This film is on a maddening loop.

Summer Reading ended Saturday with a block party and a dj. I also worked all day Saturday pre-block party and Sunday afternoon. I'm pretty fried now, but, on the plus side, I feel like my own summer can start.
That's the fun thing about being childless and not in school. Summer starts when I feel it should (which is usually around the beginning of May, thanks to Pitt), really gets going when it can for me (when Summer Reading Program ends), and continues until I want it to be fall (usually around when I buy the year's first pair of cords or sweater I really love).
So bring on the squirt guns, cheap beer, dancing horses, giggling about boys, and parking lot dance parties. I'll be stretched out on my floor, directly under the ceiling fan, listening to Out of Time.



Billboard July 29

• I love that fabric there.
  
• I think I want to make a wrap skirt out of it.
  
• I don't know who this woman in the ToC is, but she looks a mess. Like, a feathery dress with a big black bow.
  
• MESS
  
• I tried to find a pic online, but I'm not getting anything.
  
• YouTube has been sued on copyright issues.
  
• By the guy who filmed Reginald Denny getting beat up during the 1992 LA Riots.
  
• Does that seem kinda fucked up to anyone else, that he wants royalties for footage of some guy getting beaten?
  
• Would Denny see any of that money?
  
• Janet Jackson's going to let fans make the cover art for her next album.
  
• Oh my.
  
• Christina Aguilera has a new album to promote, and yet she's clothed in these pictures.
  
• I am curious about her new album.
  
• I'm always interested in pop stars attempts to gain credibility, whether they succeed or not.
  
• Especially if it's overdone.
  
• For example, JT did not need to:

1. Change his moniker semi-officially to JT ('cause it worked so well for NKOTB).
   
2. Start working with people with cred out the ass.
   
3. AND Use his next big single/video to talk shit on his ex.

• I think just one of those, or maybe 2, would have been fine.
  
• Oh dear.
  
• There's a John Mayer giant 2 page ad in here.
  
• It looks like a pin-up.
  
• Suddenly, I'm reading Tiger Beat.
  
• John Mayer is one of those people whose music I can't stand, but he's so funny in interviews.
  
• Plus, he was on Dave Chapelle's show.
  
• And he likes popsicles!
  
• mmmm, popsicles.
  
• I've got 3 lime ones (the good, fruit ones--I don't like fake lime) in my freezer right now.
  
• I had to buy the fancy-schmancy real fruit ones because my stupid grocery store didn't have what I really wanted: rocket pops.
  
• Of course, this is also the grocery chain that has no refridgerated 6 packs yet keeps boxed wine in the cold case, so what are you going to do?
  
• This John Mayer interview isn't that good.
  
• I'm going to blame the magazine for that.
  
• Seriously, Billboard interviews always suck.
  
• I don't know why I read them.
  
• And for some reason there's a "congratulations" ad for Mayer with an illustration of him all dolled up Rocky Horror style.
  
• It's a bit terrifying.

While You Were Out

Before I left for New Orleans, I parked Junior in the abandoned parking lot across the street from me. They re-tarred (heh) it while I was gone, and haven't come back to fill in the hole.
Thankfully, I didn't get towed or ticketed or anything. But who redoes a parking lot without posting notices?

I love the little tacos.

I got a glittery Gir shirt in the FOC 3 Swap! Thanks, Amanda!

I made a skirt! The fabric is maps. The pleats were a pain in the ass. I have to put in on/off over my head b/c I'm not very good with the exact measuring yet.



I made a scarf! It's stripes of tshirts I cut up. Then I made li'l felt guys to go on it. This was for the Fruits Basket Swap on Craftster.


New prom glass!

Daphne was not so chaste as she was changing.*

Billboard July 22

• So, um, reviews of the new Outkast? Not that great.
  
• Which makes me sad.
  
• Although I cheer back up again when I think about how Stacey and I both have certain The Love Below spoken interludes memorized.
  
• I just want to lay in her hair.
  
• So, I got stood up Sunday night.
  
• I predicted it, but still--I'm kinda pissed.
  
• Jessica Simpson is looking Anna Nicole-esque in this Yahoo Music ad.
  
• It's not pretty.
  
• Hey, remember those tapes your mom could buy for you that were personalized with birthday songs with your name in them?
  
• Jessica Simpson's doing that with her new single.
  
• She'll call out the buyer's name in the lyrics.
  
• Lara's birthday is coming up...
  
• Idlewild looks cool, though.
  
• 6 questions with David Johansen.
  
