Skip to content

State of The Trout: I went to IKEA!

Posted in Uncategorized

Hey everybody! Just a quick update to let you know what’s happening around these parts!

  • Next week, The Boss series will be going on a blog tour! This is going to give you a chance to enter to win some really great prizes, including signed paperbacks and Sophie’s lipstick vibrator (some shipping restrictions apply).
  • The cover for If Ever I Would Leave You gets revealed next week, as well! And there’s another giveaway! OMG YOU CAN WIN SO MUCH STUFF IF THAT IS YOUR THING!

I went to IKEA! I have long been wanting a specific desk from them, but the shipping was like, prohibitively expensive (it would have cost more than the desk!). So when we were on our way to Chicago North’s Spring Fling conference this weekend, my awesome friends Andrea Dickinson, Bronwyn Green, and Patricia Kiyono braved IKEA with me (on a Sunday, which is apparently the worst day to go? There were people lining up outside before the store even opened!) and I got my freaking desk!

photo 1
Bronwyn Green and I try to figure out if we’ve got all the right parts
photo 2
Me, Bronwyn, and Patricia posing for a photo right after Andrea said, “I’m taking a picture of this, guys!”
photo 3
And then Patricia was like, “Now let me get a picture of you guys.” In hindsight, we could have probably just asked somebody else to take a photo of all of us.

IKEA is the scariest place on Earth. There is too much stuff and it’s all overwhelming and everybody knows exactly what they’re doing and they do not like that you’re there messing up their groove. It took us forever to find the restrooms because we kept seeing signs that said Bathroom and they meant stuff for the bathroom and not the bathrooms where you could do a potty. I had no idea how any of the IKEA process worked and it was all terrifying. But I got my desk, and hopefully I’ll have it set up soon. There is a lot of office reorganizing that needs to take place before that can happen. But I’ll take pictures when it’s done.

As for the conference? It was awesome. I got to meet some of my tweeps that I’ve never seen in person, I made some new friends, got to have a super good chat with my editor at Entangled, Liz Pelletier, and there was a Starbucks in the lobby that was open until 5pm. There was a fancy dinner with a shitty comedian, so here is a picture of me avoiding his “Am I right, ladies?!” jokes in the bathroom:

IMG_20140426_210844439

 

The first day of the conference, I found this in the lobby:

IMG_20140425_103931327 (1)
This is gonna be a good day. I can feel it.

There was a silent auction for a literacy charity, so Bronywn Green and I decided to do a basked together. The theme was “Naughty and Nice.” I bet you can’t guess which side was mine:

IMG_20140425_092601837 (2)

I went to a bunch of workshops, including one on reviews by Sarah Wendell of Smart Bitches, Trashy Books, and one by Liz Pelletier on the traditional publishing process. And at the book signing I got my Kindle cover autographed by Mary Balogh, Courtney Milan, Lauren Dane, and Carrie Lofty, and in the lobby Kristan Higgins complimented my hair! All in all, it was a good conference, and I’m glad I went.

So, what’s on the agenda for the next week in Trout Nation? You can expect Merlin Club on Friday and another After recap between then and now. I’m also working on the next Buffy recap, but you know those are a little longer and take more time in between, just like I know that you’re patient.

Everybody have a great Monday, join us for Merlin Club tonight at 8pm EST if you can on the hashtag #MerlinClub, and I’ll see you later in the week!

Did you enjoy this post?

Trout Nation content is always free, but you can help keep things going by making a small donation via Ko-fi!

Or, consider becoming a Patreon patron!

Here for the first time because you’re in quarantine and someone on Reddit recommended my Fifty Shades of Grey recaps? Welcome! Consider checking out my own take on the Billionaire BDSM genre, The Boss. Find it on AmazonB&NSmashwords, iBooks, and Radish!

21 Comments

  1. I love your hair, and your dress, and HEY I HAVE THAT T-SHIRT! It was a mystery gift in the mail. No joke, the billing info was all my name and stuff but I DIDN’T BUY IT. Nobody has fessed up either. Half creepy, half awesome.

    April 28, 2014
    |Reply
  2. laine
    laine

    IKEA always gives me the creeps. All those brightly colored happy looking pillows and chairs, accompanied by a strong vibe of grim, ruthless efficiency. I love putting that shit together, though. It’s like Legos, except at the end you get a coffee table! Also a pretty big fan of the meatballs.

    That peacock dress is so rad.

