June 30, 2016

 I got six hours of sleep last night which didn't feel like nearly enough. I got up and ate a breakfast of leftover pizza and breadsticks before getting ready. Then I finished packing up the last of my stuff. With all the books and extra crap I had I needed to do a little rearranging. I ended up using the bag I bought last night for my laptop, 3DS, phone, and three books. I had a bunch of random papers, my giant conference program, a book, hoodie, laptop charger, water bottle, and other miscellaneous things in my backpack. And then everything else was neatly crammed into my suitcase.

My shuttle picked me up on time but only because I was lucky. She had four stops all scheduled at the same time and by the luck of the draw, she picked me first. I believe the last person was picked up thirty minutes later. Had that been me, I would have been a little worried if my shuttle was thirty minutes late. I probably would have gotten an Uber at that point, now that I'm all in the know about Uber.

We got dropped off at the airport shortly before ten o'clock after about an hour on the hour. They had curbside check-in and I kind of did that. They also had another version of curbside set up right next to curbside, even had the same line, but it was somehow different. I can't remember what they called it. The difference was that they worked on tips, or at least that's what the guy told me. I didn't really care though because it was super quick, the guy gave me really clear directions to get me where I needed to go, and I avoided the long check-in line inside. Worth a tip.

I apparently looked a little confused when I got to the security area because a guy working there came up to me and said I looked confused. Or maybe I just looked suspicious. Either way he helped me out. There was a wait at security but the line went pretty quickly. After I got through I went and sat at a bench next to a boy eating pancakes, so I could more easily put on my shoes. The pancakes and syrup smelled really good. I got my shoes on just in time to catch the tram over to my terminal.

Then it was just a hurry up and wait situation because I had an hour before boarding started for my flight. I took that time to read the Benjamin Button graphic novel. I would say that was a good use of my time.

It was really nice being in the 'A' boarding group, even if I was second to last. It felt like the plane was practically empty when I got on and I was able to get a window seat. Not long after sitting down a mom with two small girls sat down in front of me. One of them was two years old and she was the one that randomly cried and screamed throughout the flight. It was mildly annoying but the noise in the cabin was great enough that it cut off a lot of the screaming. I had almost sat in that row, which would have probably caused them to sit behind me, which would have been way worse because the sound would be coming right at me.

On the flight I finished reading the information about F. Scott Fitzgerald in the back of the Benjamin Button book, took pictures out of the plane window, read a little bit about library security, and played Ocarina of Time on my 3DS. It has been so long since I”ve played that game that I really had no clue what the hell I was supposed to be doing. I ended up just running around and accomplishing nothing. I went to the one place that has been hinted at but I have no idea what I'm supposed to do once I'm there. Oh well.

The coolest thing about the flight was the tracker that you could access on your phone over the plane wireless. You were able to see a map with the plan flying over it so you could see the general location of the plane. You could also see: flight time remaining, estimated arrival time, distance remaining in miles, altitude, heading, and ground speed. Very cool.

My mom and sister met me at the airport and after waiting forever to get my bag at baggage claim, we headed to the car and then home. We stopped and had a late lunch on the way back and it was the first time I've ever eaten at a Cracker Barrel. I don't know how I've managed to avoid that but it should changed because the food was really good. Namely, the pancakes, which were way better than Village Inn. I also got a blueberry muffin but didn't have any room for it after the pancakes so I took it home for later. I had lemonade to drink and I think it was the real deal, homemade and all that. I had almost two glasses and I could have had more but then we would have had to make twenty pit stops on the last leg of our journey. Right as we were about to leave there was a downpour so we ended up wandering around the small store in the front of Cracker Barrel while we waited for the rain to pass. That didn't take too long and then we were back on our way.

When we got home I showed my mom all the stuff I got and then I started doing laundry. I only managed to get two loads done and still have one to go. I also watched YouTube videos and tried to stay awake long enough for the second load to finish. Which it has. So I'm going to go to bed now. After I find the email that mentions when I'm supposed to be at work tomorrow. I'm remembering nine o'clock but I can't find the email. Fake out. I just found the email, and my memory was correct, I go in at nine o'clock. Noon would have been nice so I could have slept in, but would have also meant working until nine o'clock at night, which would have sucked. So I'll try and power through waking up early, yet again. I am glad to be home but it also means I can no longer ignore all the crap I need to get done in my real life. Being so busy and out of my element for the past week was a nice distraction but now I need to get back to the stress that is my life this summer. I can already start to feel it overwhelm me.

June 29, 2016

 This morning I woke up earlyish and started writing in my field journal. I wrote from eight o'clock until about three o'clock, with a short break around lunchtime for a piece of pizza and a breadstick. My hand still hurts. But I got all seven entries finished.

I decided that I did in fact want to do something with the rest of my day. I briefly considered going on a helicopter ride but decided against it because it was expensive and it didn't seem worth it considering the amount of time I would be in the air and probably wasting the rest of my day traveling to and back from wherever the helicopter was. Instead, I decided to go to the Artegon Marketplace, which was kind of like a mall but with a bunch of local artist shops and stores I'd never heard of.

In anticipation of doing something today I downloaded the Uber app last night. That is how we got home the other night when we went out to dinner and it seemed pretty convenient and less intimidating than a taxi or figuring out a bus schedule. I opened it a few times just to get a feel for it and it seemed simple enough. After getting ready I grabbed my field journal and went down and slid it under my professor's door before heading out to the lobby. The two girls I went to Universal with and have randomly hung out with throughout the trip were also down there and waiting for an Uber. I think I called mine first and then watched her drive buy and head toward the convention center, so the girls' ride arrived first. I think they were going to another amusement park. A few minutes later my ride showed up.

It was a nice older woman and we had a good conversation about a lot of random stuff, like the weather and books and Florida. And then we were at the Artegon Marketplace. Right in the middle there is this aerial thing where kids can put on a harness and walk around these thin beams and things. I spent awhile just walking around and looking at the different local art and then headed to the comic shop. They had a bunch of comics and toys and there was a bar and arcade games in the back. It was pretty cool. I ended up getting a graphic novel of Benjamin Button and a graphic novel from Drawn & Quarterly.

After that I did some more wandering, looking at the various small shops, walking around an art gallery and a glass shop that had an artist working on glass art in the shop as well as a furnace in the back where it looked like people could participate in blowing glass. It was pretty cool. There was something I wanted to get for my mom but I couldn't imagine trying to get it home without it breaking so I decided against it. I stopped to look at Vagabond Traveler, which has various leather and canvas bags. I really like the convenience of the small messenger bag my mom gave me before the trip and the trip would have been a lot worse if I didn't have the bag and had to use my backpack. I looked around the small shop and the guy working there explained all the different products. I was tempted and told him that I would probably come back.

Then I went to the Book Warehouse and was tempted by a lot of things but manged to only buy a book about bread. I can only take home so many books. Then I wanted around some more and ended up at Fuddruckers. I've heard of them before but don't think I've ever been close enough to one for it to be a dining option. Until today. I got a veggie burger and it may or may not have been good. I got cheese, which I probably shouldn't have because that along with the pickles, lettuce, ketchup, and mustard pretty much covered up the taste of the burger. The wedge fries were pretty good. I was initially a little confused about how to get water but it was in the automated Coke machine. Then I picked up my tray when I was done and tried to find a trashcan but it turns out it is one of those places where you leave it on the table. When I found an employee and asked where the trashcan was she looked a little mortified that I had attempted to pick up after myself.

I left Fuddruckers and went back to Vagabond Traveler. I had scrolled through their online selection while eating and found a canvas bag I liked and wanted to see if they had it in the shop. When I first went in I saw a smaller one with leather trim but the bag my mom got me covers the small size perfectly. I wanted a slightly bigger one for when I needed to carry more stuff. When I went back I went in the other entrance and the one I saw online was on a shelf facing that entrance. I hadn't seen it before and I was pretty confident it was the one I wanted. I picked it up and looked at it to see what it was like on the inside and the various pockets it had. It had a lot of pockets. I looked around the shop a little more and the guy pointed out that he also had it in blue and tan but I liked the green and ended up buying it. I'm pretty happy with the purchase.

