22 May 2016

BEA Spotlight: The People

I was very happy to get the chance to go to BEA this year. I went way back in 2010 - aka Pre-Kid Years - when I was in full blogging mode, and I fully intended on making it a yearly trip. Then the hubby and I decided to have some babies and that sort of took over my life between two miscarriages and then two pregnancies resulting in two small, needy children. Now the youngest is one and I'm ready to get back into the swing of things, and lucky me, BEA was in Chicago, a mere one hour drive (assuming no traffic) from where I live.

And even luckier me, I was finally going to meet some of my long-time blogging buddies: the awesome Jill of Rhapsody in Books and the equally awesome Sandy of (the blog formerly known as) You've Gotta Read This. Both of these women rock my world, and I was so happy to finally meet them after years of online stalking blogging romance friendship.

I also was lucky enough to meet up with Candace of Beth Fish Reads and Sheila of Book Journey, and I briefly saw Kim of Sophisticated Dorkiness, Florinda of 3R's Blog, and a handful of other bloggers that I'm not going to name because I just know I'm forgetting people.

For the first time, my real life people and my online people met. A fellow English teacher from my college, Jenny, came with me to BEA and meshed perfectly with the bloggers. Jenny and I also attended BookCon on Saturday. After three days of BEA and one day of BookCon, the two of us have reading material for the next five years. Posts on the books forthcoming.

I, sadly, took no pictures of this inspiring meeting of the minds. One picture I did get, however, is the following:

Believe it or not, that is my freshman year roommate Ann, a person I have not seen or had any contact with since 1998 when I left Illinois Wesleyan University to attend DePaul University after only a semester. That's right people NINETEEN NINETY EIGHT. Otherwise known as the last century. I remember quite a bit about our time together - she was (and is) a kind and interesting person - but what I remember the most is her passion for Buffy the Vampire Slayer and her creativity, both of which I very much appreciated then and now.

Our BEA meeting was quite random: I was coming back to the floor after my second book drop in the car, happily eating a banana, when the lovely woman holding open the door for me suddenly said, "Trisha?!?". Strange coincidence I tell you.

Speaking of bananas, I had an incident with a banana on Friday. I always carry one in my purse - I'm a mom - and it accidentally fell on the bathroom floor. The peeling was still perfectly in tact but I just couldn't bring myself to keep and eat the in-my-mind-disgustingly-tainted banana, so I threw it away. Many people I have told this story to said they would have peeled and eaten it. You?

Now I've told you a bit about the people I was privileged enough to spend some time with at BEA, so over the next week or so, I'll regale you with the books!

21 comments:

  1. So glad you got to go back to BEA this year! Like you, I've missed it -- those days of 2010 (last BEA for me, too) seem so far away now, don't they?

    Sounds like you had a wonderful time connecting and re-connecting with so many people in your life.

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    1. Seriously 2010 is a lifetime ago it seems. At least it's two kids ago which makes it a completely different time of my life.

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  2. Ah, mixed feelings about the banana. I think I would have done as you did but felt guilty about it.

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    1. I did feel guilty about it for the rest of the day! But I just couldn't bring myself to eat it.

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  3. That poor banana never stood a chance once it brushed the bathroom floor. I'm pretty lenient when it comes to the 5 second rule, but bathroom floors. Yick. I'm with you, but it totally would have made me sad!

    Glad to hear you had an excellent time at BEA - I look forward to growing my wish list when you regale us with books!

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    1. I hope to get posts about the books up this week. I've been so busy this week that they are still in piles on the floor.

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  4. Definitely. Would have eaten it anyway! :) Jealous of your attending BEA and BookCon, but anxious to see what books you managed to haul home with you! :)

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    1. You are awesome. I wish I could have eaten that banana. And my bookish haul is quite mixed and quite large. I'm hoping to get posts up this week.

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  5. BEA sounds so funnnnnnn, I wish I'd been able to go! As for the banana -- hm. I believe I'd have done the same thing you did. Even when it fell on a bathroom floor, the peel still protected it, but still, as an ideological matter, I'd have felt weird about eating it after it had been on the bathroom floor.

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    1. While I felt guilty about throwing it away all day, I think if I had eaten it, I would have worried about getting a nasty disease all day.

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  6. Time flies by, Trisha! I can't believe your baby is one now! I'm glad you had such a great time at BEA. I don't eat bananas (too sweet), but if I did, that one would've ended up in the trash.

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    1. I'm trying to picture a world in which I don't eat bananas... :)

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  7. It's been since that wonderful 2010 BEA for me, too, and I hope to go back again soon. I'm so glad you got to go and I can't wait to hear about the books you got. What a crazy thing meeting up with your old friend like that!!

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    1. Fingers crossed we both get to go next year. :)

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  8. I missed so many of you at BEA in 2010--I didn't go to my first until 2011, Sorry we didn't get to do more than wave at each other this year, but glad your return to BEA went so well!

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    1. This year was strange for me as I was commuting in every day so I was missing all the social events! Next year, fingers crossed.

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  9. That's so cool about you and Ann! Also, BEA is but a dream for me. I'm so glad you got to go again.

    And just the thought of the banana touching the floor weirds me out. I'm pretty sure that after peeling it, I would've still been seeing it on that bathroom floor. YUCK.

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    1. I didn't even make it to the peeling stage. I looked at it on the floor and thought "not a chance" so right into the garbage it went.

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  10. It was great! I'm fond of reading but I didn't like analyse the books because I couldn't explain my thoughts. But http://college-writers.com/ helped me with it and I had no bad marks and I could enjoy reading. :)

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  11. Nope. I don't think I could have eaten the banana either.

    That is awesome about meeting your college friend. Talk about a small world!

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  12. I wish we had run into each other more often than just the one time! And you braved BookCon? It looked like a lot of fun authors, but I can't quite handle the crowds for that.

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Talk to me baby!