ALA Midwinter Conference

I just returned from Dallas where this year's Midwinter conference was held. It's also where my brother lives, near his son and new daughter-in-law.

Memory-bits:

• Felt completely out of my depth at at least one point in every session I attended
• Also felt completely welcomed at a couple of sessions where I actually was totally out of my depth
• Librarians are wacky people, but really easy to identify...at hotels, restaurants, and airports...it was a sort of sport after the first 24 hours
• Tex-Mex made by Greek-Americans is pretty good
• Steak: also really good, if you're willing to pay for it
• If you can, go to Texas de Brasile...unless you happen to be a vegetarian
• I made the Dallas paper. This makes me laugh, but at least they didn't ferociously misquote me
• I didn't see/meet anyone famous
• I did see a ghost, and yes it was spooky as hell!
• Got to see Ian Fairclough speak; I think I'm a very weird groupie
• I sat by two French guys flying to Dallas and a middle-Eastern (I think, maybe) guy on the way home; I must be the Deals Well With Furr'ners person
• Spent a LOT of time in the exhiibits
• Picked up about 7 new carrier bags, along with the freebie they dole out at registration to everyone
• Filled four (five?) bags full of books and other freebies; Beast is driving them home for me :-)
• I got sicker most every day, and bailed on two OCLC breakfasts...
• Having no voice makes talking to exhibitors all day difficult
• I stayed in three hotels in five days. That was weird, but kind of fun
• One of the hotels was quite a ways from the conference site, so Beast drove me back and forth; there was, however, a conference at that hotel, of gift shop owners....
• ...gift shop owners' conferences seem to be full of snooty 20-somethings, but I snagged an abandoned carrier bag that is absolutely amazing...I will take a picture once Beast gets it home
• The convention center...? Not in a great part of town, though they're working on it
• Dallas drivers are insane
• We landed a full half an hour early today. How often does that happen in January?!

I'm so tired I can't stop yawning. I think I'm going to skip Bible Study in the morning. Good night.

Big D

Let's see if this works.

My schedule for the next few days. Precious little sleep on this list. Yes, I know I'm double-, triple- and at one point sextuple-booked. Wish me luck!

FRIDAY, JANUARY 20
9:00am - 12:00pm    2012 ALA Midwinter Unconference Dallas Convention Center D165

10:30am - 12:00pm    OCLC Enhance Sharing Session registered Dallas Convention Center A306

11:00am - 12:00pm    Collection Management in Public Libraries Discussion Group Dallas Convention Center A304
LUNCH
1:30pm - 3:00pm    Bibliographic Control: A Meeting Between Educators and Practitioners Dallas Convention Center C146

2:00pm - 5:00pm    IUG Meeting received invite Omni Dallas Hotel Cedars Room

2:30pm - 4:00pm    Program for Cooperative Cataloging (PCC) Program Training Dallas Convention Center A306

5:30pm - 7:30pm    Exhibits Opening Reception. Exhibit Hall

7:30pm - 9:30pm    Backstage Library Works Reception ([Beast] invited too)  Omni Dallas Hotel West End Ballroom (5th floor)

SATURDAY, JANUARY 21
7:00am - 10:00am    OCLC Dewey Update Breakfast and ALCTS Public Libraries Technical Services Interest Group Meeting registered -- received invite to PLTSIG which should start about 8:30 Omni Dallas Hotel Greenville Avenue

8:00am - 10:00am    Copy Cataloging Interest Group Dallas Convention Center D227

10:30am - 12:00pm    Cataloging Norms Interest Group Dallas Convention Center D223

10:30am - 12:00pm    Interlibrary Loan Discussion Group Omni Dallas Hotel Trinity 3

10:30am - 12:00pm    Library of Congress Update Forum Dallas Convention Center D171

10:30am - 12:00pm    Role of the Professional Librarian in Technical Services received invite Dallas Convention Center D174
LUNCH
1:00pm - 1:25pm Midwest Tape Booth #1239 Exhibit Hall

1:30pm - 3:30pm    Catalog Management Interest Group  Dallas Convention Center D227

1:30pm - 3:30pm    Collection Development Issues for the Practitioner Interest Group Dallas Convention Center D222

1:30pm - 3:30pm    Hot Topics Discussion Forum (RUSA MARS) Dallas Convention Center D223

3:30pm - 5:30pm    Do I Own these E-books or Not?: The Adventures of Jo Budler, Kansas State Librarian Dallas Convention Center C146

4:00pm - 5:30pm    Catalog Form and Function Interest Group Dallas Convention Center D227

4:00pm - 5:30pm    Faceted Subject Access Interest Group Dallas Convention Center D222

4:00pm - 5:30pm    Hot Topics Discussion Group (RUSA STARS) Omni Dallas Hotel Trinity 3

4:00pm - 5:30pm    Progressive Librarians Guild Meeting received invite Dallas Convention Center D170

4:00pm - 5:30pm    Standards Interest Group Dallas Convention Center D226

4:00pm - 6:00pm    MARC Formats Interest Group Dallas Convention Center C149

5:30pm - 9:00pm    Meetup w [my brother & his family for dinner]

SUNDAY, JANUARY 22
7:00am - 8:00am    OCLC Update Breakfast Roundtable topic: Cataloging & Collection Development Omni Dallas Hotel Dallas EFG

8:00am - 10:00am    Public Libraries Technology Interest Group Dallas Convention Center D222

