ooh la la ALA!

Burst into song "Chicago, Chicago!" Because it was everywhere! Welcome to Chicago, Richard Daley, mayor. We're glad you're here...Chicago, Mayor Richard Daley. Welcome to Chicago...Chicago Chicago Chicago. This is the city that had a worse reputation after the fire of 1870 something? (is it possible) than Pittsburgh during the Steel Era. (or is that Pittsburgh today?) Chicago is not the windy city b/c it blows there (though it is breezy). Chicago lobbyists went to Washington to lobby for the World Fair being in Chicago and they were so talk talk talk that the columnists said those guys from Chicago are windbags. Did I not say this blog was all about dispelling urban myths? Well, no, I never said that, but I have dispelled a few...Umm, if you read the link, you see that I have dispelled the myth of the myth, it really was based on the wind off Lake Michigan. Rice for that wedding, anyone?

My mom asked, so, are you glad you went? Well, I'll tell you this. Last time I came back from ALA, I had ideas, I was jumping, I thought this is great, I'm going to do all these things. This time, the best sessions I went to were things it would take ten years to unpack the theory. Maybe not ten, maybe not years, but this was not training, this was "professional development." And oh my, if libraries are your thing, you must go to this link--it describes some of the stuff they are doing in Europe--it reads like Italo Calvino. Now, I didn't go to the event where this was unveiled--no, not even close. But through the magic of the internet, I went to bloglines

[You wouldn't believe it, but "My kind of town, Chicago" just came on the "nostalgia" radio station I listen to.]

where they aggregate your RSS feeds for you--and I read my latest feeds from Jessamyn West's site, librarian.net, where she linked to a theshiftedlibrarian, who mentioned the site. So, I'm not sad that I'm a librarian, I just see my job description over the sunset in a picture puzzle that is waiting for me to put together.

I heard David Sedaris, who was so funny! (descriptive words here that describe how funny he was) I heard Henry Winkler. He has written a series of children's books, and said that the curse of Marian the Librarian has been broken, that we embraced him when he was signing books yesterday, and that we are the best resource this country has....we gave him a standing ovation, what else could we do? I actually got up and asked him a question! (About a show for which he produced early episodes, my favorite Saturday morning show, Strange days at Blake Holesy High.) And he answered my question! It was my moment in the sun, or something, just very very cool. My roomie got a picture of me. Meanwhile, I have no idea if I have any pictures b/c I don't know if my camera got erased by the x-ray machines at the airport. Sigh. I took some nice ones, though, of the Chicago Tribune building, which has imbeded in its walls pieces of the Great Wall of China, a moon rock, bricks from various educational institutions...the list goes on. I also took pictures of the pool in the hotel...Johnny Weismuller, the Olympian and first movie Tarzan swam there. I took pictures of the mural on the back of the hotel, whales in the ocean.

There is so much more, but I'm beat.