ALA by the Numbers, or, It's About Damn Time

• Famous authors who thought I was a kid: 2 (Christopher Paul Curtis, who asked me what grade I was in, and Meg Rosoff, who you kind of have to feel bad for, since she won the Printz and they were giving out free hardback copies of her book and her autograph table wasn’t exactly hoppin’)
  
• Former Carnegie coworkers I randomly ran into: 2
  
• Former Hillman coworkers I randomly ran into: 1
  
• Hugs from virtual strangers who know Jonah McAllister-Ericson: 1, earning dude the nickname My New Boyfriend
  
• Authors I completely gushed over: 3 (John Green, Francesca Lia Block, and Holly Black)
  
  
• Days after ALA when I realized I totally missed the boat by not asking John Green the MOST IMPORTANT question about Looking for Alaska, namely, how does one make a bufriedo?: about 5
  
• Minutes spent trying to decide which color of American Apparel tshirt scarf to get: 15
  
• Minutes it took, speeding back to the hotel, to realize I already had a long hot pink scarf: less than 5
  
• Times I seriously thought about buying the greenish Coach wristlet with sparklies: about 4
  
• Clothing items tried on at H&M: 25
  
• Clothing items actually purchased at H&M: 2
  
• Size of the only remaining pair of very cute Nine West clearance sale heels: 6 ½, and you better believe I tried them on anyway.
  
• Other instances when I’ve felt as full as after my Big Greek Birthday Dinner: 5, all Indian buffet-related
  
• Teen Hole potential booths photographed: 3
  
  
• Advance Copies scored: at least 40
  
• Advance copies I’ve actually read and now am excited about pushing when they actually come out: 5
  
• Advance copies I’m excited about giving as prizes in various ways: all but 5 or 6—those puppies are for me and mine.
  
• Times I went back to try and score an Eldest galley, to no avail: 3
  
• Number of times Marissa and I thought, Becca kicks ass!, during the “how to publicize” portion of the writing group workshop: many many many
  
• Duration of my post-Francesca Lia Block/Edwards Award (like the lifetime achievement for YA lit) Luncheon huge grin: all damn day, even made the horrific Proquest Scholarship Bash shuttle fiasco not so bad.
  
• Alex Award (10 adult books with YA appeal) winners I now want to read: 1 (Rats: Observations on the History and Habitat of the City’s Most Unwanted Inhabitants by Robert Sullivan)
  
• Alex Award winners I had already read, and force on as many people as humanly possible: 2 (Candyfreak by Steve Almond, which is basically the chocolate equivalent of porn, and Donorboy by Brendan Halpin, which I talk about here)
  
• Programs I couldn’t go to because all the YALSA-relevant stuff was at the same damn time: 3 (Who puts “How the Children’s and Young Adult Professional Censors” and “We’ve Got Your Back: Librarians and Teens Speak Out on Intellectual Freedom” concurrent!?)
  
• Times I thought I made the wrong choice with “Reaching Reluctant Reader”: 0
  
• Fun euphemisms for “reluctant reader”: 2, dormant reader and discriminating reader (I heart “dormant reader”--I think it's a really useful and accurate way to think about matching people and stories.)
  
• YA authors who my opinion of has changed: 1—I still don’t like her books, but Gail Giles is a hell of a speaker.
  
• Speakers who only made me love them and what I do more: 5 (Francesca, obviously, she and Paula Danziger are practically why I’m a YA librarian; Alex Flinn, who is just so very very super awesome and has gotten one of my favorite regulars out of the fantasy ghetto [admittedly a pretty fun place to live]; Judy Blume; and, of course, Barack and David Sedaris)
  
• Percentage of Reluctant Reader nonfiction picks that weren’t mainstream hip-hop related, and would therefore circ at my library: maybe 15%?
  
• Blatantly bleeding-heart liberal moments: 3 (Barack Obama and his many spontaneous applause bursts, PLA asking David Sedaris to speak and it being super-packed, and who else but teen librarians would, in the midst of crazy censoring, Bush administration, etc., award their lifetime achievement award to a woman who writes about fairies—both kinds, and I totally stole that joke from Francesca and her speech?)
  
• Women wearing totally kick-ass, Weetzie-esque outfits at the Edwards Luncheon: 10 or so
  
• Books mentioned at the Reluctant Reader thing that I think the Teen Hole needs: 12
  
• Pictures taken of Sue: 4
  
  
• Stupid me Tiff ‘n’ Alison in-jokes referenced: 1
  
  
• Attempted pictures of Barack Obama, where he is seen as only a bright white light (you can jump to your own supernatural conclusions about this): 2
  
  
• Business cards scored: 4
  
• Famous YA author’s publicists who swapped cards with me: 1, Darren Shan’s (the Cirque Du Freak guy)
  
• Furniture vendors who took me seriously as a potential customer: 2, Demco and Gressco
  
• Narrowly averted bounces from the Sirsi party: 1 (Slightly wavily walking lady comes up to us, asks, “Are you with Sirsi?” which we aren’t, because Sirsi basically works for us, then says, “You have to leave immediately. This is a private function.” And then I got another glass of “mer-lottt”, which was actually cabernet sauvignon. And then I found $5/that’s how I got pinkeye.)
  
• Pictures of librarians dancing with robots: 5
  
  
• Attempted catch-phrases: 3 (“To the Bookmobile!”; “First of all, Santa didn’t use to do anything;” and various quotes from Sedaris airplane/crossword piece)
  
• Greasy hipsters I walked directly behind (you know why) for at least 2 blocks: 2—they were together, but not in the me ‘n’ Melissa assumed-at-the-gay-bar kind of way. At least I don’t think so…mmmm, greasy hipster boy-on-boy…
  
• Scary owls: 1
  
  
• Times my opinionated ass was totally vindicated by the 2 teenaged boys at the Reluctant Reader thing (who were also great): several, but mostly when they went off on Stargirl. Hee.
  
• Minutes spent at the Soft Skull booth, not because I’m professionally interested in their product, but because the rep had a lovely Irish accent: a few more than necessary