The NJ Recap

I survived my first convention. No it wasn't a sci-fi convention, though I will admit to attending one of those in my reckless misspent youth. The things you people drag out of me. It's embarrassing! *sheesh*

Anyway, back to NJ. My roommate and I arrived a little early and got checked in to the conference though it was too early to check in to the hotel. I attended several workshops, including the first timers which was mainly commonsense advice and reminders not to be a mean girl.

I didn't get as much out of the workshops on Friday that I did on Saturday, but the presenters were nice. I do realize it's hard to teach a teacher, so I always try to cut presenters some slack.

Friday night after the awards ceremony, I hit the bar and met some very nice people.*waves to Carla, et al* Which I have to admit was my goal for this conference. They were from the Valley Forge RW, which is my old stomping ground. They may be contacting me to give my self defense workshop.

I didn't get back to the room until about 11:30, wrote for 50/50 and fell into bed after messing around with the hotel supplied alarm clock that was not very easy to set. (In my next post I will go explain how on this night approximately one hundred people and I met in the lobby of the hotel at the obscene hour of four am.)

I learned more from the workshops I attended Saturday, and was happy with all the free books we got. I attended the book signing, and bought one book which is one more than I was planning to.

Then it was time to hit the road after a sleepless night and a full day of workshops. It poured down rain during the first part of the three hour drive home. (a three hour tour. a three hour tour) All the traffic on the turnpike was slowed down to about 35 mph for a while.

But I had a really nice time. Unfortunately the urchins are sick again. So I won't have much time to put into practice some of the things I learned while it's fresh in my mind. But all in all I'm very glad I got to go.