I was a BEA zombie....Part the First

It was a dark and stormy night...(Sorry Mr. Schultz. I needed to create atmosphere.)


Getting ready for BEA was going to be easy peasy, or so I thought. I had, after all, gotten a lot of solicited advice from my friend Terri over at Alexia's Books and Such... I had a list. What one can accomplish as long as one has a list. List-havers can, dare I say it, take over the world. I dare. I was confident and prepared. But as so often happens, things do not often go according to my design.

I got stuck at work late and had to go to the gym after, so I didn't get home until about 7:30. I then had half an hour to feed the cat, feed myself and not much else before the Devils game at 8pm. They were facing elimination in the Stanley Cup finals and as much as it may have pained me, I had to watch. I had to know, see it with my own eyes. The unfortunate thing about hockey is if you blink, stuff happens and you miss it. Usually for me it is a goal. Perhaps I should blink more often. While watching the game, I had to finalize work stuff; send status reports and some emails. I was trying to get things ready in between the periods of the game. So much to do. I had to get the suitcase, figure out which tote bag to bring, what snacks would I take, what I was going to wear. I had to finalize lists for the next day, print. I had my list. I checked it twice. I had to do all this during two 20 minute intermissions.

The hockey gods were with me and the Devils staved off elimination to play another day.

The game got over quite late, about 10:30. Checked the list again. Checked on line for any last minute updates, found out what galleys were being given away. Thought about my suitcase. Thought about checking my suitcase and that I would be putting books in my checked suitcase and realized the one flaw in my plan. Did I have a lock for my luggage? Would my suitcase even accommodate a lock. Had to find out. Checked the suitcase and it did have a ring for a lock. One crisis averted only to be struck by another. Where in himmel were my luggage locks? I checked up in the attic, you know, the walk-in attic, past the manga and comics books and found the large suitcase for the green set of suitcases I wasn't taking. That suitcase had a lock on it. Awesome! Only problem was no key. Now where the frell did I put the key? I know I saw it recently, but I've been moving things around so much it could be anywhere. Thought it might be in the zipper part of my wallet. No. Perhaps my Badtz Maru wallet. Again, no. Where the devil did I put it? I had to stop and think and remembered that whenever I had small things turn up in the bedroom of my old apartment, like a paper clip or a safety pin, I would put the tiny bits in a see through plastic egg. Dug through my niece's room until I found a little black travel case I put bits and pieces in and lo and behold, there was the plastic egg. Dumping out the contents on my niece's bed, I found not one key but 5 and an extra two locks. After much cursing, I could finally breathe a sigh of relief.

Checked the list again. Mind you, there were only about 7 things on it: suitcase, water, snacks, camera, tote bag, comfortable shoes, phone, but I had to be sure I had everything. Finally shower time. I was as prepared as I could be. As I'm standing in the shower letting my mind wander, I realized I had forgotten to leave an out of office notice on my work email. Not many people knew I was taking the day off.  It was my first of the year.  I wouldn't want people to think I was ignoring them, although I do anyway. So, after I showered, I had to go back to my computer, log back in just so I can put on the out of office.

Since I had washed my hair, I didn't want to go to bed with wet hair. The day was too important and I have been known to get seriously wicked bed head. I did, after all, want to make a good impression. Now I had to blow dry my hair. It takes forever, because my hair is quite long. By the time I got it dry enough, it was already after midnight closing in on one am. Finally feeling confident enough, I hit the sack only to have visions of books dancing in my head all night.

I woke up before 5am feeling not at all refreshed. I hung out in bed wondering if I should get up, read a bit or try to go back to sleep.  As I was too tired to make any sort of decision, I finally dozed back off around 5:30 and was awoken to the 6am alarm. I shut it off, got back in bed and thought for a few about getting up. It was tough, but I finally convinced myself by telling myself I could run around the corner for a Dunkin Donuts iced tea if I just got up. I have enough time before Terri got there. That was all the persuasion I needed.

Got up and dressed, went downstairs and checked my list. Made sure I had everything. Went to DD to get that iced tea, came home and made my english muffin with swiss cheese breakfast sandwich and just waited. Terri was driving since I had driven us in to a cocktail party Monday night. When she finally got there, I dragged her inside to go over everything I had put in my suitcase to take. Thankfully I conferred with her before I closed everything up. She's a pro at this by now.  I ended up leaving an extra tote bag, my camera (had the one on my phone) and two short sleeve shirts in case I got too hot. I also left out my rubber bands for my hair which did prove to be a mistake. I grabbed everything else and we hit the highway. Other than some traffic, the ride was fairly uneventful and we even got on the ferry pretty quickly. A short ride and we were disembarking and making our way to the Javits Center. I had arrived.  (This is the part where I rip my hat off my head and throw it up into the air while uplifting music and corny lyrics with a positive message is playing.)