More wandering and then I went to the movie theater which is attached to the marketplace. I wanted to go to the boot store but wouldn't have had time unless I went to a later movie, and I didn't want to be out that late. So I skipped boots and went to the movies. I saw Independence Day: Resurgence. I didn't particularly want to see the movie but it was in 3D and on a larger than normal screen, floor-to-ceiling and wall-to-wall. They also had cushioned reclining seats and the rows were set up in such a way that you couldn't see anyone in front or behind you when you were sitting. It was great. The movie, was not great. The special effects were cool and there were occasionally funny moments, but overall it wasn't great. But I wasn't expecting greatness, I just wanted to see a cheesy action movie in 3D on a giant screen, and that is exactly what I got, with a comfy reclining chair on top of it.

After the movie I went outside and got another Uber. It took him awhile to get to me and it looked like he may have gotten lost, at least that's what it looked like on my phone. But he made it and I made it safely back to the hotel.

When I got to the hotel I ironed my clothes for tomorrow and then packed my suitcase. It did a good job of keeping my room clean throughout the week but that consisted of just throwing my clothes in my suitcase and piling up my books and papers. It took a little work to get everything sorted. But I got there. My shuttle should pick me up before nine o'clock tomorrow morning to take me to the airport and my flight should leave at 11:45AM. I logged into the site to check-in for my flight the second it hit 11:45AM this morning and managed to get boarding position A59. I believe that is near the tail end of the second group to board. Maybe that means I can get a window seat. We'll see.

Oh, and my professor slid my journal back under my door while I was ironing. Apparently she spent the night reading journals and gave them back to anyone who was still here so she wouldn't have to mail them back to us. She hasn't posted grades yet but hopefully it met all the requirements.

Now that I am done with this, I'm going it go to bed. It is one o'clock in the morning and tomorrow morning is going to come much too soon. I am, however, looking forward to pizza for breakfast.

June 28, 2016

 This morning I woke up early and got ready so I could get to the convention center by 7:45AM for the ALA Council meeting. I dragged my feet a little bit, and still managed to make it to the building by 7:45AM but it took me almost ten minutes to get through the building and to then find the room. Several people were getting there around the same time and we quickly discovered that all the doors to the room where the meeting was being held were locked. A few different people tried knocking on the door to get the attention of the people inside but no one responded until finally a lady pounded on the door.

It was an interesting meeting. On either side of the big room there was seating for the general public and the center was made up of tables and seats for all the council members. I came in at the tail end of the tributes and the majority of the meeting was boring. The outgoing treasurer gave his final report which was filled with numbers for the coming year. There was a report of the tellers and I'm not entirely sure what that was about, maybe people being elected to things. The committee on legislation was mildly interesting but most of it was over my head. During that one several things were voted on, council members raising their hand to vote for something and then the rest raising their hand to vote against it. Most were unanimous and one had a few against.

The most interesting part of the meeting came at the start of intellectual freedom committee, which began with a vote to defer until the mid-winter meeting a resolution on gun violence affecting libraries, library workers, and library patrons. This vote led to the most number of council members stepping up to the various microphones and voicing their thoughts, both for and against deferring the resolution. Some thought it needed to be done now when the issue was recently brought to the forefront of everyone's mind. Others wanted to take more time and make sure the response was based on facts not emotion. Some didn't want their individual libraries dragged into a fight with the NRA because the ALA put out a statement speaking for all libraries. Others didn't think it was the libraries place to take such a stance because they are just stewards of the people, not the lords of the kingdom. It was interesting to see all the different perspectives on the matter, even when people were arguing on the same side of the vote. In the end the vote was close enough with the raised hands that they had to do an actual count. People voting to defer stood up and were counted, and then the people voting not to defer stood to be counted. Those wanting to defer ended up with the majority.

The meeting ended with more numbers. There were 11,602 attendees at the conference and 4,995 exhibitors. I'm not sure if the exhibitors total is just the people working at booths or if it included all the people who only got badges to attend the exhibits. Or if those people are counted in the attendees total. Either way, that's still a lot of people. Not nearly as many as I was expecting but still a lot.

After the meeting we headed to the auditorium for the closing general session, with guest speaker Jamie Lee Curtis. Much like the other sessions with speakers, the beginning part was a little dry but the speaker was good. I've only ever seen Jamie Lee Curtis as an actress but she makes a very good speaker. She was funny throughout the whole speech which is quite an accomplishment. Her newest book is about immigration and where people come from. It involves putting things in a suitcase and they have created a lesson plan around it for young kids. The teacher will send a small suitcase home with a kid and they will have to put everything in it that they would want to take with them if they had to move to a new place. It's a small suitcase so choices will have to be made, much like the choices immigrant families throughout history have had to make. It's a really interesting idea. She told many stories and anecdotes but I think the best was about her giving an oral presentation in eighth grade as a flea on the horse of Paul Revere. She got her first A+. I really enjoyed the speech.

That was the end of the conference for us and we were free until one o'clock. I went back to the hotel and tried to figure out my job situation. The HR lady from the school has called my house twice since I've been here and today I got a voicemail from the business manager at the library. Apparently whatever the HR lady was calling me about was holding up the business manager at the library from submitting payroll. I guess because I never submitted my resignation to the school I couldn't be switched over to the library's retirement plan, which caused all sorts of problems. I tried calling the HR lady but she was out of the office. I waited awhile and called again and got someone else in HR and she explained the issue to me and emailed me the resignation form and exit interview. After that I called the business manager at the library and told her what was up and apologized for all the trouble.

At one o'clock we all met down in the professor's room for our final debrief of the conference. We talked about a lot of different conference stuff but we also went around and each said the best part and the worst part of the conference in our opinion. It was interesting to get everyone's perspective on things. It sounded like for the most part everyone had a good time and learned some things, and no one had a completely awful time, at least no one said they did.

Following the debrief we had until seven o'clock. I spent my time working on my journal. And I took a brief nap. I was fairly productive. And then, ten minutes before seven o'clock I headed down to the Village Inn on the corner for our last group dinner. Or really the first group dinner that everyone showed up to, minus the second professor who actually left earlier in the day because he wasn't feeling well.

The only rule at the table was that you couldn't sit near your roommate in order to encourage talking to different people. I originally sat down at one end of the table but it was decided that we wouldn't need that spot so I moved down to the other end. This ended up working out in my favor. I had good conversations with my classmates around me. I also spoke a lot with one of the boyfriends of one of my classmates who arrived today because they plan on sticking around for a little vacation. He is the first person I have ever spoken with in real life who not only knew who the Yogscast are, but actually watches them, without me explaining it all first. It was kind of refreshing. We also talked about video games and I found out he was into pens and paper so we talked about that as well. It shouldn't be so rare to speak with someone who shares the same interests but in my life it is. I should probably work on making friends with people who share my interests.

After dinner I briefly spoke with my roommate out in the parking lot about our website, the degree program in general, and about what I was going to do tomorrow. Then I walked back to the hotel. I spent the rest of my night working on my journal. I'm only about halfway through Saturday. Good grief. It is one o'clock in the morning right now and I plan on waking up relatively early so I can continue working on the journal. I have to get it done tomorrow and it would be nice if I could get it done early enough so that I could go do something on my last day in Orlando. I don't really know what but even if it was going to see a movie that would be something. I looked into Cirque du Soleil because I've been a fan for awhile and it would be cool to see a performance in person. We'll see if I can finish my journal. I need to be less wordy and just cut to the chase.

June 27, 2016

 Today was the last full day of the conference. The weather was also much nicer today, possibly due to the rain last night. On my walk to the convention center there was a slight cool breeze and for the first time I wasn't excessively sweating from walking outside.

My first session of the day was about gamification in libraries. One of the speakers was from the academic library I am currently doing my practicum at her her presentation was really interesting. I might have to email her when I get back and see if she can send me the papers she wrote on the topic. The other presentations were also interesting but one of the girls was really hard to hear. Right off the bat people told her to speak up three different times but I think we all just kind of gave up after that. She had a deeper voice, which didn't help, but she also wouldn't raise her voice or keep her mouth close enough to the microphone. She would occasionally try to make jokes (I think) but no one laughed because we couldn't hear them properly. The unfortunate part was that her presentation was actually interesting and it would have been nice to hear all of it and not spend the majority of the time just straining to hear.

