Exhilarated Exhaustion

How else can I describe my current physical state but tired? So tired that I allowed myself permission not to write last evening after a 13+ hour day at school and the book festival. So tired that the alarm clock actually woke me this morning! Still, my brain is exhilarated with thoughts and images of the past two evenings...like the smiles on Dave Geister's and Pat Bauer's faces along with a young reader who shopped ahead for his dad's Father's Day gift...like the proud children carrying rag dolls made from the direction of one of my colleagues...like the puppets from The Best Pet of All (performed last fall by the Paul Mesner Puppet Studio) and admired by many visitors, along with author David LaRochelle...like John Coy talking to children about his 4x4 books and signing copies for interested sports readers...like the beaming girls who taught origami folding to our principal and many of their peers...like Mike Wohnoutka explaining about the many boots worn by character Clementine Sweet to a second grader who has quite a boot collection of her own...like Lynne Jonell teaching me to draw faces when she was not signing copies of her books...like the many unique journals created by one of colleagues for visitors with various kinds of boxes (the tiny Jell-O pudding journal was my favorite)...like Margi Preus signing her first copy of Celebritrees for a 5th grader.

We are so glad to be tired while providing such fantastic opportunities for families. This festival is doing exactly what we hoped: offering activities and events for families to engage with authors and school experts, giving families the chance to purchase wonderful books and materials to support literacy and learning, and supporting a local, independent business.

Now I need to spend time with Major Ernest Pettigrew as I finish Helen Simonson's Major Pettigrew's Last Stand. I am close to the end and absolutely love this book. Thanks to Mr. Brattcat for recommending it!