I awoke earlier than most mornings, wide-eyed and excited on Tuesday morning. Without hesitation, I leaped into the day — a day that I was eagerly awaiting for months. My husband would have to tend to the natives and get them off to school because I would be sitting on a train right about the time the morning songs of whining would begin.
With their lunches ready and packed, I quickly kissed my sleeping brood and ran out the door. Tires screeching, I was on my way to what I came to call a Mommy Field Trip. With our next few weeks filled with year-end celebrations, ceremonies, playoffs and recitals, I thought it was only fair to have an event of my own.
By 8:30am, my girlfriends and I were standing in the Jacob Javitz Center, waiting for the BEA (BookExpo America Conference) to open its doors. My friends, this event is a book lover's dream. Aisles and aisles of publishers and authors touting their newest novels, biographies, short stories — all of which have yet to be released.
Find out what's happening in East Windsorwith free, real-time updates from Patch.
It was a happy, happy day for me. I was among authors and publishers and buyers and librarians and book lovers. I spent hours roaming each aisle picking up copies of books that were literally "hot off the press." I told Mike Holmes (Holmes on Homes) that it would be a delight if he could sign his book to both my daughter and husband who love to watch his show together. I thanked Adam Mansbach in person for putting my thoughts to paper in his book, "," which will sit on my nightstand for years to come. I walked and chatted without a schedule, without a timeline, without having to be anywhere else but there.
My girlfriends and I were certainly a sight to see on the train ride home that late afternoon. With a total of 86 books sitting in bags all around us, we giggled and sighed as we shared our stories of who we saw and which authors signed our books and we mentally began the countdown to next year's Mommy Field Trip!