• Looking quite rough and wearing what appear to be women's flared jeans, I might add.
  
• My local 80s night has been playing "Putting on the Ritz" for the last couple weeks, and that is very fun.
  
• At least for me.
  
• And Melissa.
  
• I'm sure no one else cares, as long as they've got someone to grope.
  
• "a lot of songs about stabbing your friend in the eye with a ballpoint pen"
  
• hunh?
  
• Is this an actual song that I don't know about?
  
• You know, I'd like "Promiscuous Girl" a lot better if it was all chorus.
  
• ahh, crap
  
• Now I've got "Dirty Little Secret" stuck in my head.
  
• My nerdy shame: I've watched that video, on mute, because the song is irritating but I wanted to see all the Post Secret cards.
  
• Aw, and look at that--Post Secret is blocked by our filter.
  
• New adorable green 1920s little house!
  
• Possibly even cuter than the last one!

*Thanks to Tiff for the title. It's the title of an Elizabethan song that I'm going to assume she was cataloging.
Funny Tiff aside: So last night, post pizza'n'beer noshing, I'm watching History Detectives. I love that show; they just drive around and do research and it's so damn cool.
Anyway, this guy had a snippet of a silent Western, mislabeled, no credits, and the Detective took it to a film archive in Dayton! Where Tiff lives! And I called her, ready to blurt out, "How come you never told me there was a film archive in Dayton? Did you know about this!? We should plan a field trip!"
The first thing she said when she picked up the phone was, "You're watching History Detectives; did you know there was a film archive in Dayton!?"
mmmm, nitrate.

From an email I got today:

URGENT Action Needed: The ALA Washington Office has learned that the US
House of Representatives may try to expedite passage of H.R. 5319, the
Deleting Online Predators Act (DOPA), TOMORROW, July 26th. The bill is
moving forward as is, with no changes to the original language.

PLEASE CALL YOUR REPRESENTATIVE'S OFFICE TODAY and ask that he/she
oppose HR 5319. The Capitol Switchboard number is: 202-224-3121.

To find out who your Representative in the House is, go here.

To learn more about DOPA, please go here.

We all know my representative won't do shit, but maybe someone else's could?
Also, is this Teens Have No Rights Week or what?

New Orleans, Where Even the Urban Outfitters Employees Are Friendly and Helpful: ALA 2006 bk 4

(Seriously, the friendliest, most helpful, and least hipstersnobby UO employee I’ve ever seen. Sidebar: I always wonder what UO employees have to be so hipstersnobby about. I mean, if they’re so hip, what are they doing working for a giant chain whose sole purpose, most days, seems to be taking DIY and thrift culture and charging an arm and a leg for it? Not, of course, that I don’t shop there; I clearance rack hop anywhere. Sidebar 2: Why is it so damn hard for me to find a straight, short-not-mini, basic black nonpencil, no ruffles, skirt?)

I love in the 2nd Scott Pilgrim when the free newsweekly is held up and one of the sidebars is “Comic Books Aren’t for Kids Anymore”.
Neil Gaiman talked about the graphic novel thing on his blog. Plenty of librarians argued with this, on both listservs I’m on.
Frankly, I do think that his complaint that one could be left with the impression that librarians are only interested in manga has some merit (don't hurt me, please). But I think that has more to do with the audience questions than anything else. Our crews want manga, so we ask other librarians, and maybe some of the indie and/or realistic stuff falls by the wayside because you just can’t cover everything in the amount of time given. Even with that, I thought it was a great and informative program. But then, I don’t need a primer; I just like some help keeping up.
I remain totally fascinated with the idea of boy-love manga (no one is surprised by my attraction to the boy-on-boy). However, realistic stuff (ie/eg not fantasy) doesn’t tend to circ with my crew, and I’m way too cheap to buy it on my own dime. Someday…
My favorite inside-Jessy’s-head Simpsons reference came at the graphic novel program. A mother of a teenager* was talking about some boy-love book in her daughter’s room and how she asked who was the boy and who was the girl.
“Girls, Lisa. Boys kiss girls.”

By Teens For Teens
My library doesn’t have a teen advisory board. When I made moves to start one, I got a big fat “meh” from my crew.
Unfortunately, most of these “by teen for teen” conference programs that I’ve been to have been all about the TAB. I’m constantly working on ideas for getting feedback/ideas from area teens, not just my regulars, in some sort of casual way.
The best part of this program was the Neighborhood Story Project people. Ashley Nelson is seriously one of the best speakers I’ve ever seen. I really need to read her book, and so does everyone else.
I think what really struck me about the NSP thing was the respect everyone involved clearly has for each other. It’s not, as was so often the case in my high school and I suspect lots of places, white adults with missionary complexes (and sometimes religious funding, making them kinda actual missionaries) coming into the ghetto to help the poor children there. It’s teachers and other adults using their talents and skills to start something somewhere. And that’s awesome, and something I think everyone should aspire to.

