Louisville - The LAST Day

Saturday dawned rainy (surprise!) but with a huge sense of relief that our ordeal was nearly over. This is the first time ever that we had packed up registration and the resource booth on Friday evening, so I think we almost felt a little lost with those huge tasks already completed.

To celebrate our relative "freedom," Lari, Tamara, and I agreed to meet Fred and Brian for a "real" breakfast in the hotel restaurant. Wow! We got to eat like normal people - sitting down! First, we had quite a few laughs over the fact that since it was now Saturday, Fred could order all the sausage he wanted. We commented to the server (who would soon regret being assigned to our table) that we had heard that the "Saturday Sausage" was particularly good. Here's a photo of Brian, showing off his "Saturday Sausage."

When I pulled out my glasses to read the menu, I realized that they had broken. I handed them over to Fred and Brian and asked them to work their "technology teacher magic." Suddenly Brian had disappeared with my glasses - apparently to go to his car in the hotel garage. I still don't know what he did down there, but when he came back, the glasses were (mostly) fixed! 

Shortly thereafter, we looked to the side and saw Steve Moorhead with his nose pressed to the window. He and Linda TRIED to get seated at another table on the far side of the restaurant, but we embarrassed them into joining us. We all just scooted around and made room. After the server had made all the necessary adjustments in silverware, napkins, and billing arrangements, David Worley walked in and of course we forced him to sit with us as well. The server came back and just started shaking her head.

We had gotten about halfway through our meal when Tamara's cellphone rang. It was about 8:30 and Susan was calling her to say that ONE person was waiting at Reg to buy a ticket. So, Tamara had to abandon her breakfast and rush over to the Convention Center. The server came back and noted she was gone -but we told her we would pick up her bill, so no worries.

Finally, Ron Yuill came strolling in and we quickly tossed him into Tamara's vacated seat. This time the server walked back, noticed Ron, and didn't miss a beat, saying, "you got anybody else wit' choo?" We LOST it and no doubt heads turned in the restaurant. 

After breakfast, Brian and I popped in on a TECA competition where I got a few good photos and he became enamored with a certain attractive female professor from Illinois State. (Brian: "Who was THAT?") Then we made our FINAL (Halleluia!) trek over to the Convention Center to attend (Brian) and photograph (me) the Tech Fest.

A bit later I returned to the hotel for some time to start sorting through my zillions of photos. Soon it was time to check out and appear at the Awards Luncheon. The Luncheon is always torturous because it's generally the FINAL hurdle before getting out of Dodge. This year was no exception. At various points, we had to say goodbye to all of our wonderful friends - always tough after being in the trenches with them so many times. There is no way to thank these people who so generously give their time and friendship, especially Ron, Steve, Linda, Fred, Fred, David, Roger, Kay, and no doubt others. Thanks guys!

We left the hotel by about 2:30 and headed over to the airport where we hoped to do a little shopping since we really hadn't found anything decent to bring home prior to that. We had some moderate success but came to the realization that Louisville is really NOT a shopper's paradise.

Once we arrived at our gate, we got the first hint of trouble. Our 5:10 departure was listed as "now 6:00." I think it was the "now" that bothered me the most - as if it may be subject to even further change. My premonition soon came true. We heard over the loudspeaker that our plane was stuck in a blizzard in Kansas City and no one knew when or if it would get out. This also made us worry about Fred, who was supposed to be flying IN to Kansas City. (Fred - if you're reading this - let us know you made it okay!) 

We were literally SURROUNDED by ITEA people from Virginia, Maryland, and Pennsylvania (oh - and the Corleys who were connecting in Baltimore to Massachusetts). LOTS of unhappy people who had no clue about when we were ever going to get out of there. After a good two or three hours of interminable waiting, they made the announcement that they had "found" a plane for us and that it was on the way from Chicago. Huge cheers erupted.

