People tell you that everyone at RWA is super nice.  They are not lying.  It is really hard to articulate my experience other than to squee.  

I came into this with a lot of nervousness, few expectations and a lot of hope.  I hoped to meet a lot of my twitter people. I hoped it would be fun.

And it has been all those things.  The panels I've attended have been interesting and well done. The signings have been overwhelming.  The amount of books and goodies I've acquired is seriously mind-boggling.

I've had the opportunity to hug or say hi to so many people that I've wanted to meet for so long and not to mention all the ones even I've only spotted in the crowd.  Talking about books is just seriously fun. 

I attended yesterday's Librarian's Day event  because while I read romances at night (and any other non working hours) I am school librarian.  The event was very nice. We were greeted by a huge stack of books on tables, a gift from the authors and publishers present at the event.

The panels were interesting, often funny and insightful. As book blogger over invested in the Rom community, not much was new to me, but I think it provided good content for collection development-minded librarians.

I was adopted by a band of Long Island Librarians I was sitting with who were funny, passionate about romance and deeply invested/knowledgeable about libraries. They made sure I didn't sit with a table of strangers at lunch. Romance people are awesome.

After all my official librarian's day stuff was done I headed over to a little cocktail party with a bunch of authors I've known from twitter, Audra, Laura, Alexandra, Tamsen, Jenny, Mindy plus Elisabeth.  It was a fun way to kick of the start of the conference.

I then took a break from it all and my husband and I hiked out to Williamsburg to play trivia with my old college roommates.  We laughed and laughed & even won 3rd place.  We crawled home exhausted but happy to reconnect with such awesome old friends.

Today, started with a mad crush of people at breakfast, and a very interesting speech by Barbara Freethy.  There was a wonderful excited buzz in the room.  I then filled yet another tote bag with books  and enjoy the opportunity to hug authors whose books were my introduction to Romance.

I've hardly had a chance to attend panels but the ones I've gone to were fabulous. Both panels on diversity and multi-cultural writing were fantastic. Great materials, insightful potent arguments. Of course I am the choir but I just wanted to cheer.

Highlight of the day however was sneaking away for lunch at French restaurant and just talking books again about what works and doesn't for us with another group of writers, editors and bloggers who were just so damn interesting.

Part of me wants to rush downstairs and hang out at the bar and meet another hundred awesome people but I'm remembering this is marathon not a sprint.  I'm recharging now and heading down to dinner with my husband in a little bit. If I haven't seen you yet, hopefully we will get a chance to connect tomorrow because it is the people who are making this experience wonderful.