So that’s ALA. I know I left some bits out, but this was the general gist.
Jesus, storytime’s loud.



*Someday, somewhere, I will have a conversation with a group of my professional peers and we will actually talk about our actual teenage patrons, not anyone’s children. I can’t help but feel that somehow, somewhere in this “my son/daughter…” method of librarianship, there’s an undercurrent of “You haven’t raised a kid, so you don’t know how to librarian to them.” Or maybe it’s just time for me to move back to someplace where single, childless, and not uncomfortable with either thing girls aren’t such a rarity so I don’t feel like the only boyfriendless, no-kid-having-and-not-caring 27yrold in town.

So, I found my other 10 1/2 needle, but I lost the first one.

Ah, knitting humor. Billboard July 15

• Jesus, these people think I'm a factory.
• THis is the second Billboard I've done today, and I still have to finish the neverending ALA blogging, so I can write the professional version.
• The professional version, which drops the F-bomb a lot less.
• I'm lobbying for "F-Bomb" to become the official YALSA euphemism for fuck, by the way.
• A committee will be formed; I need a bunch of signatures on a petition.
• It'll be great.
• Anyway, I wasn't going to blog this issue, because there's other things I could be doing, but then I look at the cover and it says:
• "Mariah Goes Crazy (For Branding)"
• How tasteless is that!?
• Bravo, BillboardM. Bravo.
• It's not every magazine that would refer to a celebrity's Pepsi deal my mocking her battles with craziness.
• Pete Yorn's doing a tour diary.
• The US Air Guitar competition is apparently big bucks.
• The world championships of air guitar are held in Finland, surprising no one.
• Aw, Danger Mouse is so cute.
• The listening party for St. Elsewhere was held in a Johnny Rockets.
• "...I truly believe that no matter how the evolution of digital distribution affects the brick-and-mortar store, indie merchants will be the last man standing, if it ever comes to that."
• That's Ed Christman, who write the "Retail Track" column.
• I'm glad to see someone finally saying that in this magazine.
• Let's be realistic. What has more of a chance of succeeding:
• the chains that only carry the newest cds and are expensive
• or the hole-in-the-wall indies that are frequented by the people who are still interested in the materiality of records and cds.
• Yes, I said "materiality".
• Don't you love when my pretentiousness is showing?
• Mariah Carey never had to worry about branding before because she was either married to a very very rich man or her singles were everywhere.
• Now that she's more of a joke than a hit-maker, she needs ads.
• Plus, Glitter.
• Which even me 'n' Tiff couldn't get through, and that's saying something.
• Her next movie is from the same guy that produced Monster's Ball.
• So, you know, she'll show us her (fake) tits and magically become integrious.
• Yay, Halle Berry.
• X3 had the world's worst wig.
• Urgh, Thom Yorke's solo album.
• I'm falling asleep just looking at the cover art.
• Soul Asylum have a new album, too.
• Remember that video where Claire Danes was an angel?
• "I was like, don't waste the match."
• You should totally go watch the Christmas "My So-Called Life" if you don't know what I'm talking about.
• "It was one of those fights, where it feels like the fight is having you."

I'm racing emo boys and wearing rulers.

