Book Expo ADVENTURES!

Remember how I used to write here? Oh, those were the days!!

I'm planning to HOPEFULLY get back into that groove very, very soon. Very. But for the moment, I want to tell you about my travel adventures!

I attended Book Expo America in NYC this past week for work, and while I find flying to be one of my least favorite activities, I do have to say I did have an entertaining time.

My job was to tend to our booth, answer questions, direct people where they need to be directed and give/take business cards. Well, a gentleman sidled up to the booth looking for international distribution of his novel, but unfortunately, we do everything internally, and don't work with outside authors. Well, it was towards the end of the day, and I was curious so I asked him about his novel and learned that it is a western romance novel. And then? He gifted me with a copy.

AND THEN? I asked him to sign it, and he graciously complied.

So now, I am the proud owner of a signed copy of my very first western romance. And I'm gonna read the SHIT out of it.

Other than that the show was mostly uneventful. I enjoy attending trade shows and conferences, it makes life a little more interesting and I do end up learning a lot.

I was all set to fly home on Wednesday. My flight was at 10am (NYC time) and arrive home 2ish hours later, well I got to the airport WAY too early (which is fine, I prefer that) at 7:30am, and when I looked at the board a TON of flights to Chicago were delayed/cancelled, so I texted my mom and found out Chicago was being beaten on by terrible weather. At that time my flight was still on schedule.
Nervously, I kept checking, and it stayed on schedule. So I made myself comfortable.
20 minutes before boarding, I checked again. It was delayed an hour.
And then another hour.
And then another hour.
And then another 15 minutes
And then the fire alarm in the airport went up as I was dozing off. And then I had a heart attack, and died. Not really, but I might as well have.
And then I was delayed another half hour.
I finally got on the plane at 1:45pm NY time.
And then we sat on the tarmac.
Then we taxied to the runway.
And then we sat.
And sat.
And then the captain said that we were waiting for a reroute.
And THEN we took off, and the captain told us that we were going to have to go up through Canada (I waved!) and come to Chicago from the north. So the flight was (I THINK) an hour-ish longer than it should have been.
I landed, life was good, and I got on the monorail-y tram that takes me to my parking lot.
AND THEN the tram comes to a stop, in the middle of the tracks, and they make an announcement that we're having technical difficulties.
At this point I am just laughing and laughing, because this can't be real!
And we sat there for about a half hour waiting for a technician to board and fix it.
All the while, I'm stuck on this tram with a guy in real estate who is having a screaming match with his office.
AND THEN I got to my car at about 5pm, and had to drive home in rush hour traffic.

It was a ridiculous ending to a hilarious trip.

Books and Tattoos

First things first - Mike and I are going on a Ghost Tour this evening! And I am OMG-level excited. We're HUGE fans of Ghost Adventures on the Travel Channel. It's our ghost show of choice.

Secondly - My work BFF had her last day yesterday, and she's moving on to greener pastures. I am TERRIBLE with goodbyes. I cry like a baby. And yesterday? It was no different. She was set to leave at 2pm, and starting at ten minutes to 2, my eyes were watering, I was sniffling, and it only got worse as I heard her walking around saying goodbye to people. When she walked into my cube to peace out - I lost my shit. Overall, it was funny because I'm ridiculous and apologized, but I'm still straight up bummed that I she's outta here.

And FINALLY - the reason I decided to write a post...Books. And tattoos.

In my fantasy world, I would be able to get a full or half sleeve tattoo, and this tattoo would be my literary collage. Among the images I would hope to include: The Hogwarts crest, the lamppost from Narnia, the apple from The Giver, Roald Dahl images, Shel Silverstein images, etc...It would be almost entirely black and white line drawings, with splashes of color where appropriate. Goddamnit, I want this.

I was driving in to work today, thinking again about how AWESOME this tattoo would be if I were to someday get it, I started thinking about what other books, poems and short stories I would try to include - Time Traveler's Wife, Water for Elephants, Geek Love, Chuck Palahniuk, A Clockwork Orange, Lolita, Margaret Atwood - and I went on Goodreads to check out some of my other favorite books, and I've realized that MOST books end up being my favorite books.

40% of the books I've reviewed on Goodreads have received 5 stars from me...because I think authors are AMAZING. I could never be one, and people who do it, and are successful ASTOUND me. I've NEVER been able to review a book well, because unless it's extremely poorly written I usually have very few complaints - because THEY DID IT. They slaved to write a beautiful story, create background information, and in fantasy/sci-fi/etc sometimes create an ENTIRE universe. And who am I to judge?
(This paragraph does not extend to faux-authors like Lauren Conrad, The Situation, Heidi/Spencer - BARF.)

I just LOVE books. And I'm currently re-reading Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows to mentally prepare for November 19th! Although, I feel like NO amount of preparation could make me truly ready.

What are your favorite books OF ALL TIME?