Saturday, July 18, 2009

A Week in the Windy City


Is it really summer? You wouldn’t know it by the weather in Chicago. I came prepared to melt and instead am pulling on a jacket after feeling a shiver. But then what else is new about Chicago weather besides being unpredictable.

Yesterday we ran into a storm so sudden and fierce that we couldn’t see the side of the toll road. The signs were visible, but unreadable, and the road was basically under water. We were lucky to find our exit. Abruptly the rain let up, but it had left huge puddles along the side of the road and when a bus went through one, it splashed so much on the windshield, for a few scary moments we couldn’t see anything but water while the car was still moving. Kudos to my son, the great driver.

Luckily, the weather was okay the day of my booth duty at the American Library Association. Ann from Georgia, thank you for stopping by to say hello. You made my day. The Sisters in Crime booth was a big hit and it was a pleasure to meet so many library people. The Sisters in crime library people Mary and Doris hosted the booth and certainly made me feel welcome. Mary had organized everything and made sure people passing by knew there were real live authors giving out books. Just like at the Printers Row Fair, Deb Baker and I shared a signing time. She’s always fun to be around.

I got a chance to check out the convention floor and was very excited to see Terri and Joanna’s books at the Midnight Ink booth. I wanted the nudge the people manning the booth and tell them Terri and Joanna were my blog sisters, but they were busy with real customers, so I let them be.

I recognized the Frozen Light jewelry woman from the vendor room at Malice Domestic. I wasn’t planning to buy any jewelry- like anybody ever really is - but she has such great stuff. You can keep your diamonds. I love sterling silver and turquoise and other colorful stones.

My son and his girlfriend joined me the day after the ALA and my plans for writing quickly got whittled down to some time in the early morning. It’s hard to turn down fun.

5 comments:

Monica Ferris said...

Sounds as if you had a terrific and sucessful time! I remember that "frozen light" jewelry from Malice, what lovely stuff!

Terri Thayer said...

Makes you appreciate SoCal, huh. The clerk at Trader Joe's said to me yesterday, "The weather's supposed to be great this weekend." My native New Yorker thought, "How is that different from the last month?"

Betty Hechtman said...

Yes, Monica, it was both fun and successful.

Terri, you're right. To experience real weather, you have to go back east.

Camille Minichino said...

Nice report, Betty.
And I'm with you on colorful stones like lapus, jasper, even carnelian as opposed to diamonds!
I bought a beautiful combination of the above and about 5 other stones at the Metropolitan Museum of Art shop earlier this month!

Betty Hechtman said...

Camille, I love the Metropolitan museum. Did you see the silver guns with the turquoise. For some reason I think they were made by Tiffany and were meant as some kind of advertisiement.