Saturday at ALA

Why do I do these when I'm so tired?

Woke, breakfast (banana/ oatmeal cookie -- my traditional travel breakfast), Saw my family off to American Girl Place and headed to the convention center. Hmm, contrary to Betsy Bird's Blog, it was bright and sunny when I walked there. She must have gone to the convention center waaaay earlier than me. (It was so bright that the next time I walked, I wore my new sun hat.)

Discovered the two meetings I intended to attend weren't at all as expected, so I went down to the Exhibit floor. Where I managed to snag an Unshelved cloth bag and some goodies from Penguin -- only available to the first 100 people.

Examined a good many major publishers offerings, plus some of the minor ones. Saw Groundhog Day on display with an empty holder beside it. The owner of the company was at the booth. He assured me the Halloween book had been there this morning. I guess someone snagged it. We had a nice talk.

Although the library isn't paying for this ALA trip, I still feel obgligated to attend a good many meetings. But I made a few wrong choices today. For example -- I got all excited about one that said it was about Wordless books. But it turned out to be about adult Graphic novels presented by a professor who teaches the history of comic books. I skipped out of that and caught the end of the Reader's Theatre presentation. Spent the next hour trying to see how it could be used in a public library. School librarians in the audience loved it. Much debate about how to guide or model the procedure. Interesting.

Then I caught the bus to the Disney Grand Californian. We bloggers were invited to party with the Feiwel and Friends publishers in a suite there overlooking part of Disneyland. (the California Adventure part) Very nice people. As our time came to a close, the room filled up with important librarians and some of the Feiwel and Friends authors. We bloggers moved our party to an Italian resturant and talked until 9 pm.

What about the family members who visited the American Girl Store. They called me several times on the cell phone discussing which doll to buy. The older grandchild settled on Elizabeth, Felicity's friend. And the younger grandchild (who is dog crazy and whose family raises dogs) now has the dog, Coconut clutched in her sleepy fingers. Both girls are presently wearing the PJs that match those of the American Girl, Julie. Yes, they are pinkaholicks, so of course they wanted the pink PJs for themselves.

They then went over to the movie theatre to watch the world premier of Kit, An American Girl movie. Not only did they enjoy the movie, but they were given Kit t-shirts for themselves AND their doll plus other doll clothes.

It's only 11 pm here, but I think I'll sign off now. For video adventures of happenings at this ALA go to Betsy Bird's Blog. She's determined to videoblog the whole thing. I'm sure she videotaped the Feiwel and Friends party. Betsy wore a red dotted sundress to the event. If you see another red dress in her video, that's me.
-wendieO