What a Start to the Week

This week's start (and the end of last week) has been rather interesting.

To begin, I've been working on the Ruth Toor Grant through AASL for the last two months, and the deadline was February 1. Never one to like to wait until the last moment (in case something goes wrong), I made sure my membership fee was mailed January 7th so my membership would be processed before I needed to submit the application. The check cleared on the 19th.

So why is this important?

Well, as of the 29th, my membership fee and application had been misplaced in the system and I still could not submit the grant! Being rather OCD about last minute things, I was panicky at this point. My narrative was ready. My timeline finished. My budget analyzed to the last penny. My biography (much as I don't like having to write about myself) completed. BUT I COULD NOT SUBMIT! I had been working with some wonderful people at ALA/AASL over the course of seven days before the 29th when, finally, they found the records, processed everything on the afternoon of the 29th, and I could submit! Ahhhh! A sigh of relief? Well, not exactly. I never received confirmation that it successfully uploaded. All weekend I fretted. Did it go through? Was this normal?

Yesterday I decided to call AASL one more time. They pulled Friday's records and discovered that there were no submissions on Friday! Oh no! While being thankful I had called, now I was in full panic mode as I resubmitted. But, the same problem occurred all three times: no confirmation. Another phone call, their IT department on the case, and it turns out a glitch in the system causing all sorts of issues....but my grant finally submitted. Whew!

Then, when I got home, I had an absolutely fabulous message on Facebook: I won!

What did I win? No, not the grant. (Although I hold out hope for that.)

Let me go back in time to 2008. WAAAAAY back then I entered the Y2K8 Authors contest for a free author visit from one of these wonderful authors publishing their first novels. I won and chose a visit by Jody Feldman, whose book The Gollywhopper Games was already a big hit with our students. (Read about it here). Jody has since written the remaining two books in the trilogy as well as a fun book, The Seventh Level, full of puzzles and mysterious clues to solve. I have garlic from her growing in my herb garden (another story for another time), and she has read parts of one of my novels and critiqued it for me.

With a history like that, how could I not enter a book launch contest for a free Skype visit with her even though I'm now at a high school? I entered on behalf of my fabulous friend and fellow Queen of Libraria, Angela West, who is the Media Coordinator Extraordinaire at Riverwood Elementary School. To my great surprise and excitement, I WON! (Which means Angela and her students won!) It really made my day to get to share the news with her last night.

On top of all that, I had two students approach me yesterday with questions regarding careers in Library Science! Yeah!

So with all the emotional ups and downs and it only being Tuesday, I can't wait to see what the rest of the week brings!