After all that waiting, things suddenly sprang into fast motion. That plane arrived FAST, deplaned FASTER, and boarded even FASTER than that. We took off at 6:30 - really only an hour and a half late - nothing short of a miracle. They even promised that they would hold the connecting flights at BWI until our plane arrived - good news for plenty of folks - including the Corleys. 

We had a safe, fast, FULL, and somewhat bumpy flight home. I had a good time talking to two teachers from Maryland - one of whom traveled with us all the way to the exact same long-term parking lot. He actually teaches in Frederick County, my home town area. 

We stumbled off the shuttle bus and into (shocker) rain. Got in the car and somehow managed to make the hour drive home. We were beyond exhausted. It was fun to meet Tamara's husband and especially Sophie, Roscoe, and Icarus who went NUTS when they saw Tamara! So funny. 

And THAT ends my tale. Soon I will be posted a link to my "private" Louisville photo gallery on Smugmug. Stay tuned.

Louisville - Day 4

I'm actually writing this on Saturday, so let's see how my memory holds up. All I know is that pretty much every day here has dawned (eventually) cloudy and rainy and damp. And while I am grateful for the hamster tubes to stay dry to and from the CC, I am deathly sick of that walk. It's LONG and my legs, feet, and back are aching.

Okay, let's see. I had to appear at an early breakfast (FTE, 7am, ouch) and then rolled it over to the CC. Someone had arranged for some Kentucky-style music to play in the main reg area prior to the general session. It was a good idea, but just NOT my style of music and made me really miss home (and decent music) a lot. 

I made my mad dash for the front row of the General Session just in time to bump into Kendall and Nate Ball. I had seen Nate the day before - in regular clothes - so I barely recognized him in a suit and tie. I mentioned that and he says he "gets that a lot." Kendall asked me to snap Nate's photo near the fake horse (don't ask) and real trumpeter - so I complied. As we were waiting for some other people to move away from the horse, I asked Nate if he feels like a commodity sometimes. He graciously said yes, but that he didn't mind because it's all part of the job. He really is adorable and now I can see why Mo (sorry to blab!) has such a mad crush on him. 

The session was very good - Nate's story about blowing up his mom's kitchen with rocket propellant (complete with diagrams and photos of the resulting mess) was masterful. The "Flat Stanley" lady won Teacher Excellence, so I asked her to hold him up for one of the group photos - and she was nice enough to comply. 

Next came a big conference highlight - Fred receiving his DTE award. I made sure to get a LOT of photos and moved to the center aisle to try to get the best angle. After all my photos, they asked the audience to give a last round of applause. When I shifted my camera to be able to applaud (really loud) the flash popped off, hit the floor, popped open, and my batteries spilled all over the floor. All the people around me DOVE to the floor to try to pick them up (they were nearly dead anyway) and when I looked up, Fred was onstage stage trying SO hard not to lose his composure (he lost a little anyway). Pretty funny.

The next cool thing was seeing Nate demonstrate his rapid ascender in the exhibit hall. It was cool also to see an absolute SEA of faces watching him - and to see that practically every person had a camera - and that it was trained on Nate. I think I got some good pics of that. 

Don't remember much of the afternoon except having to hoof it back to the hotel to grab my laptop prior to my 3pm session and that each walk was making my legs hurt more. The session was fine except that, in my nervousness, I took off like a race horse. Fortunately, Curt Funkhouser, who was seated in front of me and running the slides, turned to me and motioned calmly for me to "slow it down a little." I needed that - thanks Curt! 

At 4, I rushed back to the booth just in time to have to rush over to snap a few pics of the Tool Time presentation. I was shocked at the elaborate set and preparations. Couldn't stay long because I knew my booth volunteers were anxious to start some booth tear down preparation. 