Billboard July 8

• Tim, Faith & Busta on the cover.
• "Can Busta Rhymes save hip-hop?"
• This week's featured artist for watching videos is Morrissey.
• Gimme a minute; I'll find the link.
• While MySpace takes forever to do library-related stuff.
• Except now it's Placebo.
• Liars.
• I think there's a Built To Spill video featured on MySpace today?
• "Music videos--the next QVC?"
• But people have always gotten fashion tips from videos, and before that, album covers.
• It's just that now everyone in the clothing business acknowledges it.
• Sleater Kinney on hiatus is sad, but maybe they'll be kickass side projects, right?
• And they're saying "hiatus" instead of breaking up, so that's a good thing, right?
• Right?
• Li'l Steven's all about the Go-Gos this week, a move I can totally get behind.
• Ever notice how no one ever gives the Go-Gos their punk rock due?
• I can't help but think it's at least partially because Belinda's got such a cutesy, round babyface.
• From one babyface to another: I know how it goes.
• You never get to really come across as badass when you look like Belinda, and it's totally not her fault.
• Plus, not being junkieskinny in the LA punk scene had to have sucked.
• And there's a Ramones musical.
• There's news here, because the official site pretty much is useless.
• Sprite's got some new teen video diary thing on their new website.
• I suppose I've got a professional reason to check that out, but Sprite's ad desperation has always annoyed me.
• Weren't they the "Obey Your Thirst" people?
• I remember them doing a lot of that "Don't drink pop because famous people tell you to" BS, meanwhile famous people are in their damn commercials.
• Eh, I'm sure YPulse will cover it.
• The guy who writes the "Making the Band" column looks like the food and wine Queer Eye guy.
• Who's my favorite Queer Eye guy, by the way.
• Aah, Busta isn't going to save ALL hip-hop, just bring back New York City.
• I guess that's a bit more realistic a goal.
• I suppose we have to buy the new Nelly Furtado album.
• grumble

I've been sitting on this, pretending to accomplish things.

Billboard July 1

• So I've cleared all the cds from my work iTunes because I was bored of it all.
• I'm just keeping it for podcasts and fun music blogs, like the one Tiff told me about where Nick Cave covers "Disco 2000".
• Where's my granola bar?
• I'm hungry.
• I've discovered that the Nature Valley lemon yogurt granola bars taste an awful lot like the Girl Scout lemon sandwich cookies, and that makes me happy.
• Remember when Girl Scout cookies had cool names? But you could never remember what the hell any of them were?
• Now the names are more descriptive but less fun.
• I've also discovered the tastiness that is the plout.
• It's a combo of plum and apricot, and a good time.
• Pretty color, too.
• Suit + moire does not = a good idea, Jamie Foxx.
• SOrry that I have to be the one to tell you this.
• Pete Seeger!
• Pete Seeger's in this issue!
• I love Pete Seeger; I grew up on the guy.
• He's talking about Springsteen's thing, which I've also heard good things about.
• From my mom, who I'm apt to trust when it comes to this kind of thing.
• We also both love the Mermaid Avenue albums, and I really need to burn that Billy Bragg double cd I got for her a couple years ago.
• My dad, on the other hand, has spottier musical tastes.
• My favorite Dad music moment is when I was listening to One Foot in the Grave with him around and he commented, with surprise in his voice, on how much it sounded like old folkies.
• Man, One Foot in the Grave's a great album.
• I need to listen to that again.
• I was disappointed in Sea Change, though.
• And you'll notice that I can say that without worrying about the loss of my IndieRockStereotype status, since I talked up an earlier, lesser known album.
• Involving Calvin Johnson.
• Aw, here's Pete.
• Yay.
• Read it yourself here.
• 6 Question is with Chris Carrabba.
• I can't believe he's still around.
• I think Unfortunately Large Pants was a fan.
• Annie Lennox is back in the studio.
• Carrabba collaborated with Adam Duritz.
• ew
• Hey!
• New Pet Shop Boys!
• Have I mentioned this before?
• Feels like I have...
• Anyway, I ordered the stupid Dashboard album for the library.
• Why am I reminded of the argument Marissa and I had over who had to put their initials next to the Coldplay album?
• My little cottage is no longer on the market.
• And I fear it's too far after my birthday for it to have been bought as a gift for me.
• Frank DeCaro's Sirius radio show is counting down the 10 gayest songs ever.
• Love are reuniting for a benefit concert for their singer. It was on June 28. I wonder if it's online anywhere.

I got dibs on Jigglypuff—ALA 2006 bk 3

I believe I’ve mentioned before my crew’s lack of interest in DDR. But I still want to have a gaming program, right? Here’s the new plan:
Super Smash Brothers.*
The weekend after all the freshmen orientations, so I can tell every 9th grader in town in just a few fell swoops. Of course, this plan hinges on the school librarian giving me more than a week’s notice for the orientations. Let’s all knock on some wood, shall we?
Thanks to all the gaming discussion people for helping me out with this one. I’m sure I’ll be bothering you guys for help more and more. And I mean that in the least annoying possible way. And the least grammatically correct, apparently.

Stephen Abram’s millennials thing was interesting and didn’t irritate me the way most generational discussions do. Mainly because it didn’t make value judgments, or act like trends in demographics mean EVERYONE born between certain years thinks and acts the same. The powerpoint is here and the handout is here.
The two hottest things I got from the program: Hennepin County has a catalog search box on their MySpace (and they’re offering the code to add a search box to your MySpace—how cool is that!?) and some libraries have text message reference.
Also, I was amused that, after 2 librarians whose questions for Abram were “…but I read this other thing that said that millennials were born after 3:15 PM June 7 1983…”, I bust up there like, “Hennepin County has the catalog on their MySpace? How do I do that?”

