I have my tickets, I’ve pre-registered for the Expo, and my very good friend Debra actually has, or rather will have, room to house me for the seven days in which I will be up there.
I know I said I’d ask family of I could stay with them, but in my defense, Deb is family. I did ask my cousin before her though, but my cousin doesn’t have any additional space. And I refused to ask my friend Cat because I took up every last ounce of space last time I went up there. I cannot live like that for very long. I was hoping not to inconvenience any of my friends this time around, but when my cousin informed me of her situation, renting a room from her sister-in-law, I went to Deb. She’s the only other person up there that I know besides my cousin and Cat. I wasn’t positive of her living arrangements either, but my BATNA as the terminology goes, was to suck it up and pay for a REALLY cheap hotel room. Fortuitously, Deb has the space. In fact she’s going to be moving into her very own condo shortly before I come in. She claims that it may not be fully furnished yet, but hey, she’s going to be a homeowner for the very first time. How awesome is that? So, that takes care of big expense number 1.
In terms of tickets, I ended up finding the cheapest ones on Orbitz.com; $209. There was no additional BEA discounts but the days and flight times were better. Instead of coming into NY on the Friday before which was my cheapest option on JetBlue, providing me time to waste more money, I’m now coming in on Sunday. I’m leaving the following Saturday. Additionally, the cheapest tickets on Jet Blue just happened to have me coming in at around 10 PM. My mom looked at the times and vetoed them. I’m still her little girl she tells me. It’s not safe. I tend to agree but I didn’t have any other options at the time. She was the one who told me to go to Orbitz and the like. Mothers know best. So, this means that my second biggest expense has been taken care of and it’s about the price I thought it would be.
My big expense number three, the actual registration fee, was not the price that I thought it would be; but then actually turned out to be the price that I thought it would be. Confused? So was I. In the previous post I stated that it was going to be about $140. Well, when I called the BEA to inquire about working at the Expo I was told, by three people, an almost flat out NO. Only one of them stayed on the line to answer more questions, others simply referred me to another department. Well, the person who answered some of my questions told me that my cheapest option would be to do a one day pass for $120 as an industry professional. I told him I wanted to be there for three days and asked him what specification I should register under. He said industry professional. I nearly cried, because that particular classification is nearly $300 dollars. Once again, I cannot afford too many things right now.
Anyway, when I went to register, I saw the book club member – for $140. I signed up
under that. And it’s legitimate because I am a paying member of the SCBWI. That wasn’t one of the choices for book clubs to register under, but that part wasn’t mandatory, so they better let me in. I have proof of my membership and it is a trade publishing society/club. It’s just a children’s book trade publishing society/club.
The next step in my strategy is to contact people and find out if they are available to meet me during the time that I am up there.
I know I said I’d ask family of I could stay with them, but in my defense, Deb is family. I did ask my cousin before her though, but my cousin doesn’t have any additional space. And I refused to ask my friend Cat because I took up every last ounce of space last time I went up there. I cannot live like that for very long. I was hoping not to inconvenience any of my friends this time around, but when my cousin informed me of her situation, renting a room from her sister-in-law, I went to Deb. She’s the only other person up there that I know besides my cousin and Cat. I wasn’t positive of her living arrangements either, but my BATNA as the terminology goes, was to suck it up and pay for a REALLY cheap hotel room. Fortuitously, Deb has the space. In fact she’s going to be moving into her very own condo shortly before I come in. She claims that it may not be fully furnished yet, but hey, she’s going to be a homeowner for the very first time. How awesome is that? So, that takes care of big expense number 1.
In terms of tickets, I ended up finding the cheapest ones on Orbitz.com; $209. There was no additional BEA discounts but the days and flight times were better. Instead of coming into NY on the Friday before which was my cheapest option on JetBlue, providing me time to waste more money, I’m now coming in on Sunday. I’m leaving the following Saturday. Additionally, the cheapest tickets on Jet Blue just happened to have me coming in at around 10 PM. My mom looked at the times and vetoed them. I’m still her little girl she tells me. It’s not safe. I tend to agree but I didn’t have any other options at the time. She was the one who told me to go to Orbitz and the like. Mothers know best. So, this means that my second biggest expense has been taken care of and it’s about the price I thought it would be.
My big expense number three, the actual registration fee, was not the price that I thought it would be; but then actually turned out to be the price that I thought it would be. Confused? So was I. In the previous post I stated that it was going to be about $140. Well, when I called the BEA to inquire about working at the Expo I was told, by three people, an almost flat out NO. Only one of them stayed on the line to answer more questions, others simply referred me to another department. Well, the person who answered some of my questions told me that my cheapest option would be to do a one day pass for $120 as an industry professional. I told him I wanted to be there for three days and asked him what specification I should register under. He said industry professional. I nearly cried, because that particular classification is nearly $300 dollars. Once again, I cannot afford too many things right now.
Anyway, when I went to register, I saw the book club member – for $140. I signed up
under that. And it’s legitimate because I am a paying member of the SCBWI. That wasn’t one of the choices for book clubs to register under, but that part wasn’t mandatory, so they better let me in. I have proof of my membership and it is a trade publishing society/club. It’s just a children’s book trade publishing society/club.The next step in my strategy is to contact people and find out if they are available to meet me during the time that I am up there.
No comments:
Post a Comment