The session got out thirty minutes early so one of my classmates, one of the girls I went to Harry Potter with and happened to be in the same session, and I went into the exhibit hall and over to the gaming and graphic novel stage. Drawn and Quarterly was just starting a session there so we sat down and listened. Throughout their presentation they listed a bunch of their books and now I want to buy a bunch of their books. I know I have heard of them before but I don't think I've ever read any of their books. That will need to change. I got a free graphic novel at the end of the presentation so I guess that will be an introduction into their catalog.

I rushed from that session to the LITA interest group on maker technology. They were previously exclusively concerned with 3D printing but this was the first meeting under their more encompassing name. We all sat around a big table (or three long tables pushed together to be more accurate) and started by going around, introducing ourselves, and saying why we were there. Then there was just an informal discussion covering some of the issues that people were interested in. That covered makerspace policies, how libraries set up their spaces, inexpensive ideas for spaces, and a few other things. It was really interesting and I think it will be one of the interest groups I join when I get back home and have to renew my ALA membership. Also, some guy gave out a bunch of Arduino components to the group. He apparently had a session that only a few people showed up to and had a bunch of these parts to hand out so he gave them to us. I have no idea what do do with them because I would still need to get the board and a case and whatever else, but I'm one step closer.

After that session I went quickly up to the fourth floor to watch more ignite sessions. I caught one about something that didn't pertain to me but I also got to see the two that I wanted to. One was on marketing and the other was on easy makerspace program ideas. That one was particularly interesting and I'm glad I made it up there in time.

I went back down to the exhibit hall after those sessions. I briefly talked with the lady from Drawn and Quarterly, looked at the maker pavilion, spoke with my roommate for a little bit, and bought two of the classic mangas from UDON, which were down to five dollars a piece today. On my way out I ran into one of my classmates who was volunteering at one of the booths and we spoke for a little bit before I headed out to get some lunch. I was cutting it close on time so I ended up going with the shortest line again. This one was a panini place but I ended up just getting rice and black beans. It was way better than the rice and beans I got from the other restaurant.

I ate quickly and then continued the theme of rushing and went to my next session. It was by the Pew Research Center and it was about how the public grades libraries. The room was literally packed to overflowing. All the seats were taken, people were sitting in the aisle, standing along the back wall, and out into the hallway. I was right on the edge between the door and the back wall. It was uncomfortable standing the whole time but the presentation was filled with interesting facts from the their polls. I'm a fan of data. I would include some of the information here but it is getting late and I want to go to bed soon.

I had a half an hour after that session before the next required thing so I walked over to where we were meeting and read while I waited. We eventually all made it there but didn't really have a clue what we were supposed to do. We went into this little area with tables and chairs and started dragging chairs around so we could all sit together. That attracted the attention of several other people who apparently thought we looked like we knew what we were doing. One outside told us the idea of the space was for people to informally come together and talk about some of the things they had seen at the conference and do a little networking. Because our group was so large we decided to break into groups by library, which worked well for academic and school but the public group was still huge. I broke off with a few of my classmates and we ended up kind of talking about sessions but mostly talked about a bunch of random stuff like video games and bitching about having to do some of the required stuff. I enjoyed myself because it was the first time I had really gotten to talk to some of them this trip. We were briefly joined by a woman who works for FirstBook, which sounds like a company I want to look into more. Or at least pass their information onto the school librarian and maybe the public library.

From that we went to the Library Games. That was... a thing. It felt like we had walked into the wrong house party, or as one of my classmates put it, like a big inside joke we weren't apart of. It was definitely an extroverts thing. There were three teams of eccentric, extroverted librarians, two equally eccentric, extroverted hosts, and a handful of judges. The teams were to compete in four events and be judged by the judges and the audience. The events consisted of having to give a presentation with a given topic but a random assortment of slides that were mostly memes, several rounds of Cards Against Librarians, a trivia contest, and then lip-syncing. If it wasn't odd to begin with, there was also drinking involved, which made things that much weirder, but I'm not sure it would have been that much less weird if people were entirely sober. It was just an odd bunch with a lot of histo

June 26, 2016

 I got a decent number of sleep last night but waking up in the morning still kind of sucked. My first session this morning was at 8:30AM which meant I needed to leave the hotel before eight o'clock to make sure I had enough time to get to the convention center, walk all the way across the convention center, and find the correct room with enough time to get a seat. Some of the sessions never fill up and others are already overflowing way before the session starts.

The walk over this morning was pretty nice this morning and I only sweat a little bit. My first session was about library instruction. There were examples from school, academic, and public libraries and they were all interesting. It was sponsored by the Library Instruction Round Table (LIRT) which is one I plan on joining when I get home because instruction will soon be an important part of my job.

My next session was basically about digital literacy in the public library setting. The session as a whole was fairly disappointing because it wasn't what I was expecting, but they included some interesting information so it wasn't a complete loss.

Following that session, which was on the first floor, I went halfway across the building and up to the fourth floor to see some ignite sessions. It is one big session filled with several different presenters who give quick five minute talks on various topics. I went to watch the one on self-marketing but ended up seeing a few more on top of that because they didn't seem to be following the order in the conference schedule. I learned about social media policies, how to be a manager, and a small mug library project, as well as self-marketing. I have a couple more of those sessions on my schedule tomorrow and I'm looking forward to it because it is a fun concept.

I had about an hour before my next session so I ate lunch. The Pizza place in the food court had the shortest line so I went there and got a tiny cheese pizza for $9.75. Definitely not worth the prize but it was quick and one of the few vegetarian options that wasn't just a salad.

My first session in the afternoon was about 3D printing and program ideas to make it more interesting. It was mostly focused on kids and teens but they included several ideas that could be used for adults. The library system in the basement of our public library has a 3D printer and my boss is interested in possibly incorporating it into some of our programming. I've now got a few potential ideas.

I had some time after that so I went back to the exhibit hall on a mission. My first stop was the booth for Better World Books. My library is starting a weeding project soon and in preparation for that we all had to read a different article on the topic. Mine mentioned Better Word Books, which takes old library books, sells what it can, donates what it can't, and recycles any that are left. For all the books they sell the library gets some of the money. I had a nice conversation with one of the ladies working at the booth and I grabbed some information to take back to work.

The last session of the day was the ALA Awards Presentation, which was followed by the President's Program where Diane Guerrero spoke about her book and immigration reform. The awards presentation was pretty boring until the last one. That one was presented by Daniel Handler (Lemony Snicket). The prize was “$10,000 and an odd symbolic object from Lemony Snicket's private stash.” It went to the director of the public library in Baltimore that is located at the intersection where Freddie Gray was taken into custody. After his death there were demonstrations and when a riot broke out at the intersection, the director made the decision to lock the doors of the library to keep the people inside safe from the destruction outside. She opened the library the following day, despite the unrest, and continued to help the community, as a good library does. In his speech Daniel Handler told all the librarians in the audience to keep the doors open, but added only one person was getting $10,000 for it. The “odd symbolic object” was brought out on stage by Mo Willems. Daniel Handler announced this and held his arm out to one side of the stage as if to welcome Mo but then Mo walked out from the other direction, which was funny. Then he ran back off stage and brought out a big stuffed chair that he proceeded to stand on in order to hold up the giant ceramic plate that was the prize. I think he may have also drawn a picture and written a message on it. He also pulled out a much smaller ceramic plate as a gift for Daniel Handler and had written on it something to the effect of “You're okay, I guess”. It was pretty great.

Diane Guerrero's speech was about as expected. It was good but she's not much of a speaker. I'm not judging her though because she did way better than I could have done. She threw in some serious stuff but also some funny stuff, and stuff that she intended to be funny but didn't really get the laughs she was hoping for.

After the meeting I was going to go to a social thing for LIRT, and I walked across the bridge to a hotel, but then looked at the shuttle schedule. It looked like the regular schedule ended before the social thing would be over. There was another event this evening and there was supposed to be an extended shuttle schedule for that but that was also supposed to happen the other night when it never showed up and I had to walk back to the hotel. It rained a little today and it looked like it may rain again, and I didn't want to walk back in the rain. I also didn't want to walk back at all, so I walked back to the convention center and got on the shuttle to go back to the hotel. While sitting on the shuttle I realized that I had actually gone to the wrong hotel for the social event, so it's probably good I decided not to go because I would have been awfully late.

