Celebrate This Week 2.01.15

It's always good to end the week on a positive note.  Sometimes we concentrate on the negatives.  We have a choice.  Choose positive.  Choose to celebrate.  I will be joining Ruth Ayres and her weekly link-up, Celebrate This Week.  Check out all the other celebrations HERE

This was a rough week.  One of those weeks that many, many little things kept going wrong.   Things were out of my control.  I was in the constant stage of reacting instead of planning.  I don't like those weeks.  If only a few of the things had gone wrong, it would have been manageable, but it was just too many.  It left me tired and worn out.  

I was going to write this post Friday night.  It was going to start out the same but I was going to talk about how when we have weeks like this, it's really important to not look back.  Move forward.  Think about what's to come.  The good things that are waiting.

On Friday evening I was packing for ALA.  I was really excited to be heading down to Chicago for a weekend of books and friends.  This is a huge weekend for the book world as we get ready to watch the youth media awards tomorrow.  I was so glad to participate in this weekend.  But there was a snow storm coming.  When would it hit?  I had heard varying accounts.  How much snow?  Not much to a few inches to 8 inches.  As I packed, I watched the evening news.  The snow was now going to hit Saturday night, with a lot falling Sunday pre-dawn hours.  By Monday morning, 11 inches should fall.  I've lived in the suburbs all my life.  But here's 2 things about my driving life you need to know:  1. I hate driving in snow.  2. I hate driving in Chicago.  What to do?

I ended up going the safe route.  I planned to go Saturday, but I would come home after the Nerdy dinner.  That means I would lose the money I put down for my non-refundable hotel room.  Bottom line, if the snow was going to be as bad as they say it was, I really needed to get home.

Saturday ended up being an amazing day.  I had a fantastic time.  I got down to the city early, got a great parking spot in the garage, registered and had time to plan my day.  I had great company all day and talked to many friends.  And of course, the books books BOOKS!  I walked away with so many ARCs that I can't wait to dig into.  I met some fantastic authors and got books signed.  And I was able to check out so many upcoming picture books (yeah, that will be an upcoming post this week!).  I had a lovely dinner with many Nerdy friends, and was able to catch up with many of them.  I love hearing about what they are doing - in much more detail than the usual 140 Twitter characters we're allowed!

By the time I left Saturday evening, I was content, but had the drive home to deal with.  While the roads were slick, they really didn't get bad until I got up north.  Even with that little snow on the ground, I was reminded of how happy I was to have made the return home early decision.  

I'm missing out on today's events, but I'm also tucked in at home with the extra hours to get things done.  It kind of sounds like this week is starting on the right track.

And things can only get better because tomorrow at 8am, I'll be tuning in to the ALA presentation and seeing the lovely books that are winning well-deserved praise.  It's going to be fun.

Yes, celebrate that!