Good morning. Happy Tuesday. I am writing this early this morning. 5:30 to be exact. I stayed up late watching Little House On The Prairie episodes (thanks to Confessions of a Prairie Bitch) and admit I wasn’t sure I could get into the show again as I had as a child but find myself being pulled into the early days of the Little House.
As I had planned, today will be the first of several days of Book Expo recap. I love these recaps as I can go back and look at them each year and suspect these recaps will some be valuable proof when I am elderly and my grand kids or great grand kids think I could never have done anything crazy or amazing… it will then be time to dust off the old blog and show them…. I knew how to kick it once in a while. 😀
New York – Day 1
I arrived in New York exactly one week ago today. It was Tuesday. I woke up in my Minneapolis hotel at 3:00 am and caught the 4:00 am shuttle to catch my 5:40 am flight. Yes, I like early flights. If I am going somewhere, I hate to put it off, so I go as early as possible. I get to the airport and through security and get a COFFEE. Once boarded and the plane is in the air, the beverage service comes around and as I put my tray table down to get some water, I dump my coffee cup I am so carefully (or not) balancing in my hand and proceed to pour coffee on to my right pant leg. The coffee has cooled, that is not an issue – however it has left a lovely brownish stain on my jean capris. *sigh* I dab at it with my napkin and my water that I wanted to drink but am now using for cleaning myself up.
After we land in Atlanta I proceed to go into the lady’s room and do a little better job at cleaning up my pants. I have time so I go and relax in a sunny window by my departure gate and continue reading the book I had brought along while snacking on dark chocolate covered pretzels from my carry on. After a while I consider using the lady’s room before we board (I hate having to use plane bathrooms) and as I get up I notice that one of the chocolate pretzels has landed on my pants, in the same area as I had earlier cleaned up coffee and has melted into a gooey chocolatey mess.
Seriously?
I arrive in New York (after my two + hour layover in Atlanta) at approximately 1:45 pm. It is raining. I am bummed… Minnesota has rained every day for three weeks. I really really could do without the rain. I text my roommate for the week Cindy to tell her I have landed and on my way to find a taxi. Once outside with all luggage intact I see a bus that is $13 one way and will drop me off at Port Authority, approximately 3 blocks from my hotel. What a deal! A taxi usually costs me about $45 to go to the hotel. I purchase the ticket and board the bus and after we sit for about 25 minutes or so we go. We have a couple stops on the way and eventually (not sure what time it was but my guess would be 2:45 ish…. I arrive at Port Authority where I am plopped in the rain with carry on and luggage and told to go “3 blocks that a way” and I will be at my hotel.
Now, it takes me a little while to get oriented and landing in Port Authority I exited out a door and started walking looking for my hotel on 39th. After about 2o minutes of walking in the rain and being on what I think is the right block but I am sooooo unsure, frustrated and WET I text Cindy this message:
I am wet and I think lost. I am standing under an awning staring across the street at an Irish Pub thinking it might be a nice place to stay for the week. I shall live there and eat and drink there. It looks warm and dry… all thinks I am not.
At this point I discover I am about 1/2 a block from my hotel. Cindy asks if I want to go to Serendipity and I ask what it is and does it have to do with food as my mid morning chocolate covered pretzel snack has long been gone and I am sooooo HUNGRY. Yes, she assures me it has food and the famous frozen hot chocolate. I am in. We met up with Kate and Pam. They were fun to chat with while we hung out in a line to get in to Serendipity.

Once seated we proceeded to order and the 4 of us each ordered the frozen hot chocolate. And it arrived….
Yup. None of us finished it. It was good but LARGE and between the ice cream and the warmth of the cocoa and bits of chocolate and orange it was very filling. My advice, if you go, share one. 😀
Later that evening Cindy and I walked from our hotel to Yum Yum, my favorite New York restaurant (as of this writing). It is Thai food and so good. For $16.95 you get choice of an appetizer, soup or salad, a main course, and green tea ice cream for dessert. It is tasty.

After that we returned to out hotel for the night. I was tired and Wednesday would be the Blogger conference and the Harper Collins Party. And that… will be what I share tomorrow. 😀
Yesterday afternoon the first box of books I sent home arrived. I suspect the rest will follow either today or tomorrow. I have not opened the box yet, I like to wait until they are all in house before I dive in. It is another rainy day here in Minnesota. I plan to work and then hit the gym later this afternoon.

