When I got back to my room I ordered food from a different pizza place than last time. I got a big pizza, a salad, breadsticks, and chocolate cake because why not. After an hour the delivery guy called and told me to meet him in the lobby in five minutes. I finished writing a sentence in my journal for class and then headed down to the lobby. I walked out the front door right as the guy was walking from his car with my food. Another instance of perfect timing. As for the food, the salad was lettuce so nothing special, the pizza wasn't as good as the first pizza I got, the breadsticks were over-cooked, and the chocolate cake was freaking delicious.

Tonight I wrote the first entry of my journal for class. That means I'm only four entries behind now. I have all the basic information written here, so I don't have to worry about forgetting that stuff, and I've got all the notes I have taken while in sessions, so I'm good there, too. I just need to write it all out. I should have plenty of time to do that. Hopefully that won't mean writing all day on my last free day. I don't have anything planned for that free day but I wouldn't mind not spending the whole day writing.

June 25, 2016

 I didn't get nearly enough sleep last night, which made getting up this morning kind of suck. But I did get up, and got ready, and headed to the convention center around 8:30AM. Had I been a little quicker I could have caught the shuttle but I think it left about the time I was leaving my room, so I walked. And I was sweating by the time I got to the convention center but it wasn't as bad as yesterday.

Our first thing today was going through the convention center as a class. The goal was to wander around for an hour and then meeting the new dean of the library school before going to see Margaret Atwood speak. Right at the beginning of the wander the other professor with us on the trip noticed the Gamer ribbon on my badge that I got at the gaming event last night and asked what games I played. That led to a long conversation about video games and then I ended up walking with him throughout the exhibit hall and talking after we got separated from the rest of the class. In that time I picked up my first free book, The Magic Words: Writing Great Books for Children and Young Adults by Cheryl B. Klein. Someday I would like to write books so I thought it made sense to get a book about writing them better. After getting over that first hump, later in the day I also picked up Rogue Heroes by Ben MacIntyre, American Ulysses by Ronald C. White, Jr., Thornghost by Tone Almhjell, and A Hundred Thousand Worlds by Bob Proehl.

At ten o'clock we ended up at the booth the new dean was supposed to be at but he was apparently out walking around talking to people. And he never showed up. Not a great first impression. Several people wanted to go see John Lewis speak but weren't able to because we were required to meet the dean. And then he blew us off. Good guy. I suggested the professor take a picture of us looking sad in front of the booth so she lined a few people up and did just that.

And then we went to see Margaret Atwood. They are two very different speakers, and Margaret Atwood was good, but Michael Eric Dyson was way better. The funniest thing she said was that when she was a kid she thought 'child molester' was pronounced 'child mole-ster' and that a job where you rounded up moles sounded like a pretty fun job. She also talked a lot about Shakespeare, not only because he is her favorite author, but also because her new book is based on The Tempest. If she is as funny in her writing as she is in her speaking I should probably read some of her books. Apparently they gave out her new book at the end of the session but I left halfway through the Q&A. Oh well.

I wandered around the exhibit hall again, picking up those other books, and eventually it was time for my next session, which was supposed to be about the impact of the Japanese gaming market on publishing. The original speaker wasn't able to make it so a writer for graphic novels took his place and did a good job talking about how important graphic novels are, especially for people not interested in reading. I also learned that the company hosting the session, UDON Entertainment, has manga classics series that turns classic books into manga, making them more accessible to kids who may never pick up a classic book. At some point tomorrow I want to find their booth and take a look at them.

I left that session a little early so I could head downstairs to a session on digital conversion. It was a panel where the speakers spoke about the current projects. Two people created a digitization project for photos from the 1960s taken at their university. Another was working on creating a combination of a web crawler and a browser that can actually archive streaming media, which is apparently very hard to do at the moment when trying to archive a webpage in its entirety. The third person talked about the digitization of over 200,000 pages from newspapers, all of which are also sent on to the Library of Congress for their collection. The last panelist was in charge of the team at NYPL Labs that recently released 187,000 high-resolution downloads of public domain materials. I've actually perused that a bit so it was cool to learn more of the story behind it.

I had a little bit of time after that session so I decided to have a quick lunch. So I didn't end up super hungry like I did yesterday. I didn't have a lot of time and I didn't want to get something very involved so I just got black beans and rice. Probably would have been quicker to get it in a burrito but it was cheaper to just get them both on a plate. It was only four bucks because I think the guy only charged me for the rice, but maybe the price I was thinking of was only when it was in burrito form. I'm not complaining. Especially after I at the rice and it was kind of awful. It was either undercooked or overcooked. Maybe some combination of the two because every mouthful I ended up with several hard pieces of rice that I thought would break my teeth. I survived.

If I hadn't stopped for lunch I probably could have gotten a seat in my next session, but I did, so I didn't. There were actually several seats open but some were in rows blocked off by people sitting on the end, or they were in between two people, so I just stood at the back. The session was about the use of gaming to attract young adults to the library and it was really interesting. Two librarians from the Chicago Public Library spoke about how they used a giant Jenga set made out of 2x4s at public street fairs to attract attention to the libraries game programming. The second speaker was a librarian at the New York Public Library and in his game programming he made connections between video games and books. That might be video games directly related to specific books, either in plot or references in the game. It could also be games that were inspired in the development process by books. I got a lot out of that session.

All of these sessions had been in the convention center but the final session of the day required a bit of a walk. I went across the bridge, skirted around that hotel and continued on a bridge to the next hotel, which I then walked through and ended up on another bridge that connected to another hotel. Good grief. Once I got in that hotel I took the escalator down and then got out my map and tried to figure out where the session was. I couldn't find the room on the map so I found a helpful looking person who was directing traffic for another session and she was able to direct me back up the escalator and down a hall. Had I looked at the sign above the door I could see when I first came in, instead of at the big sign with information that didn't pertain to me on it, I may have found the room quicker.

This was a required session because it was a panel about research and one of our professors for the trip was a panelist. The four panelists just talked about their current research and it was all incredibly dry. If it hadn't been required, meaning that all twelve of us were in attendance, four or five people would have been there, and I get it. We all knew about our professor's research because we've all had him for class and he talked about his research in that class. I guess you could say each project was interesting in their own way but I wasn't feeling it and I don't think any of us were. I was most annoyed that I had walked all that way.

And then I had to speed walk back with my roommate and the two girls I went to Universal with. They can all walk so fast and I don't get it. I probably have the longest legs of the bunch which should give me an advantage in stride but I think their shorter legs give them a quicker pace, which is hard to keep up with. It doesn't help that I have also started to develop a blister on the bottom of my right foot.

In the end it was probably good that we went at that pace because we were able to catch the shuttle. My roommate opted to walk but I was kind of over it after the walk we just completed, so I went with the girls down to the shuttle. It probably sat there for several minutes after we got on but had I walked by at my desired pace I doubt I would have made it in time. So I guess the fast walking can serve a purpose.

When I got back to the room I ate the last of my pizza, looked at some conference stuff and then started typing up my journal for the class. I need to actually write it in a physical journal but I thought it would be better to type it up first. I'll probably change my mind when I start running out of time but for now that is the plan. I almost finished the first day of travel before stopping to type this.

And now it is ten o'clock so I am going to go to bed. An early night so I can get a full night of sleep. Tomorrow will be another long, full day. I am looking forward to what I can learn and I am hoping that my legs and feet make it through. As long as I don't have to try and keep up with someone's speed walking.

June 24, 2016

 This morning wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. I was a little sore after all of the walking yesterday but I was expecting way worse. Originally we were supposed to have breakfast as a group this morning but that was canceled and we just met for a mini-orientation in the professor's room at nine o'clock. We discussed conference things and then we broke off into groups to talk about the class book. We did it by rooms so I was with my roommate and the two girls I went to Universal with yesterday. We went up to my room and talked about the book discussion questions created by the book publisher. Eleven out of the twelve of them were bad questions because they didn't really have anything to do with the book, they were more like the personal questions you would answer on a dating website. When we met back with the class we talked about the worst question, the best question, and a question we would add.

Following that we broke off as roommates to talk about our websites for about forty-five minutes. That ended up being really productive and we now know pretty much what our website is going to be about and the five different pages we are going to make. The content still needs to be determined but progress was made.

