Blogging from Washington, Part 1

I'm now in Washington, DC, typing from Kristie J's computer (thanks Kristie J!), and recovering from an exhausting but fantastic couple of days.

Yesterday, I took two flights that eventually landed me in Baltimore, where I then took a shuttle that took an hour and a half to reach Washington DC. Good news, though, I ended up on the same shuttle with paranormal authors Gerry Bartlett and Nina Bangs! It was awesome talking to them, taking photos with them - what a great initial experience for the conference! Bad news: discovered of all the things I could have forgotten to pack, I forgot to pack lipstick (but not my new eyeshadows!).

Tired as I was, it wasn't long before I ran into Kristie J, Wendy the Superlibrarian, Rosie, and Barbara. We had a lot of fun talking about romance with other people who knew what secret babies and alpha/beta males were!

Next day, used some of my Granny's gift money to spend shamelessly on room service breakfast (thanks Granny!). Registered for the conference today - there are two other conferences going on the in the same hotel but ours is the most exciting. Didn't see the attendees of the other conferences finding free romance novels and flashdrives loaded with reference materials in their boring totebags which totally weren't covered in fabulous examples of Harlequin covers spanning 60 years! I also checked out the Goody Room, where there were more free books, as well as cool cover flats, bookmarks, luggage tags, fridge magnets, pens. Great way to promote your materials!

Went sightseeing with Kristie J and Barbara - saw the Washington Monument. Checked out the Smithsonian National Museum of American History, where we saw the original Kermit the Frog puppet and the actual ruby slippers used in The Wizard of Oz! Afterward, Kristie J and Barbara headed back to the hotel, so I decided to check out the rest of the monuments (Lincoln, Korean War, World War II) on my own. It was quite a walk, but the weather was gorgeous (really hot, but the nice really hot if you have a sunhat and a cold bottle of water). Took some great photos.

Came back exhausted and with a killer headache, so I slept until the Literacy Signing. I will post photos of the entire trip once I get back so I'll just have to give you a description now: I met most of my favourite authors and picked up lots of books (for charity! for CHARITY!), and I got a picture with Nora Roberts for Granny (get well soon, Granny!). I have to cut this short and edit in links later because I have to get ready for the RWA Online Chapter party. See you later!