Weekend Recap

It was quite a weekend!  First, Matt and I went to the new Red Robin restaurant in town (fancy,  I know) and then out to our favorite local ice cream place, Dairy Dream.  I had a butterscotch sundae.  Saturday, we went out to breakfast with my cousin who was in town and his mom (my aunt, who is already in town.  Is this TMI?).  After that, we went to a fabulous kite festival.  The best part was when the announcer made everyone drop their kites and did a countdown to launch.  As all of the kites went up, they played, "Let's Go Fly a Kite" from Mary Poppins!  It was so sweet.  Even more sweet?  My two and a half year old's multiple attempts at flying a kite by herself.  We eventually found one that worked at their kite store.  And check out this monster:

The octopus was over forty feet long!  We watched as they launched it, and it was pretty amazing.  Another mega kite was a dragonfly.  Or something like that:

And a seahorse!

None matched the meganess of the octopus, though.

Sunday was Printers Row Book Fest.  I was on a panel with James Klise and Debra Moffitt.  I had no idea what it would be like, since I haven't been to Printers Row in years.  I was pleasantly surprised at the turnout:

Yes, a handful were my friends and relatives, but a bunch weren't!  I hilariously choked a few times when it came time to remember the questions the moderator asked us (they were really long questions!), but it was all good.  The audience had questions, which is always appreciated, and my fellow panelists were tres awesome.

We were very lucky that the weather was so nice and in the upper 70s.  The previous day it was hot and humid, much more typical of Chicago summer weather.  The weird thing was that I started sweating profusely when I had to read a piece from my book (I chose a random one from Don't Stop Now).  Other than that, I wasn't really sweating.  So what was it about reading from my own book that did that to my body?  Not only that, but my eye started twitching a little while after the event, and it hasn't stopped (and it is now the following morning).  This isn't good, considering I have another event this weekend (The Don't Stop Now book release party at The Book Stall is Saturday, June 11 at 2:00!).  And after that, a few appearances at ALA in New Orleans.  What if my body is in complete stress shutdown mode?  What's next?  A limp?  Or a lisp?  Stay tuned.  Let's hope I can still type.