Shortly before noon we packed up and headed to the convention center. We had the option of a shuttle or a walk and my roommate and I decided to walk just to get a better idea of where it was related to the hotel. It was a hot walk but it didn't take too long and the building was freezing so it didn't take too long to cool off.

We ended up on the opposite side of the convention center than registration, which we didn't realize until we wandered a bit aimlessly through the building. But we found it and got registered. Then we were going to get something to eat but after getting in line we realized by the time we got the food we would have been late to our first sessions. So we got out of lines and parted ways.

I headed upstairs and then outside across the giant bridge to a nearby hotel. I met a couple academic librarians standing around and we hung out until the doors were open to the room. We somehow missed the initial opening because by the time we got inside all of the tables were nearly full, so we split up. The point of the NMRT session was an orientation for first-time conference attendees. There was some interesting information but I don't know if it I needed to devote so much time to it. It ended with one of those ice breaking bingo games where you have to walk around and find people who match the spaces, like someone who is right-handed, someone who is an academic librarian, and so on. The first two people done got a prize and I didn't even get half of it filled out by the time that happened. I ended up leaving that session about thirty minutes early because things were winding down and everyone else was leaving.

The map I was looking at sucked so I got a little turned around getting to the next hotel. I got back up on the walkway and took the bridge I thought would lead me to the next hotel. It took me somewhere but on the way I saw the hotel I wanted across the street. I just couldn't get to it from where I was. I wandered around for a little bit inside the building I ended up walking to but couldn't find and obvious way out so I went back out on the walkway and took the stairs down to the street. Then I took the long walk across a couple streets to the right hotel.

I got to that session super early, despite getting lost. I was even earlier because the session before mine was scheduled up to the time mine was supposed to start. There is apparently supposed to be thirty minutes in between sessions but they either messed up or the people running that session decided to stay. I am kind of leaning toward the latter because even when the people in charge of my session came in and started setting up a large group of people from the previous session continued to stand up front and talk with each other. Seemed a little disrespectful.

My session was for LITA, which is concerned with technology. This was funny because all the technology was screwed up in the room and they weren't able to show their slides or connect to the internet. But the lady made it through. I ended up sitting with one of my classmates and after the main bit of talking everyone broke into smaller groups to discuss different topics but my classmate and I ended up speaking with the lady in charge. We didn't split into the groups and it came up that we were at the conference for the class and that we were going to the different sessions for class-related blog posts. We had a really good talk but then we had to head out so we could go to the opening general session, which was the official opening of the exhibit hall, and kind of the conference I guess.

I was really lucky that I was with my classmate because she have figured out the correct way to get to that hotel from the convention center. Turns out there was bridge from the convention center. And that was good because by the time we got to the auditorium and found our class there were only two seats left. At least with our class.

The session was informative but pretty boring when the president was speaking. And then Michael Eric Dyson got on the microphone. He totally killed it. Totally awesome. Hopefully a recording of it will be put online because I want to watch it several more times. I've never seen him give a speech before but I want to see more.

At the end of the session they did a big ribbon cutting for the exhibits and then there was a mass exodus from the auditorium as hundreds, possibly thousands, of librarians walked quickly across the convention center to get to the exhibit hall. I ended up hooking up with the two girls I hung out with yesterday. We detoured upstairs to use the restrooms that weren't as busy and then I think the goal was to find food. That was a fail but we did wander into the exhibit hall. It was big and overwhelming and we just wandered around feeling overwhelmed. None of us knew what we should be doing really so we just walked. Then we walked out of the exhibit hall and down to the closed food court to sit at a table.

After a short time there I remembered that I had left my rings in the bathroom after my first session this morning. I actually noticed it during the general session but then forgot about it. But then I remembered again and said I was going to walk back over to that hotel and see if they were still there because the girls were going to be at the table for awhile. It didn't take me too long to get back over to the hotel and it was a miracle, my rings were on the sink counter just where I had left them. Four hours later. I think it helped that the bathroom was massive, not heavily trafficked because there aren't a lot of dudes at a library conference, and the rings blended into the counter pretty well. And possibly people are just good. Anyway, since I was already in the bathroom, I used it, and then almost left my rings on the counter again. But I didn't.

On my way back to the convention center I got a text from the girls saying they were headed back into the exhibit hall to get food. I headed into the exhibit hall and then spent a long time walking around trying to find them. I found a couple different food spots but it was all meat stuff, so I didn't get anything, and I didn't see the girls. Eventually I got a text saying they were back down at the table. So I went back down and sat with them and ate a small pack of trail mix. This morning I had a granola bar, a pack of trail mix, and some fruit snacks. Lunch was non-existent. And sometime after six o'clock I had a small pack of trail mix. Not the best.

We sat around and talk, which was nice, and then parted ways shortly after seven o'clock because they were going to go to an award banquet and I was going to go to a gaming thing. My thing was back at the hotel I had just gone back to for my rings. I have become very familiar with it at this point. The gaming thing had a bunch of board games set up, some from local game developers, some with the actual publishers with them, and then just a bunch of tables with random games for people to play. I've been interested in board games for awhile, watching YouTube videos and livestreams, but have never gotten around to playing them. Mainly because I don't have friends to play with. But tonight I got to play some and it was a lot of fun. I played a couple with some LITA people, including the lady I spoke with this afternoon. Then I took a break, came back and watched a few people play a dinosaur game for awhile, and then ended the evening my playing an escape game. We didn't get anywhere close to escaping but I had to leave before it was over because it was 10:15PM and I wanted to get back for the last shuttle.

I walked back to the convention center and down to the shuttle area where there were several people waiting, including my professor. They had been waiting since before ten o'clock. They had tried calling the shuttle company but no one answered and by 10:30PM, when the last shuttle was supposed to come but didn't, they started getting Ubers. At one point my professor wandered off and I thought she was going to look into the situation. Nope. She was actually just walking back to hotel. I was left with one lady who asked if I wanted to get a cab because she was at the hotel next to mine. I texted my professor to see if she was checking on the shuttle thing or if she wanted to share a cab with the lady I was with. After quite awhile I didn't here back so the lady and I decided to walk back. Once we got back into the building I heard from my professor, who told me she hadn't seen me and had gone back to the hotel. Her not seeing me is a possibility. I actively avoid looking at people all the time so wouldn't know I was standing next to someone either. Earlier in the exhibit hall I saw my other professor and it felt like one of those situations where he looked away right as I looked at him. That was weird.

Anyway, I walked back to the hotel with the lady, who was an academic librarian. We had a really nice conversation and the walk was pretty nice. It was cooler because it was dark outside, but the humidity was pretty bad so I was still sweating by the end of it.

When I got back to my room I had a few slices of my leftover pizza and the rest of the mozzarella sticks. And then I started writing this. It has taken me forever. It is now one o'clock in the morning and that means tomorrow morning is going to suck. Hooray.

June 23, 2016

 I got plenty of sleep last night which is good because today was a long day. I got up got ready and a little after nine o'clock went down to the lobby. I ended up running into the two girls I was tagging along with on the elevator because they were coming down from the floor above me. We met up with their two friends in the lobby and then hung out until around 9:30AM when the shuttle showed up to take us to Universal Studios. I wouldn't come back to pick us up until 7:45PM, which I thought sounded like way too much time, but we ended up filling all of it.

The main goal was the Wizarding World of Harry Potter and that is how we spent most of the day. We started in Diagon Alley and it looked amazing. I've seen videos but it is way cooler in person. The attention to deal is incredible. There are so many little details that really make it feel like a real place, not just an attraction at an amusement park. I feel like it would take an absurd amount of trips just to catch all the little things. That would get pretty expensive but I'd be willing to give it a shot.

We checked out a lot of the shops and did the Ollivander's experience where a small group of people are taken into a small room and all the walls are just shelves of wand boxes. Then a man picks out someone from the group and has them try out a few different wands before finding their perfect wand. And you know the right one has been found because a light shines down on the person. It was pretty fun. And the person picked was one of the girls in our group, which was pretty cool.

and then got in line for Harry Potter and the Escape from Gringotts ride. You go in through the front and then end up in a long, snaking line out back, before coming back into the bank. The lines for stuff could be long but they always seemed to be moving and it didn't really felt like anything took that long, even when it did. Even with the lines never constantly moving, we still had to cover a lot of ground. We eventually made it into the bank, which was really cool, and then kept going. It's an interesting setup. There is an elevator ride down to the vault level but but the elevator doesn't really go down. At least I don't think it does. It seems that it's only the floor moving, with all the noise and projected screens at the top of the elevator giving the impression of movement. It's pretty cool but coming out of it made me feel a little odd, like right after stepping off a boat and trying to walk on solid ground when your body is used to movement.

