Once at the ALA conference I thought things would go smoother. To a degree it did. The conference hall itself was certainly nice enough with plenty of venders and events to keep me busy, but, despite how hot it was outside, I really didn’t see the need to keep the temperature hovering around -30, something that didn’t help keep me awake (I love my roommates but their snoring was like a freight train driven by Fran Drescher) during some of the more vapid presenters’, soft spoken, monotone lectures. I realize that not everyone is a good public speaker, but a couple of general rules would be to not speak as if trying to put a baby to bed, don’t tell inside joke when you the only insider, and sarcasm is to enhance retoric, not be your normal tone. To be fair there were some amazing presenters, just, sadly, not the majority.

In retrospect, I had approached the event incorrectly. In my futile attempt to take in as much of the conference as possible, I ignored the potential of being in DC and the sights it had to offer.

Better I had made time to take in my surroundings and attend only the select events I really wanted to see (although some of the “eh, I guess I’ll go to that one” events were significantly better than ones I “knew” I wanted to attend). Was it a great time? Did I learn a lot? No. Did I have some fun? Make a few new friends and enhance existing relationships? Well, no, that didn’t really happen either. Hmm, I could of sworn I was ending the entry on an upbeat note. Ce la ve, there is always next year.