Have Knitting Needles, Will Travel

And of course, it didn't help to see news reports about a Southwest flight being diverted due to passenger violence while we were waiting for the plane that never came. Seems a woman started hitting another passenger for bumping her. Really? How do you not bump people on a flight? Other passengers restrained the woman and she was arrested. I was just relieved to be allowed to board the plane with my knitting. However, as people kept boarding, and seats filled up, I realized my knitting would not be available to me--I wouldn't have the elbow room. Alas. Apparently airlines have cut flights to the extent that we are packed like sardines.

Looking back, I didn't notice the maniac cabbie, as I was grateful to have the ground beneath my feet once more. I can happily report that people in large cities actually cooperate with one another when changing lanes, merging, etc. Fancy that! Perhaps that spirit of camaraderie is what makes everything work as well as it does.

Registration went well, and it warmed my geeky heart to be able to add a "Speaker" ribbon to my badge. Give me accessories, I'll do anything, including speaking in public. The presentation went well, and I didn't get hysterical or trip, which I think surprised everyone concerned. I had questions and comments throughout, and I identified at least 2 academic librarians, though I believe the majority were public librarians. There may have been school librarians in attendance as well. Smaller libraries have problems with staffing and money--we all do, but this hits small, 1 or 2 person libraries much harder than a medium sized library with multiple locations. Many libraries don't enjoy a positive, supportive governing body as we at APL do.

Following my presentation was 23 Things, which is a learning project for Web 2.0. I am really interested in this program, though it was geared more for school librarians (guess the speakers being ISD reps should have clued me in on that, but noooo!) so I can take away some things. My crucial mistake here is sitting on the floor as there are few chairs left and I don't want to crawl across laps to get a chair. Once I hit the floor, exhaustion hits me. I was up at 3:30 am on Tuesday--speaker nerves I guess--and boom! The arctic climate in the convention center doesn't help, either. I scurry to the hotel (and its handy-dandy Starbuck's that is IN THE BUILDING, PEOPLE!) to regroup and refresh, and hopefully not pass out. Life-giving caffeine was the answer, and I made my way to the President's Welcome Party and later to the Tall Texans Social. It was a great evening.

And so it ended. I had a big day tomorrow, with Michael Stephens' program---check out his blog at http://www.tametheweb.com/.

Note: I intended to post while actually at the conference, but the lines at the Internet Room were daunting. The first day I did manage to get to a computer, but the sharks circling me put me off blogging. I was lucky to escape (relatively) unharmed.

Melody