That’s what we’ve been calling a certain book celebration event in Puyallup, WA: Wendelin-fest. One of my favorite authors, Wendelin Van Draanen, was in town at Puyallup over the weekend. Puyallup is a mere 3.5 hour drive from Grandview, so naturally I heaved my 8 months (!) pregnant self into the van and WENT TO PUYALLUP! Puyallup is kind of fun to say—it’s not poo-yall-up, it’s peew-all-up. I’m going to try to stop using Puyallup in every sentence now, but no promises.
Ok, back to the book-fest: Wendelin wrote an awesome mystery series about a girl named Sammy Keyes. I have loved those books for years. They are funny and clever and Sammy is just so lovable. A few weeks ago, the eighteenth and final book in the series was published. So a few choice book-lovers in Puyallup organized a Sammy Keyes party. My Mom and I attended it together on Saturday night. There was an on-stage author interview. There were two rock bands—Wendelin played in one with her family! [she has a family band with her husband and two sons] There was a conga line! Converse high tops were tromping all over the place. It was a loud happy gathering. While I am a happy person, I am not a loud person, so mostly I observed the festivities from behind my bulging belly. I did get in line and have my copy of Sammy Keyes and the Kiss Goodbye signed by the author, the editor, and the illustrator. That was pretty sweet. Maybe next time a much-respected person is in town I’ll actually do more than say a muffled hi—like maybe I’ll remember to take a picture? That would be smart!
After the rockin’ party, I stayed in Bellevue with my Mom and we had a quiet Sunday together watching General Conference before I heave-ho-headed home on Sunday afternoon. It was a fast 24 hour visit—I wanted to stay about a week longer—but now that Jay is in school and all that, we can’t just abandon Grandview as often as we used to.
Jeff manfully held down the fort and the kids while I was partying with librarians. Of course it all hit HIM in the short time I was gone: Rose had like 3 disgusting potty accidents and Jay started puking. Selfish Shaina says it was a great time for me to leave and Responsible Shaina says yikes, my poor Husband!
Not to be creepy or anything, but I had to—just for fun—since I didn’t manage to take a real picture:
Hanging out with Wendelin.
2 comments:
I totally wanted to grab that photo and add myself to it--photobomb! But alas, I don't think I can post images in comments....
It does look a little creepy, though! ;o)
-- Ryan
I'll have to look those books up :-) Sounds like a fun party.
And just so you know, Logan grew up in Puyullup :-)
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