8:00am - 12:00pm    CONSER / BIBCO / SACO-at-Large Dallas Convention Center C141

10:00am - 11:00am    Auditorium Speaker - John Green Dallas Convention Center Theater

10:30am - 12:00pm    Automated Acquisitions / In Process Control Systems Interest Group Omni Dallas Hotel Cedars Room

10:30am - 12:00pm    Cataloging and Classification Research Interest Group Dallas Convention Center A306

10:30am - 12:00pm    Collection Development Planning & Assessment Committee Meeting (RUSA CODES) Dallas Convention Center A112

10:30am - 12:00pm    National Libraries RDA Forum Dallas Convention Center D227

10:30am - 12:00pm    Technical Services Discussion Group Sheraton Dallas Hotel Trinity 4

12:30pm - 1:00pm    ALA Masters Series: World Book Night Dallas Convention Center A2
LUNCH
1:30pm - 3:30pm    Best Fiction for Young Adults Teen Session (YALSA) Dallas Convention Center C147/154

1:30pm - 3:30pm    RDA Update Forum Dallas Convention Center C146

1:30pm - 5:30pm    Authority Control Interest Group Dallas Convention Center A201/202

4:00pm - 5:30pm    ALCTS Creative Ideas in Technical Services Interest Group received invite Dallas Convention Center D220

4:00pm - 5:30pm    Discussion Forum: Answering the Young Adult Reference Question – Making Connections that Matter (RUSA RSS / YALSA) Dallas Convention Center A304

4:00pm - 5:30pm    PCC Participants' Meeting and Open Program Dallas Convention Center C155

5:00pm - 6:30pm    Midwinter Book and Media Awards Reception Fairmont Dallas Hotel Oak Room

MONDAY, JANUARY 23
7:30am - 9:00am    ALA Youth Media Awards Dallas Convention Center Theater

8:00am - 10:00am    Heads of Cataloging Departments Interest Group Dallas Convention Center D171

8:00am - 10:00am    OCLC Creating Cataloging Efficiencies that Make a Difference received invite Dallas Convention Center D162/164

10:30am - 12:00pm    Forum (ALCTS): Author Steve Berry keynotes Preservation Week 2012 Kick Off Dallas Convention Center A201/202
LUNCH
1:30pm - 3:30pm    Collection Management in Public Libraries Interest Group Dallas Convention Center D172

1:30pm - 3:30pm    Continuing Resources Cataloging Forum Dallas Convention Center D168

2:00pm - 3:00pm    Exhibits Closing & Wrap Up Rev Up Celebration with Lisa Loeb Dallas Convention Center Theater

Offline

Not that it matters all that much, really, since I don't post here that often, but I'll be Away From the Blog until next Tuesday, Jan. 24. I'll be at the ALA Midwinter conference. Maybe when I get back, I'll have some good stuff to blog.

Or not. ;-)

Time flies

On the heels of finding out last night that college friends of ours are now grandparents, I am on my way to take Sparky back to college. Trying to get all the crying done now so I don't embarrass him at school.

Yeah. Not likely, eh?

It was a good break, with a few bumps, and he's definitely ready to be back there, but I will miss him, again.

Embedded Comments!!

O.M.G. It's about time!

Thanks, Shelly, for pointing this out!

Plant life

Two years ago, I had nothing alive in my house but mammals. I have, spur-of-the-moment, purchased the occasional Sacrificial Aloe Plant over the years, but I haven't really had any plants, long-term since moving into this house over 8 years ago. There have been flowers (vased) and maybe some gifts of plants that didn't last long, but really nothing else.

My mom had a Green Arm. There were plants EVERYfuckinWHERE in our house: living room, dining room, her & dad's bedroom, kitchen.... Huge plants, small ones, baby pots, washtub-sized pots. She repotted and gave away and farmed out and otherwise had a whole greenhouse worth of plants in the world. Meanwhile...I had a cactus garden in my room as a teen. Killed 'em (too much water). I had plants in my dorm room--the ones that were my responsibility died; my roommates' thrived. Beast had a large aloe plant in his lab cube at his first job; it came in handy when burns happened (it was a lab, after all). When he changed jobs and brought home the plant, I killed it.

Anyway, I got tired of killing plants about 10 years ago.

Then, in 2009, Amy gifted me a plant cutting from one of her stock, which I guess I'll call Mit (a variant of what the picture shows). She also gifted me explicit directions on watering Mit. I have repotted it (him?) once, and it continues to grow in spite of a slight change in watering that works better in my head. She recently entrusted me with the offspring of her giant Bob Marley cactus--mine is named Rohan--again with pretty explicit watering directions. So far, it isn't dead, probably because I think I've watered it exactly once in about two months. Two people who came to the library's Christmas party here last month brought poinsettias. The big one is out-of-control happy, though the small one seems a little off. I got the gift of a couple of small plants for helping at church last year sometime and they are also still alive: I water them when I water Mit.

Last week another of my best friends sent me, out of the blue, a gift of 3 bamboo shoots. I had to put them together (this cracked me up--a gift I have to build=total awesome!). Today's the first day to change the water for them

My dining room looks like my mom's house. Maybe that's part of why I have been missing her this past week: all this greenery. So unlike me. So like Mom. I can only hope her spirit is hanging around to remind me to pay attention to all these critters. Because, in spite of receiving my Grandmother's decades-old Christmas cactus (and killing it) 20 years ago, I haven't really been invested in any plants before. The death of these guys has a deeper metaphorical meaning. Maybe that's why Mom was able to keep hers going so long.

We'll see.