I'm an Andrew Smith groupie

I make no attempt to hide how much I love author Andrew Smith. I love his work. I love that he is a high school teacher in addition to being an amazing author. In particular, I love that he Skyped with my high school students and then blogged about it. A few of my co-workers have noted my excitement when I talk about him or his books and lovingly coined me an Andrew Smith groupie.

So today was pretty exciting when I got a package in the mail from Andrew Smith. I opened it up to find a signed copy of Winger. Woot! This all started at the Anderson's Bookshop YA Lit Conference where I mentioned I can't keep this title on the shelf and Andrew promised to send me another copy. Well Andrew, you rock! Thanks for keeping your promise.

New life for old shoes - Dr. Scholl's Active Series

My nerdiness isn't restricted solely to all things words. I like to extend my nerdiness to all facets of my life. Outside of reading, I enjoy running. Some would say jogging. I actually like to use a soft J in the pronunciation and say yogging. I'm no speed demon but I also have the crazy insight that my yogging is only about me. I don't need to be fast so long as it feels good.

As many runners will admit, finding the right shoes makes all the difference in running. My very loved Brooks have been worn long past the point they should probably be replaced. Eventually they got to a point I had to get something new. So the red Brooks got tossed into the pile for dog walking and hiking. It was a sad day. For me, those red Brooks were a little like Dorothy's ruby slippers - they took me home.

I was totally thrilled when I found out Influenster was going to send me a complimentary pair of Dr. Scholl's Active Series Inserts to try and review. I knew exactly what pair of shoes I was going to try them in. After trimming them to fit and placing them in my old ruby slippers, I donned those bad boys and headed out for a walk. I didn't want to be disappointed on a yog if they weren't comfortable so I took the hound out for a long stroll. The shoes felt great! These inserts have breathed new life into my old shoes. While I don't think I'd go out and buy these to put in every pair of shoes (I don't have pain enough to want to replace the originals), I would definitely consider adding these once I can tell my shoes have started to break down. And while I had already found my new running shoes, it is great to know that these babies are around for backup or for a future mud run.

My Reading List Grows

Yesterday was crazy. The change in weather made kids exceptionally whiny and I found my patience to be seriously lacking. I calmed by nerves by cataloging the books that arrived in my most recent Baker & Taylor order.

I LOVE opening up my order and looking at all the great books. There are always lots of books I want to read but there was something about this particular order that had me wanting to add nearly all of the books to my personal reading list.

I mean, just look at this cart!

Today I'm pretty sure my reading list grew by about 75 books. Now if only I could figure out how to just sit and read without interruption for days on end.

A Very Nerdy Start

I started this week feeling very refreshed. I guess there were a couple reasons for that. Professionally I was refreshed after spending the weekend at the YA Literature Conference put on by Anderson's Bookshop. More on that later. Personally I was refreshed after getting two uninterrupted nights of sleep at the swanky (tv in the bathroom mirror swanky) Hotel Arista while attending this conference. My daughter's night terrors and my puppy's night potty breaks are definitely taking a toll on me so I really savored my two nights of sleep. 

Back to the YA Literature Conference. In short, AMAZING! Schmoozing with 29 YA authors was like a dream come true for me. I first found out about the conference when I noticed it on the tour schedule of one of my all time favorite authors, Andrew Smith. Side note: If you haven't read his book, Winger, you really must. When I found it was only a mere three hour drive from home, I knew I wanted to go.  

Highlights of the conference in no particular order:

• Finally got to meet Andrew in person (he had Skyped with my students before).
• During a hysterical lightning round of questions, Beth Revis acted out her pose for a YA cover by kissing Myra McEntire.
• Got oodles of books signed for our library.
• Got three copies of The Perks of Being a Wallflower personalized for super fan students (Thank you Stephen Chbosky).
• Getting personal contact information from authors so I can set up Skype visits for my students.
• Buying loads of books.
• Purchasing a couple nerdy library humor shirts for myself.

My nerdy week continued when I gave the students their copies of Perks. I literally made a student cry. Not many teachers get to actually say they made a student cry, but now I can. She was so overwhelmed and excited that she couldn't formulate words and then just broke out in tears before giving me a huge hug. Yup. Good Monday.

Tuesday brought me more word nerdery in the form of an ARC. I wasn't sure what I was opening but I did a huge happy dance when I found Reality Boy in the package. A.S. King is one of my favorite authors so it was a pretty intense jig that I performed. Yes, there were kids in the library when I jigged. Yes, the students here know I'm a nerd. My dance didn't even phase them. Happy dances really can't be contained.

That is definitely a very nerdy start to the week. And I mean that in a good way.