Halfway Through My YA Lit Religious Experience

I went into NYC today to attend the ALAN workshop, "Helping Teens Discover a Sense of Self and Place Through Young Adult Literature." When I walked into the Marriott Times Square and went up to the 5th floor ballroom area to check in, they forked over a good-size cardboard box full of books -- hardcover, paperback, both brand new titles and older titles, and even some pre-pub reviewer copies of the newest books. All told it looks like about $250-300 worth of books! What a great "thanks for coming" gift! There were different book combinations in every box, so you weren't guaranteed to get any particular authors or books, but everyone got enough to get autographs from the authors who were there. (I got a bunch!)

Talk about heaven!

I sat with a couple hundred other English teachers, librarians and media specialists to hear a host of YA authors talk about their books and what they see as important with kids and reading. There were some new authors I wasn't familiar with, like the keynote speaker, Sherman Alexie. He was hilarious and a phenomenal speaker. I thoroughly enjoyed listening to him. His book The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian was awarded the National Book Award for the YA category last night. Chris Crutcher came up next, and had me in tears one minute and cheering like hell the next. All day, we had Brian Selznick, Peter Sis, Christopher Myers, Jacqueline Woodson, Patricia McCormick, Ben Mikaelson, Gloria Whelan, Holly Black, Lauren Myracle, Helen Frost, T.A. Barron, David Lubar (who came to speak even though today is his 30th anniversary -- he has quite the understanding wife!), Pete Hautman, and many other new authors, poets and playwrights. It was an amazing, exhausting day, and I loved it. And tomorrow is equally promising (but will be less exhausting as I will only be hauling in the books for the authors who are speaking tomorrow). Tons of notes, lots of great quotes on reading and writing. The ALAN presenters were also great -- went to a breakout session on encouraging reluctant readers that was a lot of fun.
Time to go crash... it's back on the train and the subway tomorrow. This is one of those things that is fun for a day or two but If I had to make that trip every day I would be miserable. Glad I don't have to!

The Drama Queen and the Shopping Deity

Drama Queen is still sick today -- worse than yesterday, so I was glad I took the day off to stay home with her. The Boy's class went to the bookfair today, and I had promised him earlier in the week that I would come and meet him there, so as DQ seemed to be perking up a bit, we bundled into Big Bertha and off we went to the bookfair. She was good for about 20 minutes there, and then we came home, where she had a few sips of warm apple cider and promptly passed out on the sofa for a couple hours (definitely not normal at 10:30 am). While she was sleeping, I was twelve feet away, doing over a grand's worth of damage to FIL's Mastercard. Or, should I say, earning him all kinds of gambling bonus points by using his card... Figuring out what went with what to create outfits for the kids was the most pain in the ass part, beyond the fact that they had no pink snowpants to go with Beloved Niece's jacket so had to get her cream ones (jacket is pink and cream colored). Why in the hell does ANYONE make white or off-white snowpants for kids??? Ridiculous, but nothing else came even close to coordinating.

Anyway, the Fantastic Four are taken care of for outwear and clothes and pjs for Christmas, and all but two of the rest are taken care of (didn't hear back about sizes for the twins yet, so that's on hold). All that's left are stocking stuffers and toys for the girls, but UM and I will head off to KidMecca (aka Toys R Us) one weeknight sometime soon and get that squared away.

Christmas Is Coming, The Mama's Getting Fat

Well, maybe not technically fat yet, but I'm getting the "let's hibernate for the winter" vibe from my innards. Thank God for sweaters.
The annual physical is coming up the week after Thanksgiving. Have to remember to schedule that business for July next time -- having a cholesterol test five days after Thanksgiving is probably one of my stupider moves. Jimmy's going to harass me about going on Lipitor for sure now. That'll be a fun conversation.
Started the Christmas shopping with a pajama binge for the Fantastic Four. UM says he has the "boy" gifts taken care of but needs help with the "girl" gifts. FIL announced he does not want to shop at all this year and has dumped it in our laps, along with his MasterCard. I am officially in charge of all clothing gifts, stocking stuffers, and gifts for the grandkids of the four closest friends and relations (there are 14 in that category). Thats quite the arsenal of online orders -- Lands End is going to make a small fortune off this project.
We haven't discussed grownup gifts yet this year -- not sure how that's going to go.
Drama Queen is battling a cold and stayed home with Daddy today, but she was better tonight. Hopefully she will be okay in the morning and I can go to work... left sub plans just in case, though.

Last day of the first marking period, so far I have one set of psychotic parents and one student who didn't fall far from the tree, a mild sinus infection, a half-day of staff development that I seem to be fully responsible for (for the building) coming up on Tuesday, and Hubby doesn't seem to think he needs to take the day off then (when we have no child care for both children and it's been on the calendar for three months).
I would very much like to go drive off a cliff right now.
No, really.

Okay, maybe that's just another pipe dream to make me feel momentarily better, but I'M STILL HAVING IT, GODDAMMMIT.

Oh, and add that my FIL's girlfriend had surgery yesterday, he called to tell us she was doing okay, and then last night he went to the hospital with chest pains. WTF. According to the ER doc in Jersey, he has indigestion. I talked to him today and told him he WOULD be going to the cardiologist when he got home. He argued with me about that (actually made me feel better -- if he had agreed to it immediately I would have driven down there tonight), but one way or the other he will get in and get that done and go see his GP also.

I hate being the uber-mama in this family some days. Today qualifies.