Sitting in the audience of the Quick Picks committee was totally fun, even if I was late because no one was exactly sure when Brent Hartinger was signing. I’d been saying to myself that I wanted to be comfortable with my job and what I’m doing librarian-wise, and then I’d look into committee work, and I think I’m ready to investigate. And I think we all know I can’t keep a secret well enough to be on the Printz or Best Book committees.
And I learned all about this book called Fuck This Book, which consists of photos of “fuck” stickers in humorous places. There’s a website, which is of course blocked by our new filter. Though I would find it HILARIOUS if it wasn’t. This is a great book. I totally wish I could buy a copy for school visits (b/c this kind of thing is great for getting teens to realize that libraries aren’t all storytimes and old people), but I like to think I’ve got better sense than that. The high school secretaries already hate me, and I suspect that the high school librarian already thinks I’m without a moral compass.



*I mentioned this to Lawyer Chris yesterday at Melissa’s dad’s picnic and, I swear, it was like Christmas morning. So don’t think I’m not relying on you to help me with this program, Chris. Also, I’m linking to you b/c I think you need to blog the story about Pikachu and the bully.

wooo, MLS

*ring, ring*
--Information desk, how can I help you?
--A little chick goes, "Cheep cheep." How do you spell that?
--C-H-E-E-P
--Thank you.

I've been taking turkey pastrami for lunch lately.

The latest and possibly worst of the terrible Arby's kids meal toys.





and, just for fun, everybody look at the hamburger stuffie I got in the mail the other day:

Luna was transgendered; Mike’s a lesbian: ALA 2006 bk 2

Dude, what is it with every librarian on the planet but me and Feed, anyway?
Actually, I suspect I know, but that’s a whole post unto itself. For a book with a 2004 copyright, it came up in conversation quite a bit at the 2006 conference. I feel like I could, in fact, discuss the programs I went to by describing how and why Feed came up at many of them. But I won’t. I’ll also attempt to contain myself when I start talking about the Neighborhood Story Project.

Alex Awards Program
I went to this last year and it was really cool, so I figured I’d repeat. And I totally got rewarded for not trying anything new, because Neil Gaiman was there. I’m also terrified now, because A. Lee Martinez (Gil’s All-Fright Diner, which is one of those books I swore I ordered, several times, and yet we don’t have it) was introduced with biographical information from his MySpace page.
Here follows A Little Jessy Professional Nightmare:
“Jessy enjoys picking junk up off the ground, thrift stores, clearance racks, public transportation. Drunkdialing AudioBlogger. "I Saw You" personal ads, and making an ass out of herself. She wants to meet a round little fellow who seems to be passed out from drinking too much milk.”
And, yes, I know that the easy answer is to not have any personal information on the internet that I wouldn’t want used to introduce me to a bunch of librarians. But where’s the fun in that? I also kind of can’t believe the intro’s writer. If I were writing presenter’s biographical information for my sister, I wouldn’t say, “Lara’s heroes are people who stand up for something…Oh, also Nick Lachey,” to a bunch of teachers.
I also noted that I should really read As Simple As Snow. I wondered a bit at Galloway’s slightly awkward (I thought) discussion of his “goth” characters (you know how sometimes you can hear quote-bunnies?) with Neil Gaiman sitting next to him, but, well, I don’t know if I could discuss anything with Neil Gaiman sitting next to me. I do, however, know that I wouldn’t read a passage from a fellow panelist’s work as part of my talk, like Galloway did at the YALSA President’s Program. But then, I was unimpressed by Postcards from No Man’s Land. Oh, and for an Iowa graduate, I was impressed at his lack of Poet Voice.

