Last week was the best week of my bookish life! I was in New York City for Book Expo America (BEA), which is the largest publishing event in North America. On Sunday I boarded a $15 bus to NYC and took this crappy picture:

This is like the worst picture of NYC ever taken.

I stayed in a hostel on the Upper West Side and it was great! Hands down, the best place to stay when you’re traveling alone is a hostel. It’s cheap and everyone is looking to have a good time.

Javits Center

So, BEA was in the Javits Center on the Hudson River. Yes, my finger is blocking the upper left corner. I’m bad at pictures, k? The Javits is HUGE. Seriously, I got lost. Inside.

Monday was the blogger conference. I got there an hour early because I was so excited and so afraid of being late. The blogger conference was like 95% women! All bloggers! The morning speaker was Jennifer Weiner. A super famous author and blogger/tweeter. Love love her! She was very funny and encouraging. The Bloggess spoke in the afternoon and she was awesome. Basically, the whole conference was a total lovefest.

Tuesday morning I was up early for BEA. It was a mad house. Seriously, I was warned to be careful what books I picked up because it would be hard to carry everything. Let me tell you, that was not everyone’s strategy. People were swarming stands with free galleys and grabbing without even looking. I was that annoying person who picks the book up, stands close by and reads the back before taking it.

This is BEA. It was crazy packed.

At the end of the first day this was all I had. I did so well! Only 18 books!

The books I got on day one.

Then I met some famous people:

TIM GUNN. He’s totes the nicest celebrity on the planet/in the fashion world. He told me to “make it work.” Typical Tim.

Me and the infamous David Thorne from 27bslash6.com. He told me not to post this picture if it was bad, but I think I look rather nice.

I also met Sarah MacLean but I failed to get a picture with her :( I also failed to get a picture with one of my favorite bloggers Dead White Guys. I was waiting in line to get my copy of The Art Forger signed and I saw this woman who looked super familiar and I was like O.M.G. is that? That is. That’s Dead White Guys—and my brain totally blanked on her actual name. When she walked by I was like “Aren’t you Dead White Guys?” and she was all “Yea!” and I was like “I looooooove your blog”. I could feel people looking at us and I started blushing because all I could seem to say was I love your blog. *Crickets* It was supes embarrassing. But she was so nice about it and we’re twitter buds now.

All my books from BEA. Only a little damp.

Now for the grand finale: On my way to the bus station to come back to Boston, I broke off one of the wheels on my roll-y bag while I was dragging it up the stairs in the train station. I just stuck it back on and hoped for the best. When I got into Boston it was pouring rain. I was carrying a bag that probably weighed about 70 pounds on top of the roll-y bag with one bunk wheel. And I took the train the whole way (because I didn’t want to brave the bus with a broken bag), so I was about a mile from my house when I got off the green line. I tried to get a cab and the driver was like “I’m going the other way” and I was like “BRO it’s freaking raining and I’m a damsel in distress. What the shit? Also, I’ll tip you.” But he wasn’t having it, so I walked home in the rain very worried that my books would all be soaked. And every time I hit a bump, I swirled around and was like “Is my wheel still there?!”

The End.