This part of the day was truly hideous. Being so exhausted and having to pack up that entire booth was rough. Step One was to abandon my shoes. I was also trying to keep watch on my cameras and laptop in the jumble of boxes. Oh - and a booth customer managed to leave his credit card (and some food - but that's another story). We were trying to figure out how to get in touch with him - including literally yelling his name (that was Steve) and holding up a sign with his name (that was Ron). I called Susan to see if he was staying in the Marriott (he wasn't) but she gave me the numbers of the other two hotels. In the meantime, Steve called the phone number in the little credit card holder and got the man's house - in Tobago! I got lucky on my first hotel call and the man answered his hotel phone and agreed to return to retrieve his card. Phew. An hour or so later, we finished packing up and literally dragged ourselves back to the hotel. 

We met for dinner at 6:30 - and while most of us probably would have preferred to stick close by - there really wasn't anything close that could accommodate our group of 15! So we agreed to walk down to the Ohio River and Joe's Crab Shack. The walk was REALLY long, but it was worth it to get a look at the river and riverboats. On the walkway, Fred stopped to (according to him) 
"assist some ducks into the water - where they belong." Let's just say he was really enthusiastic in his assistance.

Arrived at Joe's Crab Shack and managed to sit pretty close if not all together. Fred was trying to order something without sausage, since it's a Friday before Lent. Apparently his Lenten commitment involves no meat on Friday, but doesn't say ANYTHING about being kind to poultry. Then there was an incident involving another restaurant patron, a pair of wings, a crown, and a wand - but the less said about that, the better. 

We had been teasing Fred about his DTE and he was joking that he paid $100 for the "privilege" of applying for the award. A bit later, a group at another table ordered a beer for Fred to congratulate him on his DTE. Then the guy sitting next to Fred turned to him and said, "see? That DTE is already paying for itself." That was a great laugh. 

Walked home in the rain and collapsed into bed - too tired to blog until today. Pictures will have to be inserted later. 

Louisville - Day 3

The weather continues to be pretty crappy here in Louisville. It's also hard to adjust to being on the western edge of the Eastern Time Zone - so the sun doesn't come up (well, it theoretically comes up - but with the clouds it's not always easy to tell) until well after 7:30. So the early am walk to the Convention Center is a bit weird when you walk through the "hamster tubes" from the Marriott - you are over crossing over the streets in the dark. 

I got the booth early this morning - anticipating a heavy 

morning of registration, AETL distribution, and, I was hoping, booth sales. It was a pretty busy morning. The AETL distribution alone kept us busy today - it felt like I opened at least 25 boxes just by myself. I had a little chuckle this morning when I walked around the corner past the reg area and realized that Tamara and I were dressed nearly identically today. 

The first general session speaker, Alfie Kohn, was pretty good - a great public speaker who knows how to make people laugh. The most memorable part of the session, though was that it started out at about 70 degrees and ended at about 40 degrees. Brian swears he saw snow at one point. Apparently someone complained that it was too hot and for the rest of the day, I swear it was like a meat locker. Even grown men wearing suits were complaining about the cold. Even the exhibitors complained. Susan kept calling, trying to get them to crank it back up, but it never 

did improve. To warm up, we would go outside in the cold rain. 

CJ will be pleased to hear that Roger Uhl took her directive quite seriously. He gave me a two-second heads-up to prepare my camera before he went in for an actual kiss on Ron Yuill. The photo says it all. Ron made me laugh several times today. One story will have to wait until I am back at the office, but the second one dealt with David McGee trying to find a shirt. He claimed that Shelli told him we had ordered some "special green EbD shirts." I kept telling him that we had no such animal - but he persisted. Finally, Ron just turned to him and said, "what size do you need?" I don't know why  it made me crack up - but we just weren't getting through to David and so Ron sort of just got smart and played along. It turns out that Shelli had told him about our "Mission Green" shirt and he just got confused.

Today I had Steve Moorhead in stitches with the story about a certain teacher in Ohio who faxed me 15 copies of a student's Tylenol permission form instead of a photo release form - for a photo that didn't exist. It made Steve ashamed to be from Ohio. He had some additionally revealing stories about said educator. Will share upon return.

I've met some really cool people here who give me a lot of hope that there is an up and coming generation of really talented educators. There were some new faces at the T&C meeting, too - and I have a renewed hope about reviving that journal this year. 

