My Last SCBWI Conference Post...


Wrapping things up...


Speakers Who Made Me Cry:

• Bruce Coville on the first day in his opening speech
  
• Yuyi Morales during her Golden Kite acceptance speech and during the SCBWI Success Stories panel
• Sara Pennypacker during her Golden Kite acceptance speech (for the second year in a row)
• The tribute to Sue Alexander
• Susan Patron in her conference-closing address

(Note: No one has yet to beat readergirlz's Justina Chen Headley who made me tear up a dozen times during one breakout session in 2006.)


Hours of Sleep I Got During My Five Nights in LA:

• Twenty-eight
  

Things I Really Dug About My Conference Experience:

• The first person I ran into was my oldest conference pal, illustrator Kevan Atteberry
  
• Gretchen Hirsch introducing herself as Stephanie Meyer at the faculty dinner
  
• The steel cut oatmeal at the Breeze, and seeing Arturo the long-time host who always remembers my name
• The Literary Ladybugs
• “Reading Is Power” red rubber bracelets (with graphics that could possibly be interpreted as “Dreidel Equals Muscles”)
• Steve Malk’s party at Equator Books in Venice, even though I left before Nicholas Brendan got there
• Hundreds of people eating Dove ice cream bars outside the ballroom
• Being saved from technical difficulties by audience members
• Riding in Aaron Hartzler’s pickup truck
• Yoga class and dinner with Martha Brockenbrough from Washington (who has a daughter named Alice which I find brilliant)
  
• My one celebrity siting: Jami Gertz (best role: Muffy Tepperman in "Square Pegs")
• Having my photo taken by Sonya Sones
• Getting my photo taken with Lisa Yee’s Peepy
  
• Micheal Stearns' chart that explains the entire publishing industry using a few overlapping circles
• Autographing and cupcakes
• Scoring an SCBWI hoodie
• Chatting with everyone at the wrap party at Lin Oliver's house (even though the food wasn't super vegetarian-friendly)
  
• Discovering that Paula Yoo loves Skyline Chili, the official favorite food of the Nati
  
• Being on the faculty
• Lin Oliver ending the conference in a fit of giggles after announcing someone lost a shoe ornament
  

Things I Didn’t Dig About the Conference:

• The 2009 CWIM didn’t show up for the bookstore
• The gaping hole in the lobby bar that used to be filled by Darlene the (former) Century Plaza cocktail waitress
  
• The X Bar (especially because they stopped serving the awesome onion rings they used to have on the menu)
• The oddly bright red veggie burger I ate a few bites of at Houston's in the mall (my dinner companions, however, were stellar)
  
• Leaving--and the hell that is LAX. (I apologize to the woman at the Delta check-in counter with whom I had some angry words. Next time you wait on four people who came up after me because they can't figure out how to use the kiosk and you make me stand there for 10 minutes in that hot crowed space when I haven't gotten much sleep I'll try to be a little more patient.)