BEA 2016 Recap: Day 3 Friday!!

Hiya there peeps!

Back again with the final BEA recap post for Friday and my leaving on Saturday.

FRIDAY

Friday started as usual, waking up waaay too early (jet lag is getting old dammit) and it worked to my advantage this time since my plan was to go super early so I could line up at the ticked authors area to try and get tickets for the awesome Maggie Stiefvater! Nikki was 100% with me on that, so we headed early to the floor, leaving Katie & Angie to sleep in a lil after their late night.

After quite the wait, we got our tickets and joined the entry line where I once again chatted with my roomies, formed the plan, chatted with other bloggy friends and as soon as the doors opened we headed towards the Macmillan booth to ensure a ticket for Caraval's signing and as soon we got them, we headed to the line for Maggie's signing.

Meeting Maggie Stiefvater was one of my highlights of Friday itself and BEA, she's quite awesome and she was cackling with glee when I was telling her about my stress eating while reading The Raven King!

Once I got my signed hardcover of Raven King (damn, that means I need to collect all the US hardcovers now too, since I already have the UK paperbacks), I went to take a lil walk around here and there before heading for the line for Caraval!

Stephanie was absolutely lovely and she gave me a hug for my bloggy friend Kristen that couldn't attend BEA and for Roshani Chokshi! I got my ARC signed and I keep making all the grabby hands at it! Patience, I must learn patience! (and finish some eARCs I have started).

Then after that I had nothing till 1 PM for a drop of the Strange The Dreamer Sampler with swag, so decided to roam around.

And who did I meet while heading towards the Penguin booth to ask if Sabaa Tahir's signing would be ticketed? The ever so awesome and adorable Susan Dennard AND Amie Kaufman! Both recognized me and hugged me and we chatted a lil bit. I was so completely overwhelmed that I completely forgot to take pics with them both!! Photo proof or not, it's simply MADE MY DAY!!

I then returned to hang out with my bloggy friends while they waited for other books and it was the moment to TAKE ALL THE PICS!!

With Angie

With Sabrina

With Cassi, Nikki, Octavia & Michelle

With my dear Mel

Then my absentmindedness proved to be good for something because at what I thought was 20 to 1, I headed to the Hachette booth to see if they were forming a line for the drop and when I went to ask one of the ladies she handed me a ticket for the signing! My R2D2-with-no-numbers-watch had fooled me and it was quarter to 12! I got to be 4th in line, meet Laini Taylor and get my sampler & swag! Big thank you to the lady being me in line that was kind enough to take pics for me!

More roaming around happened, I went to check one of the  panels that were going on at the Downtown Stage and went to chat with Mel and she was chatting with David Arnold (author of Mosquitoland) that introduced himself and was super nice!

After that I went with Shelly to the hotel for a spell (it's so awesome to be able to just pop in and out like that) and then back to the floor, she went to Harlequin and I went to check the line for Sabaa Tahir that was already quite large! So I just sat there and prepared to wait for tickets first and then the actual signing!

I was lucky enough to have Cassi and Nikki dropping by to keep me company and saving my spot on the Gemina line that had already formed too! The wait was rather uneventful until I was getting quite close to the front of the line when I heard screaming coming from the other side of the Penguin booth, where the Gemina line had formed and I knew that Jay Kristoff had dropped by to visit!

So, once it was my turn, I met Sabaa, told her how much I had loved the first book, got my ARC of Torch Against The Night signed, Sabaa said she loved my leather cuff and I ran to the autographing area.

I had saved my First In Line Pass for the Kendare Blake signing of Three Dark Crowns, because I love her, she is awesome and I'm beyond excited for the book! I skipped the quite long line, hugged her, we made T-Rex arms, talked about the excitement for the book, got a pic taken and I smiled apologetically at the people waiting in line as I left.

And once again I power walked from the autographing area to the Penguin booth to the Gemina line and to meet Jay Kristoff! He's an awesome dude, gave me a hug and I told him I really had to get a photo with him because I had met Amie in the morning and had failed at that! He chatted with us people in the line, took pics and then made a video.

Yes, Jay Fucking Tall Kristoff!!

Then it was all a question of sitting there with roomies and bloggy friends to wait for 3 PM! While we waited my dear Britt said one of my most awesome things I've been told recently, she said "You make people happy, you make people smile" and she DID make me smile BIG! Miss you so much Britt!

Eventually 3 PM hit and I GOT MY HANDS ON THE BOOK I WAS NOT LEAVING THE COUNTRY WITHOUT!

After that most of my roomies were going back to the hotel but I wanted to go the panel with Susan Dennard, Kristen Simmons and Sarah Porter, moderated by Katie of MundieMoms. So I headed there and had an absolute blast! If I was excited about Vassa and Metaltown before, after the panel even more! And of course I'm bloody well dying for Windwitch!

After that back to the hotel to be absolutely lazy for a while and wait till it was time to go for the Blogger Dinner that Octavia and Whitley had organized!

The dinner was a lot of fun, spent time with my roomies (Octavia made me cry!!), chatting with Ironteeth Becca, drinking my beer and Angie's because for some reason she didn't want it. Then spent some time also chatting with Rashika, Mishma and Nori until I left with Cassi, because we both were pretty tired and needed to crash.

I'm not sure if it was a combination of me feeling a bit old lady-ish and the jet lag, but I never had the energy to try and make it to the later night fun!

And that was Friday!

 DAY 3 Haul

SATURDAY

Saturday I tried to sleep in and managed to sleep till 7 am and then gave up, so I got up to get ready to leave, even if I had already packed almost everything on Friday itself. 17 books, two samplers, swag and 3 more books and a yoga mat (that was NOT a BEA thing, it was a gift from my friends in Wisconsin!!).

 

Since Shelly and I had shuttles around the same time we went down together after saying goodbye to my most of my roomies (those that were awake at least), and once again Octavia almost made my cry my eyes out, dammit!

The trip to the airport was uneventful, I was lucky and the security line wasn't long and to kill time waiting, I started reading GEMINA!

It's the perfect read to wait because you get so immersed that time flies and you don't even notice! It's a brilliant read that caused me to cuss out loud during a flight startling both the flight attendant and my row mates and also caused a need for booze and extra chocolate... Page 505, you have been warned!!

Got home on Sunday, unpacked all my goodies and after having lunch with my parents I went to bed around 5 pm and woke up around 10 am the next day! ;)

Vacation over, pile of books that keep calling my name and missing my roomies so much!! I'm even more saddened because I'll be missing BEA 2017 since I'll be attending ApollyCon instead (and visiting Wizarding World & NASA since it's in Orlando).