Drowning in Swag

It's the start of convention and book-signing season and I'm up to my ears in preparation. It's a little like Christmas, in a way, except, instead of sugar plums, the visions dancing in my head are of mugs and magnets and excerpt booklets.

Boxes of books accumulate in my office-slash-dining room. Promotional goodies proliferate. And the table itself slowly disappears beneath piles of assorted goodies like boxes and baskets and book thongs and beads, pens and postcards, ribbons and tea...not to mention the several pounds of rose petals.

I may have gone just a tad overboard with those. I know they're light and it might seem like a lot, but how can you judge how many pounds of petals it takes to stuff several hundred champagne-colored, organza sachet bags?  (say that five times fast--I dare you!)

Every afternoon, I watch the clock and wait for the mail truck to arrive with more treasures. Meanwhile, my husband grows increasingly concerned about my "obsession". His word, not mine. Thanks to the magic of the internet, I can easily keep track of almost every package along its way--and I do. Most of them have arrived pretty much on schedule, so far, although thunderstorms did delay my delivery of tea canisters by two days and those several hundred champagene-colored organza sachet bags I mentioned? Yeah, they're still unaccounted for.

My days are filled with exchanges such as these:

Me (shouting to DH in the other room): "Hey, where's Pleasanton?"

DH (shouting back): "No idea. Why? What's in Pleasanton?"

Me (still shouting, while staring in consternation at my computer screen): "My pens!"

*confused silence*

Me (muttering crossly to myself): "Why are my pens in Pleasanton?"

Sometimes, I do find myself wondering if this isn't just a new procrastination technique I've dreamed up, another way to avoid working on my WIPP (work in perpetual progress) and I'll admit my writing productivity has slipped a little. But who has time to worry about that when there are beads to string and cards to sign and ribbons to curl and--hopefully soon--all those sachet bags to fill?

On second thought, maybe I need more petals?