ALA 2009, Chicago.
Thursday/Friday. Stay up all night because I have to leave my place at 3:45 am to get to SeaTac for a morning flight. I flew Alaska Air. I'd never flown with them before. You know what? They're nice. Everyone. Just nice. Sit next to a nice couple who live in a town not far from where I live. Talk to her most of the way to Chicago. They're older so I figure they have been married forever. Nope. They've been married less than a year.
Friday. Arrive at O'Hare. Get there within ten minutes of some former colleagues and regular travel companion, Frenchie and MM. Meet them at gate. Well, Frenchie at least since MM had tomato juice spilled on her while she was in some intense SEC football conversation with the dude sitting next to her.
Take cab to hotel. It's Chicago at 3:30 so we sit in traffic for way too long. Our cab driver doesn't charge us he flat fee to downtown, saving us more than $20 on a cab ride. Frenchie and I check in only to find out we have a single room when we reserved a double. (Frenchie's comment to the woman at the desk: "I like her [meaning me], but not that much.") They bring us a roll-away cot. I was so tired I could've slept on the hotel lobby floor, but my feet hung off the end of the cot. I'm only 5 feet tall. I told Frenchie we weren't paying full price for the room.
Frenchie and I walk to a vegan restaurant. We have drinks. I eat fake meat loaf. We wander back via Saks so we can shop for fancy girly soap. This was after going to the satellite registration area to get our badge holders and other stuff we will throw away immediately. They don't have any badge holders and never did. Welcome to Annual.
Get back our hotel. I decide I am going to talk to the desk right that minute. Frenchie chooses not to tag along. While I am waiting they upgrade the couple in front of me to a suite. Like hell there isn't a double room available. After lots of "discussion," the manager finally tells me there is a queen double room available--for $25 more a night. Take it. Use fancy social networking tools to get in touch with people at ALA to complain.
Crash. Hard.
Saturday. Trudge to McCormick Place before a 10:30 meeting (this means getting up several hours early--McCormick Place is that far away) to get my badge holder. Run through exhibits in 30 minutes. Leave with a tote bag (naturally) a couple of business cards, and three Unshelved tshirts.
Meeting. Actually productive.
Lunch. Then walk to Palmer House for a program that was so interesting it almost makes me want to be a public librarian. Of course, trying to find the conference room in Palmer was like being stuck in an Escher painting and required two trips to the concierge desk. After meeting realize I have 40 minutes of free time and am less than two blocks from H&M and Nordstrom Rack. Thirty minute later I walk out of The Rack with a pair of Keens I bought for more than 50% off.
Another committee meeting.
Have a drink in the hotel lobby. Listen to DJ A-Cup mash-up Drop it Like It's Hot (Snoop Dogg) and Close to You (The Cure). I think.
Thai food in a restaurant next to the Thai Consulate/Embassy/Some Official Government Building.
Sleep. Hard.
Sunday. Committee meeting. Have a few hours free. Enough time to walk to my next committee meeting, have lunch, and catch up with an old friend. Have lunch at Russian Tea Time, one of my favorite places in Chicago. Go to Millennium Park to meet Sam. See Mary Todd and Abe Lincoln along the way. See Sam for the first time in six ears. Walk back to Palmer House.
Find out my meeting is in the hotel I was in that morning. Have fifteen minutes to walk ten city blocks. Grab cab. Run into lobby only to look at program and see it really was at the Palmer House. Run outside, grab a cab. See fellow committee member in intersection. Yell at her from the cab window. Realize I was, in fact, at the right hotel. Throw $5 at the driver, thank him, and jump out at the intersection. Attend meeting.
Take Blue Line north of Wrigley Field to meet friends for Ethiopian food. Mmmm... Ethiopian food. Share train with enthusiastic Cubs fans on their way to Wrigley. As they get off the train a guy yells, "Let's go drink $10 beer and eat $6 hot dogs! Go Cubs!" And the train (and driver) erupts into cheers.
Monday. Morning long program. Take break to go to ALA Housing office to mention hotel SNAFU. They're closed. Run into exhibits to get an IBISworld Pig. Go back to program. Meet former colleagues for lunch and yarn shopping. Had made plans to meet former coworker for a drink later that afternoon. Figure I have time to wander through the exhibits (finally). By the time I get to McCormick Place I need to turn around to go back to where I started.
Meet friend. Spend two hours catching up over a beer. It was really good. I'm glad we had the time to chat.
Go out for Indian food. Eat too much and spend too much. What the hell... We're in Chicago.
Tuesday. Get bill from hotel. They charged us the original rate, not the higher rate they told me we'd have to pay. Either ALA got in touch with them or they had a change of heart. Eat carbtastic breakfast, take El to airport, wander O'Hare. Spend four hours on airplane. See Mt Baker peaking above the clouds as we land. Be happy I am almost home. Get home at almost 10:00pm.
Wednesday. Walk to work and have all the enthusiasm I brought back with me crushed in the first ten minutes of being in the building. Wonder why I bother.
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