it's about the people, and it always was

I went to ALA Annual this year thinking that it would be my second-to-last time, planning on Denver 2028 to be the last.  Other than the annual deans and directors meeting I go to in Sacramento, no other conferences planned.  Retirement in 2029, after all.  But I came out of ALA Annual this year realizing that this year was, in fact, likely to be my last conference.

When I was a bright young thing, I loved going to conferences.  I loved going to programs and dozing off in the back but also hearing about things I could aspire to do at my library.  I loved listening and using that as a springboard to ideas to follow up on for research when I was on tenure track.  I loved seeing presenters talk about things that were completely outside of my area of work just for the fun of hearing about those things.  I loved attending key note sessions and feeling a little thrilled at the big names that were sometimes up on that stage.

Even before 2010, my ALA life took at turn.  I'd always wanted to be involved, and the added need for tenure to do service at a high and national level meant that I sought out such opportunities.  From inauspicious beginnings on an ACRL section committee and an NMRT committee (where I met the awesome Aaron Dobbs, who was chairing it).  In 2010, I was elected to ALA Council, and in the years that followed I spent a total of 13 years on that body, six of them as a member of the Executive Board, three of those six as the Treasurer of the association.  I chaired committees and served on others since then as well.  Conference became a place for meetings, lots and lots of meetings in some instances.  I stopped going to programs.  Annual (and Midwinter) became different for me than for most people.

At this year's Annual, I had no obligations.  None.  I am not elected to anything, I serve on no committees.  I came in with so much freedom to schedule as I wished.  And that was weirdly disconcerting.  I combed through the program and tried to find the things that would interest and even excite me, and there wasn't much.  I attended programs, and I came away uninspired, not having seen much that I wanted to bring back to my workplace.  I appreciate all those who presented - thank you to them! - but I just didn't feel engaged.  On the last night of conference, I was at a hotel bar later on, sitting next to one of the association's senior staff members.  She asked how I enjoyed the conference, and I hesitated before deciding to be honest.  I told her that the time had come for me to stop going to ALA and instead encourage and support my library team in going to conference and then in facilitating the new things they want to try as a result of their attendance.  But me?  No, I was done.

I also came to Annual with a real desire to lie low, to avoid running into so many of the people who made my last years of governance work so unpleasant, so acrimonious, so personally draining.  I don't swear much on this blog, but wow, did I fucking hate dealing with those people and those matters by the end of my time.  So I came to Annual, and I made the deliberate choice to seek out the people I really like and care about and wanted to see.  Dinners, lunches, coffee breaks, drinks late at night, morning walks.  I made the most of those, I tell you.  And it was awesome.  Because that's what ALA still has to offer me:  the incredible people.  Let's not call it networking.  Let's call it what it is:  real friendship.  That was what made Chicago so worthwhile for me.  I loved my time with them and how Conrad could plug into it at times (no, no Van at the conference - he didn't see the need to be towed along, and I don't blame him).  True, I avoided people at conference, almost entirely successfully, but I saw so many that I love dearly.

And I don't need Annual to see them again.  To stay in touch, to send emails and texts and cards.  To do online happy hours.  To visit.  So that is where I will focus in the future.  I won't go back to ALA, and it is weird that there are so many professional associates in my life whom I will never see again in person, but I hope to see my friends time and again.

That's a less sunshine-y dump of my thinking than I usually do on this blog.  Sorry about it.  Let's course correct a bit, and let me share some photos of my friends with my thanks to them for the time we had together.  There will be other friend photos to come when I post about a few special meals.

Matt and Kim! 

I had such a great morning with them, grabbing breakfast together and heading to a day spa where Matt had his first ever facial.  We then wandered down to my old place of work, and I showed them around a little there.  A few days later they finally got to meet Conrad when we had a quick evening drink.  Van and I had dinner with them when we were in Montana a couple of years ago, and I would love to go back for more of a visit.

John! 

I got to see John earlier this year when he gave us a tour of his library at Dartmouth.  This shot was when we crossed paths near the exhibits hall.  We had breakfast a few days later as well.  I always delight in seeing him.

José! 

I'm sorry April wasn't with him to catch up with as well, but it is always great when we can get together.  Much chat about concerts and tenure and the like, and a good coffee break with him.

Amy!  Karen!  Kathy!  We were missing Sara from our little cohort reunion, and I for sure will get to see Sara her way (and look forward to her coming our way).  Lunch together that included Stephanie, who is now a Board survivor like us and who is another person I really enjoy seeing. 

