Armchair BEA: Wrap Up

Design credit: Sarah of Puss Reboots

Well, another Armchair BEA has come and gone. I find that I'm a little frustrated with myself for my performance in this week's event because I did a lot of posts last minute and didn't even write posts for every discussion (which is because I was doing everything last minute...there are only so many minutes!) Last year I had everything all planned out the weekend before and that left my evenings free to hop around and "meet" new bloggers and comment on other people's posts. That didn't happen this year. I had great intentions, really, I did. Part of the problem with this week is that it falls on the same week as my birthday. Throw in some birthday celebrations the weekend before the event started and being busy the night of my birthday and that really cuts into blogging time. Excuses? Maybe. I like to think that I balanced everything well but the fact that I'm feeling badly about not venturing to many other blogs shows that I wish I had done more.

I was lucky enough to be a winner twice this week from the wonderful crew behind Armchair BEA. I must say that it took me awhile to figure out what I wanted to win and it wasn't really because of volume (though there were a ton of prizes). No, my issue was having to weed out all of the US only prizes. Then I had to weed out all of the YA titles. Then I was left with some options. I admit, it wasn't as bad as it could be but it's still a constant frustration for myself and my fellow Canadian bloggers. I get it when it's an individual blogger making those decisions but when publishers can't send things over the border I get a little annoyed. I also won a prize from one of the giveaways on day...er...whatever day the prize day was (four?) but I have a feeling I may not actually be able to claim it. I always make sure the contest is open internationally before entering because I don't want to annoy anyone by being one of those people who can't read the rules. Checked this one giveaway, liked it, didn't see any rules on location, entered, won, and then received an email asking for my US address. Um. This is a problem. I even double checked the post to make sure I didn't miss it. I haven't heard back from the blogger yet but I'm hoping something can be worked out. *rereads paragraph* Well, that was a bit ranty, wasn't it? Sorry! I just think it's important for people to realize that there are lots of bloggers up here in Canada who can feel alienated sometimes. Just my two cents!

As much fun as I had with this event, it was bittersweet for me this year. I had said last year that if I was still living in the same city I would go to BEA (while I do live in Canada, I'm only about 40 minutes away from the Buffalo airport...it would take me almost twice as long to drive to Toronto). I'm really not that far from NYC. However, I decided to become an intern this year which means no money for fun things, like a super awesome book conference. Oh well. Next year!

I'm hoping I'll be able to find some time over the next couple of nights to visit some other blogs and see what they have to say about things - particularly on keeping things fresh and on blogger development. I have found a couple of new bloggers to follow, which is nice. There's one in particular, Melissa at Confessions of an Avid Reader, that I'm happy to have met because she's also Canadian and a Toronto Blue Jays fan, woot! Hopefully I'll find some new online blogging friends when I visit other blogs.

Overall, this was another successful Armchair BEA even if it wasn't quite as successful as I'd hoped. Life has been good but nutty over the past week so I have to be OK with how I did. Thank you to those of you who stopped by over the week. I appreciate and enjoy all of the comments.

Until next year!