) but the one thing I am truely greatful for is the wonderful bloggy friends I got to meet! I can't wait to see them all again next year! You guys are the best!!!!

Lastly - I will leave you with a few pictures of the wonderful books and swag I got. Already posted these in a mailbox post a while back but I love looking at the lovely piles :)