After the elevator you grab a fancy pair of 3D glasses and work your way over to and then up a spiral staircase to the ride platform. The ride itself is a mix of a roller coaster and a 3D movie. Technically 4D because there is smoke, you might get water sprinkled on you, and you feel heat. It is all a lot of fun. I want to see the ride with the lights on, though, because it is hard to tell what is really a roller coaster and what is just an illusion, like am I really dropping or is it just the seat tipping forward? I liked it.

Instead of stopping for lunch we got ice cream instead. I got pistachio but that was kind of a rip off because it was really just vanilla with some bright green highlights. One of the girls let me try her butterbeer ice cream and that was way better because it actually tasted like something. Vanilla soft serve really isn't anything to complain about on a hot day, though, and I did appreciate the cold treat.

After that we took the Hogwarts Express over to Hogsmeade. That was neat. Again, the line was long but it moved quickly and we were soon all aboard. The window in the train car is actually a video screen so it looks like you're riding a train in the wizarding world, not just traveling between parks. They also project people on the opaque windows of the door, walking by and talking. All the details.

Hogsmeade has a lot of the same stuff as Diagon Alley so the main goal was to ride Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey. Another interesting ride. I liked it more than Escape from Gringotts because I thought it was more exciting. It was another mix of a roller coaster and a movie, minus the 3D glasses, but it was just as immersive.

Following the ride we were going to go back to Diagon Alley to eat a late lunch at the Leaky Cauldron but when we started heading up the winding ramp to the train we found out it was broken down. That led to some debate about what to do next. We headed back down the ramp and decided to eat at the Three Broomsticks rather than walking back to the other park. But then when we asked one of the park people they said the train probably wouldn't be broken very long so we turned around and went back up the ramp and got in line. Despite being broken down the line was little moving forward a little bit and a few minutes later it was announced the train was working again. It was a super long and hot line but we eventually got on the train. The ride back was different than the first ride and I think the first was better but the second was still good.

When we got back to Hogsmeade we at lunch at the Leaky Cauldron. The only thing on the menu that didn't have meat was macaroni and cheese on the kids menu. When I asked if that was the only thing without meat the guy said he could actually do a salad with pickled beets and some vegetables. I went with that. It wasn't very filling but it was food. I also found out that I don't mind pickled beets. They tasted just like those tiny corn. One of the girls let me try her butterbeer, which was good but I don't know that I could drink a whole cup of it.

I think it was after lunch that I went and bought myself a wand. I didn't get one in the morning because I didn't want to have to carry the long bag around all day. I ended up going with Professor Trelawney's wand because it was clean and simple. I then had to carry the bag around the rest of the day but it was worth it.

After that we rode Escape from Gringotts again. The line went faster this time and it was still fun but I still liked Forbidden Journey better. Following the ride we decided to go on a Jurassic Park river ride. It was back in the other park and we didn't want to wait on the train so we ended up walking over to the other park. At a very fast pace. It was hard to keep up at times. It was getting later in the day so the thought was to get over there quickly so we could go on the ride before we had to get back for the shuttle. Well, the line for the ride ended up being practically non-existent so the rush was unnecessary, but unfortunately we didn't know that at the time. The ride itself was neat. Not as good as the Harry Potter stuff but still fun to look at. The real draw was the water part. We were in the last row in our car which is good because on the last big plunge we only got a little bit splashed, and the front couple of rows got a lot more water.

After the ride we were able to relax a little bit. We stopped at one more shop before leaving and the pace was much better. We got out to the shuttle spot with plenty of time to spare and ended up sitting on the ground while we waited.

My goal when getting back to my room was to put my feet up and order a pizza. I got a flyer under my door yesterday for a pizza place and there was another one from a different pizza place when I got back. I ended up going with the second one because I could also get fries and mozzarella sticks. It took an hour for the pizza to arrive but I'd say it was worth it because it was really good. And I'll get to eat leftovers, which I am already looking forward to.

While waiting to eat and then throughout the night I texted with friends and family about my day and then started writing this. It is now after eleven o'clock and I need to go to because I have to wake up for a group breakfast in the morning and then the conference starts in the afternoon. It is going to be another long day.

June 22, 2016

 Last night I didn't get to sleep until after one o'clock. I decided to go ahead and get a ticket for Universal Studios to kind of force myself to go. And then I printed off my shuttle confirmation because I realized I needed that. I also go distracted researching other things. When I finally went to bed it took forever for me to fall asleep so when my alarm clock went off at 4:45AM it felt like a cruel joke.

I had the realization this morning that I hadn't printed out the class itinerary or the list of sessions I was interested in so I did that. I also thing I printed off something later. It was the same thing last night where I printed something, closed everything up and shut down my computer, and then remembered I needed to print one more thing. Annoying.

Because of my need to print stuff, and kind of dragging my feet, we didn't leave to go pick my sister up until shortly after six o'clock, instead of already being at her house by six o'clock. This stressed my mom out a little bit.

Adding to that stress was the fact that there was construction and the exit my mom usually takes to go to the airport was closed the the detour, if there was one, wasn't clearly marked. We ended up driving past the exit we think we should have taken and we took an exit we probably shouldn't have. My sister and I were both trying to look at a map on our phones and figure out what to do but my mom ended up saving the day. She found another little exit to get us turned around and then she may have made an illegal U-turn at a stoplight to get us going back in the right direction. After that we actually saw a sign for the airport so we knew we were back on track. There are so many signs for the airport when you're right next to it but definitely not enough before that point.

We got to the airport around 8:30AM so they dropped me off so I could check in while they went to find a place to park. Checking in went fine but finding a place to park was apparently a little more difficult. It took them awhile but they eventually made it into the airport. We stood around and talked for awhile and then shortly after 9:00AM we parted ways so I could go through security.

That process actually went pretty fast. The slowest part was me putting my shoes back on. After that I found a place to sit down and started reading my book for class. Not too long after that an older woman sat down next to me and started reading a newspaper. She struck up a conversation with me after awhile and it turned out we were both going to the ALA conference. I also learned that she founded the Government Documents Round Table (GODORT) which is pretty freaking cool. She kind of a big deal. She's retired now but she was telling me all about various projects she started and worked on and little tidbits about her career which were pretty cool. Small world. I wish I had more interest in government documents because she would be a really good resource.

Once on the plane I sat next to two women who looked like librarians. One of them complimented my ring and I told her that I made it years ago when I was briefly into ring making. I asked if they were going to ALA, which confused them at first because they were not librarians, although one said she always wanted to be a librarian. They were actually coming down here for a scrapbooking convention. We talked about that for awhile and then random things throughout the flight. We ended the flight talking more about scrapbooking and one of them gave me their card because I said at some point I could see myself getting into scrapbooking, which is true. It was a really nice time. I was also able to finish my book for class and I read some of the library security book.

After landing I made a stop at the restroom and then set off trying to find baggage claim. I followed the signs that led to a train/shuttle to go to the A and B baggage claim. I figured because everything else with my flight was a B that my bag would go to the B baggage claim. So I walked across the terminal and road the escalator down to B. Just in case, when I reached the bottom I walked over to the little information desk and asked how I would know which baggage claim to go to. The girl there was super nice and looked up my flight and told me I actually needed to go to the A baggage claim. So I walked back across the terminal and down to the A baggage claim. And my timing was perfect because right as I walked up to the carousel my bag came by and I was able to grab it without a second of waiting. It was meant to be.

With my bag in tow I checked the directions on my shuttle confirmation, looked around until I saw signs, and then headed downstairs again to go to the shuttle counter. I got my tickets printed and the lady behind the counter told me where to go outside. It was a bit of a hike but once again my timing was great. I checked in with the guy there and he gave me a buzzer and said he would notify me when I was good to go. I walked back to stand by a bench and as soon as I stopped walking the thing buzzed and the shuttle van pulled up.

