A very long day...but a good one

Oh my goodness, I am SO tired. Whenever I'm tired, I wear bright, nice clothes, and my polka dotted skirt with yellow top, definitely qualifies as a pick-me-up. I got up at 5:30 am this morning so I could grab some delicious continental breakfast (hello, chocolate crossaints) before hopping on the bus for the convention center at 7 am. At least, that was the plan. When I emerged at 7:05 am into the sweltering heat (it was around 84 and unbearably humid at that hour), there were several buses in view on the next block queuing up to come to the Sheraton. Excellent, I thought, sipping my creamy hot chocolate from the club lounge (please ignore logic discrepancy of my drinking hot chocolate when it was so hot out. Thank you.). So I waited. And waited. And waited. It was over 10 minutes and the buses were still down there, double parked, no drivers, nothing and a big airport shuttle bus waited in front of the hotel, next to another convention center bus with no driver. Very strange. Another librarian and I finally decided to cross the street to the Marriott where a bus came in a few minutes.

I got the convention center and schlepped over to the Hampton Inn, where, in keeping with so much of this conference, I had to use my psychic ability to figure out where my ballroom was. I got up there (it was chilly, luckily I've been carrying the pashmina shawl my Mom gave me a few years ago for a light layer) and proceeded to sit through the session on Online Tutorials. Suffice it to say, that in a session on online tutorials, I would have liked to see examples of online tutorials, talk about online tutorials, and learn about tools that help make online tutorials, none of which happened in this session, which was full of other information. Regrettably, there was no feedback form.

Over to the adjoining ballroom for the Independent School Section "Tea" which was really a delicious brunch full of lovely indigenous foods to New Orleans and lots of tea stuff like scones and biscuits. (This was a much better event than the ISS Tea at AASL, at which, blog readers might remember, there was so little food that I was forced to eat the grape garnish of the empty cheese platters and groveled for the bartenders to get a tiny glass of water from the cash bar.) I sat next to the librarian from St. Mark's School, the arch-rival of Groton, so we had a nice talk about mutual acquaintances and New England boarding schools.

I toodled back over to the exhibit hall where I picked up where I left off yesterday and managed to get another whole box of Advanced Reader Copies and tote bags and pens. I sat in on the Lexis-Nexis demonstration which regrettably was for one of their business products which was indescribably BORING, but I got a really nice little notebook and pen and was entered in a contest to win a flat-screen television! I had to sit down anyway, so it wasn't a problem. My arms were approaching orangutan length today with carrying all the bags to the far end of the exhibit hall to the UPS store, but I always packed the bags in the box, so I could have stuff in my arms in an aisle in order to exclaim, "Oh, my! I do not appear to have a convenient tote bag to carry my things and advertise someone's company shamelessly!" at which time some gallant vendor would hustle forward with a durable nylon bag with screenprinted logo and proclaim, "Madam! Fear not! I, fabulous vendor of a product all must have possess a lovely tote bag that will solve all your problems while accomplishing my own advertising goals. Please, please take it!" And, being a polite young woman, I would. Or something like that.

I went to the Independent School Section Committee meeting (what a fabulous group with tremendous energy!). My favorite thing was that I got to meet up again with Alison Ernst, the library director at Northfield-Mt. Hermon, who I had meet four years ago when Ethan and I did a best practices visit out there. We kept thinking that Alison looked familiar and it turned out that she went to Hampshire College (with slight overlap with us, hence the familiarity) and she also went to Simmons for her MLIS! Sisters under the skin, I guess. She was at the conference with her 13-year-old daughter, who was SO lucky - she got a ARC of a new Meg Cabot book, brought it back to the hotel room, read it, and then MET Meg Cabot the next day!! Alison said there was a huge line but Meg Cabot kept talking enthusiastically to her daughter, so I came away with the idea that Meg Cabot must also be a super nice person, just like my good friends Sarah Dessen and David Levithan. (Giggle!!)

I also attended my NBPTS Committee (National Board for Professional Teaching Standards) and then finished for the day. Thank heavens. I got on the bus and headed back to the hotel to have a nosh in the Club Lounge, which as usual, sated my hunger. I took some pictures in my hotel room to show the view, and so Ethan has a picture of me to see, since he says that it makes him feel better. I was psyched checking my email that Kelly and Sean Dickinson, as well as Emily and Sam (who is in Russia, no less!) are checking the blog and super excited that I met Sarah Dessen and David Levithan. Finally, some enthusiasm! They'll be happy with all the advanced reader copies I got - I've thought about them as I've picked them up, "Fantasy and science fiction for Sean, historical fiction for Kelly, new David Levithan for Emily". I've been so envious of some librarians who got the coveted Captain Underpants tote bag from Scholastic - they ran out when I got there! Damn, my Saturday morning headache!! Ethan just can't get as excited as my LAB since he hasn't read their books and the other librarians I meet up with are simply not appreciative of my author conquests!! I can't wait to get home - I miss everyone so much.