Oh my stars, I haven’t done the drawing yet! OK, I’m going to do it tomorrow (Thursday) afternoon. If you managed to find everyone on your card, please let me know so you can be in a second drawing. Everyone who signed up is automatically entered in the main drawing. I need to figure out the best way to do this thing. I think I’ll have the hubby pick out some random numbers. Everyone is listed in a nice, color-coded excel spreadsheet, so I think that’ll work well. I have 10 prizes to give away. I’ve gotten to fondle four of them, and those were pretty darned good.

Rhinebeck has been over for days and I’m still exhausted. I can actually feel the bags under my eyes. But what a blast it was! I spent most of my time at the booth signing books, but I did venture out now and again. I made it to the blogger meetup on Saturday and it just cracked me up to see everyone running to a fro with their bingo cards. I feel like I gave everyone homework. I guess I did. But I was delighted to see everyone having such a good time. I met loads of people and still didn’t get to say hi to everyone who was playing. I feel like I missed a lot this year. There were people I meant to look for at the festival and I missed Carole’s Winebeck party. I bought wine and everything. It was Pinot Grigio called “Ciao Bella” and the label featured a lady wearing what I decided was a wool sweater and hand knit beret. I also ended up falling asleep early on Saturday night and missed out on an evening with fellow Rhinebeckestonians in the lobby of the hotel. I also didn’t make it to the Morehouse Merino event on Saturday night. Geez, I’m no spring chicken, I’ll tell you what.

But it was lovely to play the Diva and make everyone come to me. Not a lot of Divas put out cookies, but I did lapse into Whitney Houston mode and started referring to people as “Bobbaayyy!” for a while. Next year, Kellee, Elisa, Maryse, and Melanie are demanding MOKS Staff t-shirts. I think I shall comply. Maryse was my sherpa on Saturday morning. She helped me lug four heavy boxes of book to the grounds. Kellee was my handler on Sunday afternoon to make sure I had some time to shop a little before getting back to the booth to do more signing. Melanie and Elisa were my unwavering supporters, and they lounged with me on Saturday night so I didn’t feel bad staying in.

David and Mel, who ran the booth where I was stationed, where just as adorable as can be. I actually really missed them when I got back to work on Tuesday. Monday is a blur. I was catatonic for most of the day. I think I got over socialized. I had signings in NJ and NY from Wednesday through Sunday, so I did a lot of driving (and getting lost) and met a lot of people and . . . well, you know how when you pet a cat for too long and they all of a sudden start biting you and kicking you with their back feet? I started to feel like that. Waaaay overstimulated. I almost went bunny feet, you guys!

All the signings went really well. I finally got the hang of it and now that I don’t use notes, it’s lot less stressful. If I forget to say something, it’s no biggie, I just think of something else. Easy peasy. I ended up blowing a bunch of my Rhinebeck budget at the yarn stores I visited before getting to Rhinebeck. I’ll take photos in the next couple of days and tell you about the places I visited and the stuff I got. October has been a crazy month to say the very least. And it’s not over yet! I’ll be at the Elegant Ewe in Concord, NH on 10/28 at 1:00. Drop by if you’re in the neighborhood!

My heartfelt thanks go out to everyone who played bingo, stopped by to see me at the signings, have left comments and been so supportive. It really means a lot to get the amazing feedback that I do. I often get too busy to respond to everyone or spend as much time as I’d like with people, but just know that I really do appreciate everyone’s well wishes and good thoughts! Thank you!!

And now that bingo is over (for this year), I’ll actually have a bit of time to do some non-bingo-related blogging! Wheee! I actually have some stuff to show you, too! I just need to catch up a little at my day job first . . . (famous last words if I ever heard ’em)