Went out to dinner with Mo, Tamara, Lari, Brian, Ron, Fred B., and David W. We had to split up into two groups, so I sat with Fred B, Ron, and Lari. I'm not sure how, but somehow we had a "Cheeseburger epidemic" at our table - all four of us ordered cheeseburgers. (And they were good.) 

I am beat and it's late and CJ was SO right - two blogs was probably not my best idea. It's taking me over two hours a night to sort and edit photos, write, and upload everything. See how dedicated I am?

Louisville - Day 2

Despite the dreary, rainy beginning, the day went pretty well today. My alarm woke me up this morning at 7:30 - at which point I realized that my hotel clock was an hour behind! (It still said 6:30).  Made my way to the Convention Center by 9 - the one late day of the week. One of the highlights of my day was when I was unearthing our credit card machine (which Linda and I expertly hit beneath a pile of "ITEACH Green" buttons.) I opened the box and what was sitting on the top of the pile of buttons? My lost glasses! (see photo).

It's a LONG walk from the hotel to the CC - though a little better if you know the "shortcuts." And I don't recommend going via Steve and Linda's route - they swear they saw a dead body at the bottom of one of the escalators. We spent some time doing some last-minute rearranging and then, all too soon, it was time to open. 

No conference would be complete with the requisite "Ron sniffing." This year was

no exception and Lauren Olsen, Joan Haas, and Terri Rust were happy to step in to make sure Ron was properly smelled. Needless to say, Ron's face was completely BEET red.

Time went quickly and soon it was time to send Steve and Linda off to eat lunch. Naturally, as soon as they left, things picked up and Ron and I were plenty busy. Ron wrote up an order for over $55o! When Steve and Linda returned, Ron and I headed off to the Wolfgang Puck Express (REALLY good food) but I

 had to wolf it down to get back

 and head over to the Marriott with Steve be

fore a 1:30 meeting.

The afternoon was fairly uneventful. I got a kick out of meeting "Terps 

guy" and "Frostburg guy." (see pics.) Terps guy had on both a Terps jacket AND a Terps shirt! The piece de resistance was when he pulled out his Baltimore Ravens credit card to pay for his purchase! I told him that he and my husband must have been separated at birth. 

Another highlight of the afternoon was trying to officiate Steve and Linda's (apparently) ongoing disagreement about whether or not Linda had to give up making Christmas cookies with her mother and daughter in order to show up for her wedding with Steve. 

In my rush to get

 back to the hotel in time for the 5:15 New Member Reception, I somehow managed to leave the Resource Booth's petty cash in the cash box - back in the Convention Center. Doi! I didn't realize it until I got back to my room and double checked.

After dinner, Lari, Tamara, Mo, and Brian came up to my room t

o watch American Idol. They got tired of listening to me angsting about the petty cash and finally, at about 9:00, I took Brian up on his offer to walk back over to the CC to look for it. EXCEPT that I insisted on running the entire way. Let me tell you, it's a LONG way - a solid five minutes of running and I thought I would pass out. The fun

niest part is that we just wandered into the CC and not one person challenged us - including the paid guard who was standing OUTSIDE the CC when we walked in. He eventually noticed us, but paid us no attention after Brian WAVED to him. I dug inside my boxes, found the cash box and (thankfully) found my $200 in petty cash. Phew! 

Let's hope I'm a little less scatterbrained tomorrow. 

Louisville Day 1

This is one of those days that feels more like a week. I left home at about 8:30 this morning with my coworkers Lari and Tamara and we headed off for BWI airport. A few patches of rough traffic, two railroad crossings (actually the same one TWICE), and a long, cold wait for a shuttle bus later, we made it to the airport. 

The first thing that made me laugh out loud today (but definitely not the last) was when seated at our gate, Tamara pulls out her reading material for the plane. The photo above says it all: that's right, it's a book about....composting! 

