Chris doesn't go to L.A.

Lordy, I wish I was going to the SCBWI annual conference in Los Angeles this coming weekend. I've only been once, in '03. Is attending essential to my career, or anyone's? Nope. But I did have one of the best times in my life.

Eating breakfast at the table next to the one where Norton Juster and Sid Fleischman were getting acquainted, striking up a casual conversation with Arthur Levine, downing glass after glass of wine on the hotel patio with some of the most creative people I've ever met...

Sigh.

2006, anyone?