Edmonton Day 12421

So in the end I made it back - Returning to Edmonton via Houston and Denver, only detouring 2,100 mile (3,380 km) -Thanks United Airlines, two days after I was supposed to get home I'm finally here, a little wiser than before.

My flight home was pretty bad - but the only thing worse that living through it would be forcing my good readers to read about it - so let's say it was awful and move on.

The conference was pretty amazing - I got to meet all sorts of fascinating people and didn't feel too overwhelmed by the Exhibit Hall.

Would I recommend a trip to Chicago?  Absolutely, but maybe try to go during the summer.

Chicago Day 5

So yeah...

My flight yesterday was cancelled, but due to the fast work of my lovely wife and children, I had a new hotel booked, a new flight arranged and two more days to hang out in Chicago.

The trip to and from the airport yesterday (Air Canada helpfully told me my flight was on schedule until well after I had arrived at the airport, found it cancelled, made other arrangements, and headed back into the city) was pretty awful, apparently this was Chicago's fifth worst snowstorm ever.

So with another day and a half to myself I went back to the conference, attended the YALSA Youth Media Awards (which you can read the results about here) which were pretty fun, and got to see Chicago covered in snow (at right is a picture of a fire escape I came across which may have lead up to a fine view, but not back to my hometown - that will have to wait for Tuesday).

Now fingers crossed, I hope to enter my final Chicago entry tomorrow and be home with my loved ones tomorrow night.

Chicago Day 4

Although I'm good to go - the current Blizzard Alert
here may be asking me to extend my stay...

So here we are at the end of my trip - I've pack my bags and am writing this blog before I pack the laptop and then I attempt to disconnect from my hotel (which I'm sure will be fine - although Chicago herself (himself?  Does Chicago have a masculine or feminine identity?) seems to want me to stick around (see left).

I've got one more session at the Conference this morning and then a last swing through the exhibit hall before I say farewell to ALAMW15 and get to the warmer climates of Edmonton, Alberta, CANADA.

In the end I've had a great amount of fun, had some really interesting sessions and hit not one, not two, but THREE Used Bookstores, increasing both my Charles de Lint and Dennis Wheatley collections!

I've had some pretty amazing food, and although I'm pretty sure the chocolate used for Dunkin Donuts Chocolate Dip donut is simply a melted down candy bar, it was still pretty tasty.

Catch you on the flippity-flop y'all!

Chicago Day 2

Hopefully, the forlorn look of this De Brazza's
Monkey helps you feel pity for me

Okay, I'll be the first to admit this is technically Day Three; but as I spent so much of Day Two on my feet I had a bath last night and then crawled into my bed and fell asleep.

So here's Day Two with Day Three to Follow Later Tonight!

Day Two I started out by hitting registration at ALA MidWinter, which was pretty easy as I registered online ahead of time and because I caught the first bus, so there were about six people in line ahead of me (for context, there are currently around 10,000+ people attending the event).

Afterwards I followed my wife's suggestion and headed down to the Lincoln Park Zoo, and specifically both the Ape and Monkey Areas.

On the way back to my hotel I checked out the Original Mr. Beef (and yes, it is definitely worth the side trip) and then hit the Exhibit Hall - if you've never gone to an ALA Exhibit Hall opening, I strongly recommend it - lots of Library Folk, often free food (and sometimes drink), and just a great way to meet and greet all sorts of people.

According to my Activity tracker I walked 17.6 kilometres yesterday (which is roughly 10.9 miles for my American readers), and was therefore exhausted at the end of it all.

Later tonight - what I did today!

Chicago Day 1

I'm currently in Chicago for the 2015 Midwinter meeting of the American Library Association, but as with many people travelling to the Second City, I have a few things to get done first...

So it's my First winter day in Chicago and what do I do?

Hit some used-book stores of course.

First up was a promising Fantasy/Horror/Science Fiction store called Buckets O' Blood.  The store was easy to find, tiny and unfortunately for me, lacking in the horror-novels-I-don't-already-own department (a common problem when you have more than a few boxes of horror novels in your garage, and basement, and in your study...)  If you're in the area it is well worth checking out, and I was happy to see it had much more than the common V.C. Andrews, Stephen King, Dean Koontz, Anne Rice selection most stores have, it just didn't have anything new for me.

Luckily for me, the next story was Open Books (pictured right), which, in addition to having a number of Charles de Lint books I was looking for (always a fun twist to have the Canadian fantasy reader come across a number of hard to find books by his favourite Canadian Fantasy author in the United States), by shopping there I also contributed to a great cause, which you can read more about here.

Next up, I finally righted the wrong I committed last time I came to Chicago and made sure I got to try some authentic Chicago deep dish pizza.  I went to Lou Malnati's and tried the Chicago classic (Made with Lou's lean sausage, some extra cheese and vine-ripened tomato sauce on Buttercrust.™) The pizza was incredible, and I'm already working at ways to ensure I branch out and don't simply eat there for the rest of my stay.


Tomorrow, The MidWinter Meeting Day 1.

Here in Chicago at ALA 2013

So here I am in The Windy City for my first American Library Association Annual Meeting.  Although I'm from Canada, our library schools still need to be accredited by the ALA if we want to find work throughout North America, so it's a pretty cool thing to come down here and check it all out.  This trip is also a part of my Spectrum Scholarship, which has made for a great year so far, and means I've been able to meet the other Spectrum scholars in person, a really great group of people.

The photo above is the view out my hotel room window, which is a pretty nice thing to wake up to - although I am missing the wife and kids a lot.

So far I've been here fore a day and a half and I'm pretty impressed with both the city and the event.  Today is my first day where I have a pretty open schedule, so I'm going to try and get around to seeing some sights as well as checking out the exhibitor's hall at the conference; both intimidate me a little, but as I'm here for a limited time I'm just going to try diving in and see what happens.

Things I've Noticed: I'm a Spectrum Scholar

So taking a quick trip out of my love of Fantasy, Horror and Science Fiction; I thought it would be cool to mention that I just got chosen for a Spectrum Scholarship by the American Library Association!  You can read about it here or here.  It’s really cool as it means that the debt I’m going into for Grad school will be significantly reduced and I’m in a pretty small group of people as only 50 of these scholarships go out each year and they can be given to any successful applicant attending any ALA-accredited library school in North America.  I’m one of only three from Canada and am also the first person at my school to get one.

 

And now for the really interesting part; as part of the scholarship I’m going to get to attend next years American Library Association Conference in Chicago, IL!  I’ve never actually been there before, so if any of my readers are familiar with the area, be sure to let me know what kind of must-see stuff I should be checking out.

 

SQUEEEEEEEEEEEEE!