Audiobook Preconference
There was a contest to be in an audiobook! You had to audition and everything. I kinda screwed it up, which I think I wouldn’t’ve done if I had actually practiced out loud, but it was really fun nonetheless. The woman I sat next to thought so as well. Apparently, we were so excited by the prospect of being in an audiobook that somehow her ALA badge (which you need for pretty much EVERYTHING) wound up in my purse. Which I discovered hours and hours later, right before I discovered that her business card only listed her school number. Oops. Hopefully, she got to the exhibit hall lost ‘n’ found. Let that be a lesson to everyone that obsessively checking for your badge at every turn isn’t just me being insane and paranoid!
There were also interesting panels, like Bruce Coville, Listening Library, etc. talking about producing audiobooks and a couple of the kids from Full Cast Audio talking about being audiobook actors, and actually doing some audiobook rehearsing in front of us, which was super cool. Clips of audiobooks played (I tried to time my bathroom break to coincide with the clip from Feed, but no dice) that totally inspired me to make a mixcd to take on class visits this fall (what song should I “accidentally” add? “I Hate Music”? “Nic Fit”? Dub Narcotic’s “Fuck Shit Up”? [joking—I would never ever do that]). The woman I was behind in the lunch line is currently working on the audio version of Traveling Pants #4 and I tried to pump her for spoilers, but, again, no dice. I’m still terribly excited about reading this one.
Tamora Pierce does this great “I’m a terrible speaker” fake-out at the beginning of her talk, and it totally sounds like Delores Umbridge does in my head.
The awesomest thing from the preconference was the discovery that New York Public Library worked with Listening Library to get audiobook clips on their website. I’m really excited about biting this idea for my library, maybe even on the MySpace page. Kind of like how Ned Vizzini put an excerpt of It's Kind of a Funny Story on its own MySpace.
Some libraries (school ones, I think) shelve their audiobooks right next to the print version. I’m still thinking of the pros and cons of this idea for the teenhole, but I kind of like it. I mean, we’ve got the hardback and paperback copies together, why not the audio as well? My crew don’t go and look at the audiobook section as a rule, so it just might work. I wonder if I could do a test run?
Cool toys from the precon: audiobooks on memory cards and these Playaway things that my library (the one I use, not the one I work for) has and I keep meaning to investigate.
Upcoming in part 3: committees I audienced at, Printz speeches, graphic novels, and more rambly “goodness”.

Yay us; or ALA 2006 bk 1

So, I was in New Orleans for a week. I've never been anywhere where palm trees grow naturally before.

FAQ answers:

• No, I didn’t spend that much time on Bourbon Street. Do I strike you as the sort of girl who would enter a bar called the Frat House, or the sort of girl who would pick a sign up off the street instructing Frat House patrons that dress codes were to be strictly adhered to?
  
• Where I was (downtown-ish and the French Quarter) there was very little damage. There were still signs, like how all the street signs are bent and how, instead of Sporadic City Stench, sometimes I’d get a whiff of mildew. Or how many bright blue tarps I saw instead of roofs as my plane was taking off.
  
• Yes, I went to Café du Monde. I didn’t think that my beloved funnel cake could be improved upon (unless, of course, it’s by Kennywood and involves ice cream and strawberries). I was wrong. I was also wrong to wear a black shirt around all that powdered sugar. And I don’t know if it was just because I had been drinking crappy-pot-in-my-hotel-room coffee all week, but—damn. Best Cup of Coffee I’ve Had In Forever. Like, the kind of revelatory coffee experience your first cup is, or your first espresso. Or when you first realize that beans from different countries taste different. And now I sound like a junkie.
  
  
• Yup, everyone was pretty psyched to see us. In addition to the usual New Orleans tourist shirts (“Don’t Make Me Poison Your Food” and a lot about being drunk) and the Katrina black humor stuff (my favorites being the ones referring to the hurricane as a blow job), there were also “Librarians Do It By the Book” tshirts all over the place.

Mostly, I did a lot of librarianing, with some blatant fanboyishness thrown in for good measure. Everyone will be pleased to know that I didn’t embarrass myself in front of Sara Ryan, despite my giant Straight Girl Crush. Hopefully I’ll be equally lucky if I’m ever in the same room as Beth from The Gossip. Hopefully I will also actually have the balls to speak to her, since I didn’t with Sara Ryan.

I also bought my very own copy of Geography Club (and had it signed!), so expect me to be forcing that on all of my friends soon. Like, at Stacey et al’s housewarming party this weekend. I’d also have kickass Brent Hartinger temporary tattoos, but there was a summer reading mixup while I was gone (actually, back when I approved a form I shouldn’t’ve) and we were running dangerously low on prizes.
I also got some good gifties for some folks, and will be guest-blogging in Claudia’s Room sometime soon re: meeting ANM.
Lots of ARCs too, of course. I’m really trying to keep track of what I read with LibraryThing. And I’m chomping at the bit for my package containing, among other things, New Moon and Vampirates. Snurk.

More pictures are at my flickr account (see the badge thing over there?) and more actual conference detail is forthcoming.