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.