Day 2

Today was long and intense. I attended 6 forty-five minute sessions. At 9 am, I listened to the keynote speaker, Lee Rainie, Director of Pew Internet & American Life Project. He mostly gave an overview of survey results of how Americans use the internet and libraries. Some of the findings were very interesting.

At our break I ran into Craighton, my boss, and we discussed the keynote session and upcoming sessions. At 10:30 am, I attended Web 2.o Services for Smaller Underfunded Libraries. I was a little disappointed in the session. I didn't feel like it was real informative for our situation. I perked back up at the 11:30 session by Jeff Wisniewski, Fast & Easy Site Tune-Ups. I got some great new ideas that our department will be interested in researching.

For lunch, Craighton and I just ate at the Exhibit Hall. We each got a ham sandwich on rye bread, an apple and a can of diet pepsi. It cost $13! As Craighton said, "You pay for convenience." We were afraid that if we went somewhere else for lunch we wouldn't make it back for the next session. Both of us had a session coming up that we were looking forward to attending. My next session was at 1:30pm entitled Library Web Presence: Engaging the Audience. It was a session done by two different groups and very informative. At the 2:30pm break I walked through the Exhibit Hall and put my business card in some bowls for various drawings.

Widgets, Tools, & Doodads for Library Webmasters was the next session at 3:15pm. It was very informative and I am very excited about going back and implementing some of their ideas. It wasn't necessarily my favorite conference but they were by far the best presenters - serious but also very entertaining. My last session began at 4:15pm (Library Staff Training: High Tech & High Touch) but I slipped out after about the first half hour because it really wasn't what I expected.

While I was in the conference, Melanie had left me a message that if they came to meet us Tuesday night instead of Friday, Corey could also come. We started to hatch plans and I told her I would call her back later. I made contact with Scott who had had a rough afternoon because he accidentally got on the wrong shuttle bus and went to the wrong hotel after his visit. He also lost his one week metro card that we had purchased last night.

At 6 pm we met Craighton at Neramita Thai. Scott and I had some problems connecting because he got out at the Hilton instead of the Hyatt Regency but finally met on the 2200 block on Crystal Drive. After dinner we stopped in at the Stone Cold Creamery. I remembered my first visit to a Stone Cold Creamery last fall in Springfield with Grandma, Janet, Dad, Mom, Alan, Bridget, Paul and Hannah. I remembered that Hannah got cotton candy ice cream with gumballs. It still makes me shiver to think about it! :)

After dessert, Craighton went back to his hotel and Scott and I walked a few blocks to the Crystal City metro station. We ran into the man who had helped us purchase the week passes the night before. We told him what had happened and he gave Scott some leftover cards people had passed on to him. He gave him about 4 cards with a couple of dollars each on them. It was God's grace. I had talked to Bridget earlier today and told her what had happened. I figured she had prayed about it! Thanks Bridget! We hopped on the metro which was kind of funny because it was about a two minute ride and then we got off again. As we were getting off of the metro, Scott called the hotel and they told him that the shuttle was just pulling up to Gate 5. He told them we would be right there. We ran part of the way and it wasn't there. I called the hotel and they told me we hadn't missed it that it was almost there. We waited for about 20 more minutes so I called again. I was told by guest services that he had left the airport but they were sending him back to pick us up. Then he put me on hold to talk to the driver and see how far away he was. I was on hold for 4:56 minutes so I hung up and called back. Another person at desk services told me that he had left the airport and was just pulling up to the hotel. He said that he would head straight back to the airport and be there in 10-15 minutes. Scott and I sat outside on a cement stump and I took dictation about his day so that we could type it later for his report.

Twenty minutes later the shuttle bus came. The two ladies that were on the bus with us this morning showed up at the last minute also. The driver was very friendly and we all had a nice chat. They were from Milwaukee, Wisconsin and had spent the day at the Washington Monument, the Holocaust Museum and the National Air and Space Museum. They said since the American History Museum was closed for renovations some of their exhibits were in the Air & Space Museum. They also asked us about the new Lincoln Museum in Springfield.

When we arrived back to the hotel at 9:30pm I called Melanie and we made plans for tomorrow. She and Corey are going to pick me (maybe Scott) up at the Hyatt Regency around 3:30pm and maybe drive me back to the hotel to dump off my laptop and pick up my camera. We might just stay at the hotel and visit for a while. The plan is to eventually end up at Union Station. Scott, Craighton and I have to be there by 7pm for the Moonlight Monuments Tour. We are going to all have dinner at 5:30pm in Union Station. Melanie and Corey will probably go home when we leave for the tour. Well it's after 10pm so I better get ready for tomorrow and get some sleep. Night!