TOP TEN HIGHLIGHTS FROM SCBWI-LA 2006
- Saw my first taping EVER. (Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson, featuring guest Carlos Mencia). And apparently I was cool enough to sit in the front row. Woohoo! AND there's more. I won a whole six-disc DVD set of the hit show 24!
- Met up with Tammi Sauer and Flora Doone for dinner where I missed the entire meal (I was late–too busy whooping it up with famous people and winning free DVDs, yanno). But it was very very neat to see other famous people like Meg O'Hair (thanks for the Snoop poems!), Stephanie Ruble (thanks for the Snoop drawings!), Jennifer Lynn Barnes, Jo Whittemore, and Linda Joy Singleton from LJ. If I've forgotten anyone, please forgive me. I am still high from winning those DVDs.
- No trip is complete without a medical scare. This time, I think I got bitten by a python or I was allergic to one very cute pair of shoes. My left foot swelled to epic proportions and Tammi thought it'd look like an elephant foot by the end of the day. While I sat through a presentation, the swelling blossomed. My mind raced. What if this happened?
Fortunately the swelling subsided by Day Two. I am so glad. I hate peanuts. - Told ghost stories about a dead girl right before bedtime to Tam and Flora. (I am a very nice person.) The next day, I stood in their bathroom while I sucked down Benadryl (for the foot, of course). Then I felt like something or someone kept nudging me in that bathroom. The whole place made me dizzy. Flora reported she felt the same thing that morning. Ooooo…..There's a dead girl in room 626.
- Participated in the deepest conversation I've ever had since like, 1995. It was with Jen Barnes and Jo Whittemore. Interestingly enough the topic was "What superpower would you like to have?" You just had to be there. We could have turned in a whole thesis on this subject afterwards.
- Nearly had a stroke while doing some very "old-school" dance moves on the dance floor (think Running Man, Roger Rabbit, the Charleston?!). I really am getting old.
- You'll love this. I was mistaken for Alvina Ling. I was very flattered, but you can imagine how loud I laughed (IN MY HEAD). Did you read this post? Come say Hi at SCBWI.
- During a session, Flora, Bruce Hale and I sat in one of the back rows. I asked Bruce for the time, then passed him one of Flora's Altoid mint/gum candies (because his breath BLEW, you know. KIDDING!). Then I joked with Bruce that if we danced again next year, I'm going to need to work out more. Yowza.
- Irony: As I was leaving the hotel for the airport, I mistook a white person for some other person. "Hey!" I said. "This is so weird. Weren't you in my critique group last night?" "Um, no." DOH! All white people look the same. 🙂
- And last but not least, COMING HOME. Because there is no place like home!
P.S. You must check out Debbi Michiko Florence's "Guess the Asian" contest. I've offered up a FULL-TIQUE as first prize. And Debbi is contributing more cool prizes. You have until MIDNIGHT PST to enter. THIS IS HUGE. GO FOR IT. Also, if you already have a reserved slot, you may trade up if you win. (Meaning you can win the contest but you can't keep your reserved slot, too).
I'm going to wait until the GUESS THE ASIAN CONTEST is done before I announce FIREDRILL winners. So sit tight. I need some time to catch up on A LOT OF THINGS now. And getting Snoop to read all the FIREDRILL entries is one of them.
SNOOP SAYS:
I got poems and drawings??!!!! About me?!
When I can I eat them?