ALA Descends on DC

Welcome to ALA

Last weekend I was in Washington DC for ALA. This was my seventh year of attending annual (my first was 2003 Midwinter in Philly). ALA was in DC three years ago, and it was a weird conference. Nothing really worked for me. The meetings and presentations I attended were off. It seemed like I was hearing the same thing over and over.

This time, though? Honestly, this was one of the best ALAs I have ever attended. I saw people I haven't seen in a year (always a plus), I learned new things. One discussion group I attend usually turns into a vendor bashing. I took a break from it a couple of years ago because I was tired of the bashing, and I wasn't able to go last year because of a conflict. The time away may have made it more interesting or maybe because it wasn't a vendor bashing (don't get me wrong, I enjoy a good vendor bashing as much as the next person, but it gets tiring). It was an honest-to-god discussion about what is happening in our libraries.

Things are changing. Fast. This is a profession that has always resisted change yet all we do it talk about how much it is changing. But the change going on now is often out of our hands. Much of it isn't due to technology or users, it's due to budget. We're doing more with less. I hate to say that the budget cuts have made things more exciting, because I'm not sure if that's true. But it has made us look at our jobs and what we are capable of in a much different way.

I saw lots of friends and ran into a classmate from library school. Lots of ideas and emails were exchanged. I also helped plan a program that, while sparsely attended, was one of the best programs I have ever been to. It was inspirational in a ways I never thought I would see at ALA.

I didn't hit any of the sights. Part of me regrets it, part of me doesn't. It was fucking hot in DC. So hot I was positive it was the hottest weather I had ever experienced. Turns out it wasn't, but it was enough to make me happy to get back to overcast and rainy. The only thing I really wanted to see was the Korean War Memorial.... but I didn't make it. The main reason, other than the heat, was that someday I want to go to DC just to be a tourist. I don't want to squeeze in a few sights between meetings or whatever. I want to go to enjoy the entire city for what it is. And I want to go when it isn't a sauna.

I don't have any major travel stories. I was minutes away from having an entire row to myself. Two people came running onto the plane just as the doors were closing--and they were the two people next to me. As the were getting settled I decided they were going to be two of the most annoying people ever. Turns out they were pretty great. She slept and he was very nice. Of course, the fact they he ordered two Tanqueray's and tonics for breakfast probably set the tone.

And! We had free wifi! If you are my Facebook friend you saw how excited I got about free wifi. I was probably more excited than I should've been, but believe me, Internet access at 37,000 feet makes a 4.5 hour flight go muuuuuuch faster. Oh, and all the allergy stuff made the flight to DC a tad bit painful. Taking off wasn't bad, but about halfway through the flight the pressure in my sinuses began to increase. By the time we landed, my head was pounding. I tried to look out the window as we landed, but the movement of the plane and my pounding head made me nauseous. Luckily, the sinus part of my allergies cleared up in DC. The chest congestion didn't, however.

The flight home as uneventful. I sat next to a geek from Boeing. We landed early so I caught an earlier shuttle. I'm sure you can understand my annoyance when I saw that there was one baby and about seven kids (most of them very excited) under the age of ten on my shuttle. The kids were chatty and the baby cried. But that wasn't the annoying part. Kids get excited and babies cry. What annoyed me was the guy who sat in the row in front of me and then talked over me to the guy in the row behind me. Listen, Chatty Cathy, I don't care if you want to talk, but if you do, sit closer to the guy you want to talk to. So, when I asked him if he wanted to switch rows so he could talk without talking over me, he wasn't too happy. Granted, I was nothing short of a bitch when I asked him. He said something like, "No, I don't need to talk," and went to sleep. He was still asleep when we got to my stop. With only one stop after that, a large part of me hoped he slept through his stop.

I-5 heading north out of Seattle. Taken with the Hipstamatic app on my iPhone.

Arriving in the Pacific Northwest after a trip elsewhere makes me appreciate this place so much more. The mountains, the trees.... heading north on I-5 while the sun is setting is nothing short of spectacular. It makes me realize how lucky I am to live here.