Sunday (8th), I felt horrible. I'm guessing it was all the soda I'd had during the weekend. But I also had a couple sick kids to stay home with. The indexing class I was going to teach got moved to the next week, and I rested. Steve took Andy to his board of review to have him ready for his Tenderfoot and Second class in scouts.
Monday changed Jakob's life for what I hope is just a little while. He had a game that night, and like several other games, this was packed full of fouls. Terrible, horrible fouls. The other team mocked our team, and it was rough game. Jakob came up to us at half time and told us he was having a hard time focusing. I should never have let him go back in. He'd been hit in the face four times with elbows during the first half.
The second half he had to focus really hard on anything and played a very good half. He had a couple great shots (one swished and no one was around him. It was beautiful) and awesome blocks all over the place. Too bad he doesn't remember any of it. He remembers one shot, and that's it. When he argued all the way out to the car that he didn't make any baskets, I whipped around and headed back into the gym. I'd had it. I couldn't take the lack of calls that were made in the game. And I let the ref know that. It was more tears than anger, but I needed him to know what had happened.
The ref wanted to argue. I could tell he did. I could read it on his face. But he didn't. He took a step back, swallowed, and said he'd do better in the next game. From what I hear, a few of the games after resulted in a few technicals and our coach getting kicked out. Not what I wanted...
We didn't let Jakob go to bed for a couple hours that night until his headache was gone. When it was still there the next morning, I took him to the doctor. His balance was way off and his headache continued to come and go. He was banned from life. No, really. No exertion, no school, no sports, no music. For over a week.
So he watched all the old movies he used to watch, ate, and hung out with Heidi every day. He was bored, but he felt awful and didn't move. School wasn't forgotten, but it wasn't anything he could help, so he just let it go. The other kids stepped in to help with chores and just let him rest. Teenager's dream, right? Kind of. He misses sports and most of the other things they kept him from.
Jakob stayed home that night while we went to the Blue and Gold Banquet for scouts. There was a mix-up for the gym, so we were all crowded into the primary room to eat tacos. The food was great and Gavin got his Bobcat award that night.
Wednesday was spent getting everything done that needed to be done before I left for the weekend. I had to order awards for city sports, edit one book, format book two (which went way faster on the kids' computer), taxes from the weekend before, pay for other edits, and advertise for a few launches. Easy peasy right? I got it done! Not sure how with all the driving to get kids, but I did it.
Thursday morning, Jenna picked me up bright and early to head off to LTUE. I helped her set up and then waited for Rachelle to get there so I could help her as well. We got her art all set up and headed downstairs.
My friend, Lindzee, showed up just then and I was thrilled. We sat down to decide what class to go to next, and stayed there. For hours. It wasn't that we weren't doing anything. We had great chats with many, many people. It was so much fun. I love writing conferences because I get to see all my writing friends again. We had fun catching up and joking about us just sitting there, and meeting new friends, and just lots of awesome.
We went to lunch at a pizza place where I grabbed some pizza for Rachelle and then we headed back to the conference. Rachelle had to leave to pick up her kids for school, and Lindzee and I went back and sat down. We talked to more people, before finally going to a panel.
Next was mine! It was a panel on the Brothers Grimm and it was awesome. I loved chatting with the other authors and I hope that the people in the audience learned a lot while they were there. It was fun talking about fairy tales and twisting them. I thought the other people on the panel did a great job, and I was happy to be a part of it.
The next panel I was rather out of my element. It was on AA Milne and Beatrix Potter. I haven't read those books since I was little, so I had a hard time with answers at times. Dan Wells was worth being of the panel though. He writes horror, but listening to him quote the poetry was great. I loved it! You saw a softer side of him. Someone assured me that it was all wonderful after we were done, so I'll take her word for it. :)
We headed home after, and took a detour to dinner and then Walmart. Poor Jenna reacted to the perfume in one of the aisles. I'm pretty sure the guy dumped a whole bottle on himself. I could smell it three aisles over. Anyway, she had to have the windows open the whole way home and struggled with it the next day. Darn asthma!!
I finished edits that night, and got to bed so I could get up early the next morning.
Friday was another day of panels. I actually went to a few classes that morning, and I had a panel on Robin McKinley retellings. I loved it. I love her books, so it was fun to talk about Beauty, and her others stories.
I was hungry, so I headed up to the green room to get some lunch. I talked to one guy that recognized me from the panel the night before. His wife was the moderator. We talked TV and books for a while and then his wife came and talked with us as well. I had to leave quickly because I got a text saying Jenna was having a really hard time. I rushed downstairs, but she'd already been wheeled off to a room to get rest and a blessing.
I couldn't do anything for her, so I went with Lindzee, Rachelle, and Oscar to get a sandwich. Jenna let me know she was okay, so we sat and talked for a while. Rachelle and Oscar had to leave shortly after. Lindzee and I went to a few more panels.
Steve came to the hotel, and I sold two Stolen luck books before we caught up with several other authors. Twenty of us headed off to Bombay House for Valentine's Day dinner. We walked, thinking it was only a couple blocks away. It ended up being about five blocks away. The food was amazing, and we had fun talking to everyone there. We kinda overwhelmed Bombay House with a few more than what I'd reserved, but we still had fun.
Lindzee and Jenna went ahead of us, K'Dee, Charlie, and I walked together, and Steve went with Oscar in the car. Charlie showed off his raptor impression for K'Dee again. It's so cool. I wish I could get it on video.
Steve grabbed my books and we set them up by Charlie at the signing. I sold a couple books and necklaces. It was so much fun talking to people and handing out bookmarks. One girl was there to pick up my book before I even had everything set up. It was awesome!
Afterward, we gathered up my stuff, and Tristi's stuff and headed home. I wanted to edit a bit that night, but I was so exhausted, I fell right to sleep.
Saturday morning we ate breakfast and headed to the last day of LTUE. I went to a few panels before my panel at noon.
I was scared to death for this panel. It was on space travel and warp drive vs. the tesseract. If you're saying "huh?" you'll know how I felt going into it. I had a crash course in learning more about space travel thanks to awesome friends and good ol' google. The panel was awesome. I was thrilled to death with the discussion and the questions. And I think I did a pretty good job with moderating. I just hope everyone else did too.
The next panel was Modern Fantasy and it's relation to Folklore. Or something like that. And it was insanity. I don't want to say rude things so I won't. Let's just say it could have gone a LOT better. And our moderator won't be moderating next year. Because, uh, yeah. It was bad. But hey, I got some followers on Twitter from it. That's good, right?
It was a relief to be done with both of those, so we celebrated with a waffle sandwich at Borge's Waffles and Frites. It's a Belgian place and it's amazing. I had a club sandwich, but I want to try the waffles with mousse on them next time. mmmm.
After the last couple panels, I said goodbye to my friends and headed home with Ashley and Steve. Ashley was supposed to have a soccer game, but because of Valentine's Day, they canceled it. We took her out to get food at Burger's Supreme, and then to get a smoothie from Roxberry before heading home.
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