BEA You Say?

As the year started up and BEA loomed in the distance, I consigned to the fact that I wasn't going. I'm using my allotted two weeks' vacation for a nice long trip to California in September, plus a floating holiday for my travel day, and my one personal day for a much-needed diagnostic endoscopy when I get back, leaving me nothing but 5 sicks days.

Don't get me wrong. I heavily contemplated calling in "sick" for a couple of days in May. But then I had a better idea. I just won't get sick between now and July 1st. See, if I do that, I get a bonus personal day, thus earning back the one I could use for BEA.

So after I received my press invite from the BEA coordinators and stared at it longingly (and rather pathetically), I mulled this over some more. I really could take the one personal day and just stick to my religious regime of a daily dose of vitamin C in its natural form (hey, it's worked so far).

Ta da! A trip was born!

Step two: pick a day. Simple. Thursday. It would mean I'd only have to suffer through one day of work after coming back before the weekend. Done.

Step three: go the morning of or the day before. The day before means shelling out more money. The day of means dead tired. So now it's the battle between time and money. I can earn money back. I can't recoop time. After some searching on Hotels.com, I found an absolutely AMAZING deal for a night in Manhattan only 6 avenue blocks from Javits. Done!

So there you have it. I've already ordered my press pass and I shall be going to BEA on Thursday, May 27th. If the traffic gods are with me, and I can duck out of work at 2 that Wednesday, I'm hoping to get into the city around 5ish on the 26th.

I know a bunch of you are going. If anyone's interested in meeting up for dinner that night or at the convention the following day, or both, just send me an email and we'll exchange numbers or something. Ha! I will see you all there! *squee*

On a side note, I was checking out the floor plans for the exhibitors and, correct me if I'm wrong, but they're really cramping everything in this year. Last year the children's section was on the first level with the autographs but now it looks like everything's on one floor. While I found Javits a pain in the ass to navigate, and this will make it easier, it makes this year's BEA smaller than last year. And last year's was already small compared to prior years as many said. Damn this economy! Plus I noticed that there are still quite a few empty booths on the plan. I'm hoping they fill those up!

So considering all of that, I really wouldn't be surprised to see more eGalleys than last year. While I much prefer the traditional book, it lessens the risk of me pulling another chest muscle dramatically (you try lugging a 150 pound bag of books from Javits to Grand Central). Either way, I'm really looking forward to it! I loved it last year and I'm sure to love it again this year!