Monday, February 07, 2005

Time flies

Where do I start, where do I begin?

Toronto and the conference were a blast. What was three days felt like five. Wait - Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. Huh. I guess it was actually five days altogether. Well, okay, what was five days felt like a week. (Hey, it's my blog - I reserve the right to change my story!)

The short story: only two new books made it home with me, plus two comic books, all from The Beguilling, who are an awesome library-friendly comic book store. Last year they were also at the conference, and this year they participated in a number of sessions on graphic novels, comics, and manga. Many hours were spent catching up with friends and former co-workers and classmates over lunches, coffee, and martinis. The sessions I attended were terrific (with the exception of the technical details of a project that I nearly dozed through at one point.) I don't often get my geek on and flaunt my librarian "cred" here, so I'll spare you the details.

(To hell with that - the big reason I love going to these types of conferences is because I always come away feeling professionally "refreshed" and excited about my job. It's energizing to hear about what other librarians are doing, and how I can take the lessons they learned and apply them to my job, whether I'm a public librarian or a library consultant.)

Also stowing away in my luggage: plenty of Lush products and copious amounts of yarn. H'oh boy, did I ever pig out on the yarn front! In my defence, I will state that everything I got at Romni Wool and Lettuce Knits cannot be found either up here or in Guelph. And it's all so pretty!

As well, I managed to fend off a cold with Echinacea, raw gingerroot tea, and vitamin C drops. I felt crappy Thursday, but managed to pull off Friday and the rest of the weekend with minimal difficulties. Saturday night we celebrated my Dad's birthday. I started a pair of socks with some Briggs & Little I got the weekend before (or was it two weekends before? Oh well...) Due to the fact I had to completely unravel one of the mittens I made last week because I couldn't pick up the dropped stitches, I may have the socks finished before summer.

(Later update: I've had to frog the mitten yet again because I realized I was doing a 2x2 ribbing on the cuff, when I'm only supposed to be doing a 1x1 ribbing. GAH!)

Much more to blather on about, but I'll break it down into several, easy-to-manage posts.