Summer Snapshots Wednesday, Jul 15 2009

Dropping in to fill you in and to dust away the ghost poo and to say: I hope you are having a great summer! 

The ALA was great.  29,000 attended reports PW. I signed a hundred copies of The Unbreakable Child in about an hour.  A few hiccups but nothing major.  I packed miss-matched heels.  So how hard is it to find a Chicago shoe store in x amount of time?  Heh, don’t. even. ask.  I arrived at the convention center and was directed to the wrong distributor/publishing group.  I was chatting it up with Ingram Pearson Group INSTEAD of IPG. EEP!  Ingram was great and they led dragged me to my booth.  I was three minutes late and a line had formed.

Immediately got down to business.  The librarians and educators were awesome!  And, I found many teens are reaching for my book. They were saHweet and adorable.  IPG was wonderful and helpful!

Met my purgy, bootay shakin’ sister, author friend.  Nice

Met a cool reporter.  Nice.

Learned a lot.  Nice.

Stalked  Met Neil Gaiman. SahWeet!

Friend, Chi baby, took me to Carmines.  We had a pasta dish, loaded with delicious seafood such as red snapper, salmon, octopus and shrimp.  And Chi baby had a special dessert: killer chocolate with a wicked-good raspberry sauce, delivered afterward to mark my ALA event.   :smoooches to Chi baby:

I’ve been able to give a little time to Habitat for Humanity. I came in on the final phase of this lovely house which was donated.  It was gutted out, and now houses a single mum, her mum, and her two children.  SahWeet Family–SahWeet House!  The half-broom and shovel was a reminder to self to buy HfH some dust pans and brooms.  The next house I’m working on starts from the ground up.  And I get to use the hammar.  Yay! …  And the power tools if the men let me. ; )

 

 

 

 

 

 

I’ve also been filling boxes (lots) for a group home for troubled teens, which I’ve promised.  There are 158 teens who desperately need and require many many teen items.  And many of the charities are suffering due to our recession. So, I’ve been trying to be creative by filling the boxes with journals, teen books, lipstick, hair accessories etc. I’ve met the teens and they are smart– beautiful, and although they have been severely abused, they are thriving in a caring environment. They love to knit, garden, wear make -up, read and just be a teen. They sew and handcraft beautiful blankets, then donate them to the mission houses, amongst but a few. There is a small ’boutique’ on the grounds. The teens earn pretend money, and then are allowed to go into the ’boutique’ where they can shop and purchase donated items. The shop is sorely lacking …

Happy summer to you, peeps!  I miss you — each and every one of you!!  

Did I tell you I love you today, huh?!

What’s playn’ on my ipod:  Eve, Kevin Moore Dream Theater