What a terrific cohort we were, though.  Bonded through that experience and now beyond.  Amy and Karen were morning walk stalwarts this past trip, and Kathy and I got to have one last coffee together as well.

Peter and Matt! 

It should be easy to see them again and again so long as we are in SoCal and they are in Sacramento.  And I have Peter on my guybrarian text message thread.  Conrad got some time with Matt one day when Peter and I each had other obligations, and I'm glad the two of them had that time.

Robert! 

Our country's acting Librarian of Congress, but also someone I've know for years.  The three of us had a good lunch together and talked all over the place.  I do hope we can get to DC next year or soon and see him and his John there.

Ed! 

(And Amy, again)   I feel very lucky that I connected with Ed at Council and then through additional work within ALA.  That has turned into messages and postcards and dinners in Fullerton - hooray for that happening again next month! - and even a trip to Rhode Island.  One of the most thoughtful people I know in so many ways.  I'm rooting for Cabo Verde for him.

Lessa! 

So close-by in SoCal, but we see each other far too seldom.  I think Lessa must be my favourite ALA president I have ever worked with, but she is a friend a delight all around, and I look forward to our dinner plans with her and Christian next month.

There were other folks I didn't get photos of:  Brett, Ann, Steven, Sophia, Maggie, Christina, Ana Elisa, and more I can't quite think of at the moment.  People I'd love to see outside of a conference setting one day, and perhaps I will.  There were friends I know more from a non-ALA setting, like Gary

and Phil,

more people I would love to hang out with one day and not have to travel across the country to see at a multi-day event.

I'm going to be busy in years ahead with seeing folks, I hope.  But maybe some lazy Saturday this summer I'll get busy with some notecards, some snail mail hellos to friends.  Conference behind us, friendship rolling ever forward.  That would be nice.

Vedge and Vernick Fish

I'll write more generally about my few days in Philadelphia in the next (I think) blog entry.  First, however, let's talk about the food.  Specifically, two dinners I enjoyed.

The last time I was in Philadelphia, I was doing a monthlong cleanse diet.  Not quite vegan, but pretty close to it.  And it wasn't a problem.  After all, there is a gem of a vegan restaurant in Philadelphia:  Vedge.  Here's what I love about the place:  it doesn't serve up tofu or seitan or other such things pressed into shapes and called "Mom's meatloaf" or "turkey dinner" or stuff like that.  I have vegetarian friends, and they love stuff like that, for sure, and good for them.  I mean that.  Like what you like and eat it.  But if I am going to be meat free, I want to really enjoy vegetables and fruits and grains for what they are, not what they are pretending to be.  So I love places like Vedge or the now sadly gone Green Zebra in Chicago where the vegetables were the beautiful, glorious stars of the plate.

My dinner dates on Saturday in Philadelphia were Andrew and Ed, two good friends who both enjoy food.  Neither had been to Vedge before, so I was glad to bring them there for the first time.  It was an easy walk from the hotel.  We got to our table, ordered drinks (the Sea Legs for me, which I enjoyed),

and alerted the server that Ed had a food allergy that we needed to work around.  She took the menu back to the kitchen, and shortly after returned with it marked up.  There were eight dishes that we could share with Ed, one or two of them modified a little, and so we ordered them all.

I didn't get photos of everything.  The light was low, and I don't like being too much of a nuisance taking photos, especially when enjoying a meal family-style.  I liked everything that we ate - no surprise there - but my favourites were the spicy dan dan noodles,

the eggplant bracciole (which I remembered from previous times eating there),

the deviled celery root crepe, and the rutabaga fondue.  Look, here's how much I enjoyed things:  I willingly ordered and ate and enjoyed things with mushrooms, like the portabello carpaccio. 

Andrew and Ed enjoyed the savoury courses as well.  Opinions were more mixed on the ice creams (the potato chip ice cream wasn't what we hoped, though it was fine), but the blueberry buckle with sage ice cream was a clear winner at dessert.

It was a very good meal, just what I had hoped from the restaurant, and though Mike teases me that there are other worthwhile places in Philadelphia to try, I will come back to Vedge when next I am in town.

After the dinner, we didn't simply return to the hotel for drinks with whatever colleagues were hanging out in the bar.  Instead we headed to a comedy club

to watch Stand-Up with Strings.  Andrew's son, Eli, was playing bass throughout a multi-comedian set, and we were there to enjoy it all. 

Eli was terrific - my first time meeting him and hearing him play.  He improvised and responded to cues, intentional and otherwise.  The comedians were a mixed bag, and that's fine.  The last two were the best, each of them interacting with Eli, able to do so on the fly.  It was a fun way to end the evening. 

