The City So Nice, They Named It Twice

Hello from New York City!  Rosie and I made it to the Big Apple relatively unscathed.  She forgot her Kindle (OMG!!!!) and My Man got himself in a car accident on his way back home after dropping me off at the airport.  The good news is that Rosie has something else to read, and My Man escaped the accident unharmed.  His car?  Uh, another story entirely.  But needless to say I spent most of yesterday worried out of my mind about him.

After all that excitement, I was greeted at JFK by my limo driver.  Yes, limo driver.  Apparently being Librarian of the Year makes me pretty hot stuff!  It also means that I got my flippin' registration bag EARLY!  It was waiting for me upon check-in.  Behold!  That little blue flip dealie is actually book light, and I'm guessing the weird Harlequin pouch is some sort of eco-friendly water bottle?  But yeah, that's the swag.  In other news, the conference tote is very nice, as are the name badge holders.

After I got checked-in, Rosie and I met for a quick bite to eat and drink downstairs.  There we ran into Magdalen and SarahT (who had just arrived from Switzerland and boy was she jet-lagged!).  We had a nice nosh, a few drinks and lovely conversation.  Always good to chat with fellow bloggers and romance addicts.

When I got back upstairs, what did my little eyes spy?  Another goodie for being Queen Librarian of the Universe!  This lovely bottle of wine.  Which I couldn't drink because I'd already had my limit.  So I saved it for tonight, and I'm enjoying it now while typing this blog post.

Today was my one totally free day, so I was able to catch-up with my former college roommate, who lives in Queens, and who I haven't seen in 10+ years!  Patty was totally up for doing "tourist-y" stuff, so we made the trip to the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island.  We only did a few little parts of Ellis Island, because holy cow, my legs were jello by that point - but it was still a really great day.  Oh, and the tourists!  I told My Man, I know we live in California.  I mean, it's not like we live in White Bread, U.S.A. - but the international flavor of this city is really a trip.  I heard more languages spoken today then I think I have in my whole life.

After a nice healthy dinner of pizza and cheesecake, I'm back in my hotel room - soaking up the outrageously priced wifi and chillin' with my wine, Rosie, Nath, and Nathie's sister.  On tap for tomorrow?  Not sure yet.  I suspect Rosie and I might end up in Central Park, and then it's the first Blogger Bar Bash in the evening.  I'm going to do my best to blog every single day - and hopefully I won't do my usual RWA madness, which is blogging at 2AM (seriously, I've done that more than I care to admit).  I also plan on taking more pictures.  These are just a small sampling.  Want to see more?  Keep an eye on the special album I created on my Flickr account.