I got on with four other people and then we drove around to another terminal and picked up two more people. When we got to the second spot one of the girls that got on at my stop recognized a girl getting on at the second spot. From what I gather they are sorority sisters and they're here for a sorority thing. They sat behind me and for most of the ride one told the other her adventure getting to Orlando. Her original flight got delayed two and a half hours and then three and a half hours. Other things happened and she ended up having to take a taxi ride to another airport to catch a different flight so that she wouldn't miss her connecting flight. I'm glad my airport adventure wasn't even close to that bad. I would have been in a horrible mood. Thankfully, they both sounded like the most stereotypical chipper sorostitutes, so good for them.

We dropped them off first, then a group of three people, and then it was my turn, along with another lady who was also a librarian. She checked in and then I was up. At first I was almost charged the full prize of the room but when I told her I should only be paying half and my roommate would have the other half, she got it fixed. We also got a deal on the rate and the hotel came out twenty or thirty dollars cheaper than expected.

The room is nice for a single person but it really isn't built for two. Hence the one bed and the pullout couch. There is a built in kitchen, which is nice, but when I got into the room there was a growing puddle originating from the refrigerator. I went back down to the desk and asked if they had a mop because the refrigerator was leaking, kind of assuming they would send someone up to take a look at it. Instead she handed me a couple of towels and told me I could come back down if I needed more. Thanks. I dried up the puddle and wiped out the inside of the refrigerator. Then I left that towel in the refrigerator to catch the drips that were still happening and then shoved the other towel under the bottom of the closed door to catch all that was still dripping. I'll check it again tomorrow.

I went down again later because the air conditioner is right next to the bed and was only cooling that side of the room. It was frigid and the side with the couch was hot. I debated about it and was texting with my sister when my mom called to tell me I needed to go complain. I said I might but I didn't. I just went down and asked if they had a fan, which they did not. So I went back up to the room.

I got to the room shortly after four o'clock and after all the walking around I sat down and started writing this so I wouldn't forget anything. About two hour later my roommate showed up and he was immediately awesome because the first thing he said was “I'm going to be the best roommate ever because I'm not going to stay here.” Hooray! He brought his family down with him because his in-laws live here and as I hoped, he is going to stay with them and come to the hotel when we have group stuff and possibly to hangout and talk about our website. That totally works for me. I was really dreading and stressed out about the idea of having to share a room with a stranger for a week and not really getting any time to myself. And now I have a room that I can escape to at the end of each day and decompress after all the people activities. The trip instantly got a thousand times better.

We hung out in the room for the next hour occasionally talking but mostly we both worked on our individual conference schedules. I still need to narrow mine down but I'm getting closer. Before heading down to our professor's room for dinner we talked briefly about the website we have to build and we thing we're going to go with a gaming thing. We both plan on going to some of the GAMERT sessions and he has some middle school students he works with that are building game simulators with Raspberry Pi. That sounds like a pretty cool project and it is nice that we kind of have the website figured out already.

We met everyone down in the professor's room for dinner at seven o'clock and it was a random collection of food. I put together a cheese sandwich with four skinny slices of different cheeses, some chips with salsa, and a few grapes. Not a great dinner but better than I was expecting. There was some random talking about things but I spent most of the time just kind of standing around, pretty much what I do at any social gathering. At the beginning of it one of the ladies who I've had in several classes came over and congratulated me on my new job. Then at the end of dinner I told her about meeting the founder of GODORT because she's really interested in government documents. Also at one point during the dinner a couple of the girls said they were going to Harry Potter so I caught up with them in the hall and asked if I could tag along. They are also going with some work friends and said I was welcome to join, which is nice because I was anxious about the idea of going on my own. We will be getting on a shuttle tomorrow morning at 9:25AM. I would like to sleep in but that will have to wait. Maybe I can get in a nap tomorrow. Or just go to bed at a decent hour. Right now it is only nine o'clock my time but ten o'clock here. And I am way too tired for either of those times. The morning is going to be rough but it should also be a lot of fun. As long as my sunscreen works and I don't get fried. That would make for an uncomfortable rest of the trip.

When I got back to the room I ironed all my shirts and pants so they will be ready for the week. Maybe I should have saved that for another night so I could have gone to bed earlier but it's too late now and I think future me will appreciate the effort.

Now I'm going to stop typing so I can do a little research on the Harry Potter stuff and then go to bed. If nothing else I'll get more sleep than I did last night, so that's good.

June 21, 2016

 This morning I went to the campus library for a meeting about the assessment project I will be helping with. The meeting was with my adviser and another librarian who explained how she would clean up all the data and make it more manageable. It was very informative. Then my supervisor and I went back up to her office to look at the data we would be working with. It took a bit to sort it all out because it was in a couple different places but we got it figured out and cleaned it up just a little bit. My adviser is going to do a little more work on it and we are going to meet again when we're both back from the conference. At this point I have fallen way behind on my hours and I am only going to continue that trend by being out of the state for the next eight days. Just one more thing to get super stressed about.

When I got home I started doing laundry, ate lunch, and came up with a check list for everything I needed to pack. When I was in the meeting I checked in for my flight and got a little screwed with my internet connection but I ended up somewhere in group B, which is better than C, so it could have been worse.

At 2:30PM I went back to campus to help at the orientation table for the library. I worked with the same student worker I worked with last week so that made things less awkward. We talked about a bunch of random stuff while also getting the occasional incoming freshman to play our game and get a free cup. A few minutes before four o'clock it had completely died down and everyone else was packing up so we joined in. This time she pushed the cart back because I did last time. I think it worked better that way because the handle on the cart is short and she is much shorter than I am. She also walks really fast and it was a struggle to keep up with her. You would think that having longer legs would make it easier to keep up with a person with much shorter legs but I have rarely found that to be the case.

After taking everything back to the library I walked back across campus to the parking garage and then went to Chipotle before heading home. I didn't want to cancel Chipotle night but I also didn't want leftovers because I won't be here to eat them. To avoid leftovers I didn't ask for extra rice and beans in my bowl, which left me with a much more manageable one-time meal, instead of one I would normally divide into two.

When dinner was over I waited for my pants to get out of the dryer and then ironed them because the washer makes them a wrinkled mess and the dryer can't do enough to get them out. Then I started packing, which took me the rest of the night. I probably packed way too many clothes but I got everything in my suitcase with plenty of room to spare.

It's now 11:30PM and I have to wake up around 4:30AM. Can't wait. I think I am excited for the trip but I am also stressed out and terrified, both of which outweigh any excitement I may be feeling. I am looking forward to the experience but I am also looking forward to it being over.

It's going to be at least midnight before I finish doing stuff and can get to bed. I don't feel nearly as prepared as I should at this point. This is supposed to be a guided experience and so far it really just feels like I'm fending for myself. Kind of sucks.

June 20, 2016

 This morning I woke up and read a chapter in my book for class. I think I've still got about fifty pages to read. I plan to knock out another chapter before I go to bed tonight. Hopefully.

I went to work at noon today and it was a pretty uneventful day. The first four hours of my shift were spent looking up and adding more classic movies to my list for the DVD display. Originally I was going to set it up today but the librarian who is currently in charge of the display thought it would make more sense to set it up when I got back from the conference because I wouldn't be around to restock it over the next week. In the off chance that we had a surge of people interested in classic movies.

They're collecting data on teens and tweens this week which means every time someone does a walkthrough they have to note all the teens and tweens they see, where they see them, and what they're doing. The library still wants to create a better teen space and the idea is to figure out how they're using the library now so we know what should go into the teen space. The form is a little clunky and a big waste of paper, and I think everyone agrees on both of those things, but hopefully something useful will come out of it.

When I got back from my early bird dinner I spent a good chunk of my evening picking out more conference sessions. By the end of the night I was able to pick out all the sessions I'm interested in. Now I need to go back through and narrow down the time slots that have multiple sessions in them. I also need to make sure I have at least one session for each of the divisions and roundtables I picked out. At least I think that's what I need to do. I also think that maybe I need to schedule some time to look at the exhibits and get free books and all that other stuff. I don't think that is scheduled in separately so I probably don't want to spend all my time in sessions. Even though there are already more sessions that I want to see than I have time for. I'm super stressed about the whole trip but I am also super stressed about every other aspect of my life right now and I think that is preventing me from becoming overwhelmed by any one thing. When I start getting worked up about one thing I quickly remember all the other things. It's almost August.