The three of us walked back to our hotels, and my long day (I had landed that morning at 5:30) came to a good end.

Sunday night was dinner at Vernick Fish.  I gather that the Vernick name is a known one in Philadelphia, and I liked what I saw when I was researching a dinner place online.  I hadn't realized it was essentially in the lobby of the Four Seasons, and it was perhaps a little more upscale than I had expected, but that's all fine.  The company with me (Van was there, Sara and her husband Peter, and Amy)

made for an excellent evening.  I didn't photograph every single thing at dinner (like my cocktail, the A Day in the Life, which was tasty, or the eggplant katsu we shared and that I think was the best thing on the table that night), but I did get shots of my oysters (delicious)

and the halibut (the accompaniments outshone the fish, which was - sorry! - a little overcooked)

and the desserts (an olive oil cake, a dark chocolate mousse, a banana pudding sundae, all of them quite fine). 

We had some good wines.  The setting was bright and attractive.  It was a good dinner.  I realize I have less to say about Vernick Fish than Vedge, and perhaps that's because Vedge is the more interesting to me.  But both meals were fine.

I think most of us had a nightcap at the hotel bar after that dinner - it is a conference, after all.  And that capped the last of the finer dining I had in Philadelphia!

dinner with friends

Hooray for when folks I know and like so much come to town.  Janice is here for a few weeks, running a program at UCLA.  Andrew flew in to be a speaker yesterday (I was a panelist for Janice the day before).  What an opportunity!  Even though it's a 50+ miles slog round trip, Conrad and I happily met them for dinner at Wolfsglen.

I didn't photograph the food.  Low lighting plus chat conspired against that.  I liked the food - my pork chop was about the most tender I've ever had.  The service wasn't great, though.  The hostess was delightful, the bar staff (Conrad and I arrived early, so we had a drink) were terrific.  But after taking our order, our waitress disappeared, and the man who replaced her never seemed to give us much attention.  I think he was the last waiter there, but well into our meal, the place was pretty emptied out.  We might have had dessert, but we sat a long time (and he didn't even mention it as an option).  Ah well.  The restaurant isn't all that close, so I likely wouldn't have gone back anyway given the distance.  What's important is that we got a chance to get together with some very lovely people.

the conference that was

I'm going to do one conference post to collect thoughts and photos on the time there that I haven't yet posted.  It's already a few days behind me, and, honestly?  I'm glad it's behind me.  There was a lot of contentious stuff in meetings, and I had to say some things that have probably ruffled some feathers.  Certainly, I can think of one or more people I essentially will not be speaking to any longer.

Happy thoughts, though, Peter.  Let's do this.

A nice train trip down to San Diego from Los Angeles.  I rode in comfort

and had the ocean side view on my trip. 

The hotel was then an easy walk from the train station.  Once I got to my room, well, whoa! 

Big suite.  No view to speak of, but come on, a pool table? 

Wow.  I wish I had had meetings in my suite (it had a small conference room), but at least I had folks over for drinks and snacks and chat a few times.

I didn't take a lot of photos during the conference, I realized.  Just wasn't in the mood for it, maybe?  But I did get good morning walks every day with Amy, or Sam, or both. 

I snuck Conrad in

to see the opening session with Lessa interviewing Trevor Noah,

and I got some photos with folks like Loida and Peter,

Sam,

Cindy,

and Andrew and Janice then. 

A really great turnout for that session!

There were a few other events and opportunities to get shots with folks.  There I am with Bill. 

There I am with Matt. 

There I am with Matt again but in a different setting. 

There's Conrad on a hotel balcony at a reception. 

There's a view from that same deck. 

There's me on that deck.

After that, I mostly only took occasional photos at dinner.  We had a nice enough meal but weird experience (a fire eater?  photos at the table then offered for sale?) at a place called Salvatore's.  Good cocktail, though! 

We had an underwhelming dinner at Juniper & Ivy

(interesting menu, but the dishes were less than we hoped, and the service was lagging).  We had a nice meal of pasta

at Cesarina punctuated a little too frequently by the planes low overhead coming into the airport.  We had a decent meal

with Peter and Matt at Barbusa (and another good cocktail:  the Italian Love Affair),

and then came back to the room to toast Peter with Champagne.  A lovely, affectionate end to our time there.

And then it was Wednesday and the drive home.

So then, the conference is done, and hooray for that.  May the ones next year be better.  Based on this one, though, I'm inclined to skip going to Minneapolis at least.