    April 28, 2014
    |Reply
  3. Akri
    Akri

    Peacock dress FTW!

    April 28, 2014
    |Reply
  4. Krystal
    Krystal

    Your dress is super awesome! Where did you get it?

    April 28, 2014
    |Reply
  5. Mojitana
    Mojitana

    Wooo! It looked like a fun adventure.

    Ikea *is* scary. I put it in the same realm as Costco. Too much stuff, too many people. Get in, get out. Survive.

    Beautiful dress. I love peacock anything!

    Hooray for a fun weekend with friends!

    April 28, 2014
    |Reply
  6. Sophie
    Sophie

    IKEA is a wonderful place but it’s an incredible timesuck. You probably should be glad that you don’t live that near one, because there is always a strong temptation to pop back and get more stuff. And then you end up like me, with a tiny Victorian terrace full of furniture!

    Also I am completely in love with your peacock dress, it is just so beautiful! And you look stunning in it. (is it new? And from somewhere that ships to the UK?)

    April 28, 2014
    |Reply
  7. Hey, am I a new friend you met at the conference? I loved meeting you!

    I feel about Home Depot and Bed, Bath & Beyond the way you do about IKEA.

    April 28, 2014
    |Reply
    • JennyTrout
      JennyTrout

      You are most definitely a new friend I met at conference!

      April 30, 2014
      |Reply
  8. Nadia Oliver
    Nadia Oliver

    First LOVE LOVE LOVE the dress. OMG.
    Secondly, I’m so happy you had such a great time cause you TOTALLY deserved it. Good news on my side…I walked totally by myself after having spinal surgery in January. I get my own studio apt at the rehab facility. ANNNNDDDDD I get to see my baby after she’s been in the boarding place. Wish I could add her pic , but she is a Chocolate Point Siamese cat. Love you Jen and Jen’s friends.

    April 28, 2014
    |Reply
  9. Linda Olson
    Linda Olson

    So far, I have resisted the lure of Ikea. I have to confess that I have never liked Swedish meatballs, nor lingonberries, despite growing up with a Swedish immigrant great-grandmother. I loved her Swedish pancakes, but I always ate them with Mrs. Butterworth’s syrup. I guess that makes me a bad Scandinavian.

    So, how shitty was the comedian? If he had been in a comedy club, would the drunken patrons have thrown beer bottles at him, or merely left before tipping their waitress?

    April 28, 2014
    |Reply
  10. You look beautiful in that dress!

    Half the furniture in my living room comes from IKEA. (The other half is hand-me-downs from my family–I am the repository of leftover things.) The IKEA store here in Atlanta isn’t too overwhelming to me (and trust me, I know from overwhelm), but I tend to go on weekdays if I can help it.

    April 28, 2014
    |Reply
  11. ghilie
    ghilie

    “There was a fancy dinner with a shitty comedian, so here is a picture of me avoiding his “Am I right, ladies?!” jokes in the bathroom”

    So much this ^. I’ve noticed that terrible comedy has a lot of misogyny at its core.

    April 28, 2014
    |Reply
  12. Serenity
    Serenity

    That dress! Where did you find it?

    April 29, 2014
    |Reply
    • JennyTrout
      JennyTrout

      I got it from Zulily, so the best I can say is to keep an eye on the plus-size sales there. 😀

      April 30, 2014
      |Reply
  13. Geekintheglasses
    Geekintheglasses

    Dear sweet baby deities, that dress is gorgeous! And so are you!

    Half of my room is Ikea, because the place just kinda sucks you into spending hours there, and they have tasty meatballs. I’m a sucker for good meatballs.

    April 29, 2014
    |Reply
  14. Niki H
    Niki H

    IKEA sucks. I can’t wait to go again. *wicked grin* Seriously, I have a very extreme love/hate relationship with IKEA. All the highs, lows, twists, turns – it’s worse than a high school re-enactment of Romeo and Juliet.

    And let me also *thumbs up* the awesome peacock dress!!

    April 29, 2014
    |Reply
  15. AD
    AD

    OMG the dress. *dies*

    April 30, 2014
    |Reply
  16. Janine
    Janine

    Ikea is AWFUL. The only thing that redeems it at all are the baller faux-swedish ginger cookies.

    May 1, 2014
    |Reply
  17. Anon123
    Anon123

    That peacock-feather dress is fantastic, especially on you!

    June 12, 2015
    |Reply

Leave a Reply to JennyTrout Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *