My Chicago/ALA Adventure

See the rainbow?

My room was on the 35th floor and faced Lake Michigan. It was rainy the day I arrived and this was the view out the window at sunset-ish. That glare spot is from the setting sun shining on the glass building across the way, I think, not my camera flash, but who knows???


Anyway, later that night there were fireworks at the Navy Pier right behind those tacky buildings between me and the lake. So I heard the popping and looked out in time to see the edges of the light show, and that was pretty great. No telling what it would be like if you were actually there!

So that was Day 1. I got there a day before the action started because when I went to the Texas Library Association conference earlier this year, my flight was delayed so long that I didn't make the first event I had planned to attend. On Thursday morning I learned how to take the City bus to the Convention Center, as the Shuttles hadn't started running yet. For the record...no problem at all!

I picked up my credentials and looked around a little. On my bus trip back to the hotel, I met a lady at the bus stop who turned out to be the Executive Director of ALTAFF (Assn. of Library Trustees, Advocates, Friends and Foundations)! Had a really nice visit with her, and then saw her periodically throughout the week. That was neat to have a friend (or near stranger, as she would probably say!) to say hi to and give her quick updates on my adventures. She would smile and feign interest...I don't need much encouragement!

That evening I got to go to the taping of "Wait, Wait..Don't Tell Me!" with 500 of my new ALA friends...no doubt mostly librarians. Everyone associated with the show was so funny...even the House Manager! And the people who called in were funny enough to be panelists! Another highlight was staying seated after the show to watch their "do-overs". For instance, host Peter Sagal had mentioned doing research on Wikipedia, which got a strong and hilarious reaction at the time...but then they cut that reference with a tapeover! After the tape overs were complete, the cast stayed on stage and answered questions. All in all, a delightful experience.