YA Icons & Once

The past week has been a whirlwind of activity - and I love it! I've had fun things happening to me nonstop since last Saturday, and today's post will share just what I've been up to lately. It's rare that I've got this much stuff going on, but I figure I'm going to embrace what comes my way. I've been blessed with the opportunity to be living in New York, surrounded by amazing friends and opportunities, and I'd like to always remain grateful for that.

Last Saturday, I commuted all the way to JFK. It was not because I was traveling (although I wish I could do that soon, since I'm starting to get restless); it was because I was on my way to pick up Rachel and help her move into her dorm for the summer! Once we'd found each other in the airport (and had a few moments of "OMG, we're finally meeting in person! AAAAAAH." pass), we grabbed a hold of her luggage and somehow maneuvered our way onto the Air Train, then the A train, and walked a couple of blocks (okay, maybe around 15) to her new place. I helped Rachel unpack and arrange her stuff, went with her to pick up some essentials at Target and then we ended the night with a late dinner at Monty's. 

Hi Rachel & her dorm room!

It was so wonderful to finally meet Rachel in person. It was also a little scary how alike we were, although we're different in many ways too. Still, Rachel is a kindred spirit and so we got along great! I also fell in love with her new neighborhood and may be using my visits to her as an excuse to hang out in her area. 

Last Monday, I attend the YA Icons event at Books of Wonder featuring Margaret Stohl, Tonya Hurley, E. Lockhart, Eliot Schrefer, Gayle Forman and Barry Lyga. The event was wonderful, mostly because the authors were intelligent, funny and just plain weird (which is pretty darn awesome). I enjoyed listening to them talk, and I did manage to tweet a few things:

After the panel and a short Q&A, I had the opportunity to finally meet Gayle Forman and have her sign my books! While I was too starstruck to ask for a photo, we did have a nice little discussion about The Lumatere Chronicles (yay!) and New York City. I'm sure I'll be seeing her again, but it was great to be able to get my copy of Just One Day signed. (To be fair, I also bought copies of If I Stay and Where She Went. This is just in time for the Gayle Forman Read-along that my friend Brittany dreamed up, and which I'm a part of too.)

Rachel D. & Rachel K.

Gaby & I

Gaby, Rachel D., Rachel K. and I all headed out to dinner at Schnipper's afterward, where we had fun conversations about books and BEA and other fun things. We've come to the conclusion that Gaby needs to read Pushing the Limits (which, by the way, she's doing right now), Rachel K. needs to read Dare You To, Rachel D. needs to read Alanna: The First Adventure and I need to read Under the Never Sky. All in all, it was such a fun night and I look forward to the many more times we'll do this during the summer!

On Wednesday, I finally got a chance to watch a Broadway show for the first time in ages. I had high expectations for Once after having heard such great things from Estelle & Magan and a few other friends. And it completely blew me away. I am in love with the soundtrack, which is all sorts of wonderful. And I wanted to put Arthur Darvill (who plays the Guy) in my pocket so that I could take him out whenever I wanted and have him sing and be adorable... 

Gaby & I

Pat & I

I went with Gaby (who is fast becoming one of my constant blogger buddies - and it's awesome!) and one of my best friends and roommates Pat. I was happy to share the night with these two amazing ladies! In fact, hanging out with Pat has inspired an idea for a future post about our friendship and just how it got started... because it all started with a book. But you'll have to wait around for that one to pop up in the future!

I'm taking the rest of this weekend off to relax, recuperate and prepare for BEA. There's a lot of cleaning and laundry to do, packing to finish (for a balikbayan box I'm sending home to the Philippines) and books I want to try to read before BEA. Wish me luck!