Tonight there was a small woodcarvers meeting in our small meeting room. It consisted of four old guys with their small bags of woodcarving tools and it really made me miss my grandpa. One of the guys really reminded me of my grandpa. I'm not sure how often they have meetings but hopefully it is frequently. I just checked the calendar, because that's a thing I can do, and it looks like maybe it is an every other Monday thing. At least it was this month and it is the same in July. I want to ask them questions. Maybe see if I can join their group. I don't really have the time to do that at the moment but I will in August.

Tonight I closed “by myself”, meaning I was the only adult services librarian so I was in charge. Thankfully nothing happened. We had a meeting of a bunch of women that stayed up until nine o'clock, probably a minute or two after, but we eventually got everyone out. And right as I was about to walk about with the adult services assistant and the maintenance guy I remembered that I had forgotten my keys upstairs, so they had to wait on me to go up and grab them. Yesterday I forgot my water bottle and today it was my keys. I wonder what I'll forget next time. When I forgot my water bottle it was because I was so focused on not forgetting to lock up the keys. Tonight I think I was too focused on not forgetting my book for class. Maybe I need to ease up on the focus.

When I got home I watched some YouTube videos and ate some pistachios. Now I'm going to wrap this up so I can read my book and go to bed. Tomorrow I've got a meeting in the morning and I'm helping out with the orientation table in the afternoon. Somewhere in there I also need to pack because we have to leave super early Wednesday morning for my flight. It would be nice to figure out I don't have something before it is too late for me to go buy it.

June 19, 2016

 Oh my goodness I'm tired.

This morning I woke up early and finished my paper. It was so much easier to write when my mind wasn't completely exhausted. Or when my mind hadn't fully woken up so the realization that I was still exhausted hadn't hit me yet. I also wrote a discussion post, so it was a productive morning.

This afternoon I went to work. I emailed the head of the genealogical society to find out what all they would be covering in their class in September so I would have an idea of what I should cover in my class about scanning old photographs. Turns out she had no idea what I was talking about because she didn't have that meeting on her calendar. She was going to look into it on her end and I will do the same. I also need to figure out how to edit events on the calendar because the genealogical meeting is listed as a 'geological' meeting. So close.

Most of my free time today was spent reading an article about weeding and writing a bulleted summary of it. I didn't quite finish it. We each had to pick an article about weeding and then we will get up and talk about it at the next departmental meeting, which is sometime next month. Figured I might as well get a start on it.

I learned a lot more about the older librarian today because it was only us upstairs for the past two days. We talked about her experience with early computers that required punch cards and following each generation of computer up to the present. She is way better than most people I have met in her age range and she credits that to constantly using the new thing and embracing it, not getting frustrated and refusing to learn something new. I learned about her son and saw pictures of his really long beard that he grew out for years and only recently shaved it. I also learned that he had cancer twelve years ago and that chemo changed his hair three different times. One time it grew back straight and white, when it was originally more like a strawberry blond afro. The most interesting this I learned was that one day she was talking to her husband's grandfather and asked where he was from. It ended up being a small, obscure town in Oklahoma and the librarian asked if he recognized a certain name. He did and said they owned the next farm over. It turns out those were her grandparents. Small world.

Tonight after work I went over to my dad's for a Father's Day dinner. It was meant to be a short thing because I needed to do school stuff tonight but things are never short with my dad. Not a judgment, just a fact. I don't see him as often as I should and we start talking and neither of us are good at breaking it off. Throw in the rest of the family and time falls away even faster. About the time I was going to call it my step grandparents stopped by. It was only a brief visit but it was good to see them. When they left I was going to go as well but then the Father's Day cards came out so my dad opened those. It would have been nice to hang out all night but I really needed to leave.

I ended up not getting home until nine o'clock, which was at least an hour later than I had planned. When I got home I had a pounding headache, possibly stress-induced, so I took some Ibuprofen and got to work. I gave my paper a thorough read-through, changing a few things before submitting it. I also remembered to emailed the scanned copies of the forms I had to sign for the conference trip to my professor.

I still have so much crap to do and it is still overwhelming. At this point I need to focus on the trip because I still have to figure out the sessions I want to go to and I have to figure out what I'm packing. And I have to remember to do the check-in thing twenty-four hours before my flight so I can get a decent boarding time. I need to start making lists so I don't forget something

On my break today I started reading a chapter in my book for class. I think I'm going to try and finish that chapter and then go to bed. Or maybe just go to bed. I can't really afford to sleep in tomorrow but for the sake of my sanity I might have to. Originally I was supposed to have the day off from work tomorrow but I didn't have enough hours with the conference so I had to add tomorrow and the day after I get back. Yay.

June 18, 2016

 I went to work thirty minutes earlier than normal this morning and learned how to do the Saturday opening stuff at the library. I haven't opened yet but from what I understand the only real difference between Saturday and all the other days is that you have to print out a receipt on the cash register and add it to the money count sheet. Counting the money at the library is way easier than it was at the movie theater. They've got a change counting machine, which is super convenient, and there is only one drawer with far less money than there ever was at the movie theater.

Today at work was quiet, for the most part. I spent a decent chunk of my time finding DVDs for my Classics movie display, and making the sign for the display. I found pictures of Jimmy Stewart, Buster Keaton, and Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman (from Casablanca), and used an online photo editing program to cut out the backgrounds of the images so I could overlap them without it looking weird. I also wanted to incorporate the cover art from A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Forum but it looked too busy no matter how I tried to arrange things. I don't plan on actually making the display until Monday because I have some questions about taking down the old one, but I made a few different versions of my sign so I can get the opinion of the other librarians.

I stayed at the library for lunch and got a little work done on my paper. Really just the first paragraph but it was a start. The technical staff don't work on the weekends so the third floor was abandoned, which makes it feel weird being up there. That and the lights being off. I could turn them on but there are floor to ceiling windows right next to the adult services cubicle so it is plenty bright.

Today I had to talk to some kids and ask them to be quiet. One of them was the sister of the kid that was making noise the last two days. I feel like it won't take long before I have to make kids leave the second floor. It is supposed to be a relatively quiet area for adults but I've seen more kids on the computers so far than I have adults. It is kind of annoying only because we have a large children's section, with computers, and they are used to noise over there. I don't particularly mind the kids because I'm used to it, but there are adults who don't like it. Oh well. I also helped a lady with the microfilm machine, a girl with the copier, and another girl find an Algebra book.

The liveliest part of the day came when I was downstairs on one of my walkthroughs and got called over to the circulation desk to catch a big bug. It looked like of like a dragonfly but we found out later it was a damselfly. I would say that is a common mistake. It was sitting on the top of the back shelf so I got up on a stool and was able to put a small rubber tub over it. Unfortunately it got out when trying to slide the tub onto the lid of a box. The damselfly then decided to hang out on the ceiling. One of the circulation ladies went over to the children's department to see if they had a bug net but it turns out they haven't had one for a couple years. I ended up getting back on the stool and just held the box lid close to the damselfly as it fluttered around on the ceiling. Every time it flew off the ceiling it looked like it was trying to find a better place to land so I thought the box lid would provide the closest solution. And it ended up working. After a couple minutes of following it's movements with the box lid it landed on the lid. Then I slowly got down from the stool and the circulation lady led the way outside, opening the doors as I went. In the entryway we ran into a patron who did not seem to be a fan of bugs. The whole thing was pretty amusing and a nice break from the quiet upstairs. When I first got up on the stool the circulation lady asked me if I had learned anything about this in library school, which was pretty funny. We never got around to how to handle bugs in the library.

When I got home I had dinner and eventually worked on my paper. I'm up to about 400 words out of the required 1000. A decent start. My plan was to finish it tonight because I don't have to go into work until 12:30PM tomorrow so I can afford to stay up late. Sadly, I'm freaking tired and it has become increasingly hard to get my brain to focus when it keeps fading into sleepy thoughts. I think I might call it for the night and wake up early-ish and try and knock it out before work. I may even have time to work on it tomorrow at work. Hopefully it doesn't come to that.