The flight was easy and fast - just the way I like them. We touched down a bit early, about 1:15 and quickly got a cab downtown, arriving at the down

town Marriott. Immediately upon arrival, I had three separate people tell me that Ron Yuill and Mike Fitzgerald were already starting work to set up my Resource Booth, so I felt obligated to haul it over to the  Convention Center asap. I literally threw my luggage into my room and headed over immediately. Sure enough, Ron had already opened every box and done his best to somewhat organize them. We basically reorganized the entire thing, but it was great to have the boxes open and at least in the correct general vicinity. I'd say we started unpacking at about 2 and didn't finish until 5:30. Above is a photo of Ron and Steve, my primary booth volunteers, taking a break in front of the enormous Convention Center sign which is, of course RIGHT in the  MIDDLE of our booth! After 5:30, we realized Tamara still needed help setting up Registration, so we all migrated all of 20 feet to the Reg area (we will be staring across at each other  all week) and set up an assembly line to stuff attendee bags and preregistration envelopes. PLUS moving more boxes - all the programs and other detritus - to  a storage area. My back is aching. We saw a lot of interesting people tooling around the Convention Center (CC) including one guy who happened by carrying a live ferret (SO cute). The ferret's name was Sly, and he was very friendly. Brian insisted on taking this photo of me petting Sly. Maureen was horrified, but I could have taken him (the ferret) home.

At about 6:30 we finally left the Convention Center and tried to make dinner plans on the fly. Never a good idea. Tamara stayed behind with a few helpers to finish up a few last-minute things and agreed to meet up with us. We discovered that the 4th Street Live area was only a block away so we headed over to a place called, I think, Gumbo's, with GREAT New Orleans-style food. Lots of etouffe and gumbo and I had some sort of Bourbon Chicken concoction. We tried to call Tamara, but her phone was turned off, so imagine our surprise to see her come strolling past the window of our restaurant with none other than Fred and David! I literally stood up at our table and yelled to then (fortunately it was not a high-class 

dining establishment.) Purely coincidental that she found us. Great dinner - but we were all really beat. By 8 I was already headed back to the hotel. 

Wrapping up for today because tomorrow is bound to be another long one. Need to go over the Resource Booth and do all my last-minute "tweaking" (read that: completely rearrange) before we open at 11. Below is a photo of my hotel bed (which is calling to me). I took it for Claire and Sydney - to show them that Bucky Beaver is sitting in my bed (and wearing my glasses!) And believe it or not, I've already managed to lose one pair of reading glasses. Sigh.

Louisville: T Minus 1

Somehow March has rolled around and it's once again time for me to hit the road for my annual conference. It's the 11th time I've done it and it never seems to get less stressful. Because the association that I work for hosts the conference, my coworkers and I just somehow feel RESPONSIBLE for the 1000+ attendees. The days are long and the duties are many. My friend Tamara has been saying for days, "you don't become ready, it just becomes your turn."

Don't let that suitcase in the photo fool you - there's nothing in it yet. It seems like I spent all day yesterday preparing things like my camera and my iPhone and doing laundry. I hope to be doing actual packing this afternoon and then spend the evening wondering what I've forgotten. Then I take off tomorrow morning for Louisville. 

The hardest part is definitely having to leave my family. At least now they're all old enough to understand the deal. Even Claire, who is most sensitive to my absences said, "I'll be fine. You'll bring me something, right?" I think I am most bummed about missing Joe's birthday - his 20th on Wednesday - since I've never missed any of my kids' birthdays. We had a great dinner for him last night and he was able to open his gifts, so I think he'll be fine. Plus, he has class on Wednesday evening. 

The other difficulty is that every other person in my family (all five of them) are sick. They have varying degrees of colds, sore throats, and in Tony's case, pink eye! I don't even want to go in the house at this point - since I have no desire to get sick on the trip. 

I will wear several hats for the next few days. The primary job is to set up, manage, and work our "Resource Booth" - basically our "store" of publications and other items that we sell to attendees. Secondarily, I am the official photographer for the conference. So I do a lot of time running to various events, snapping photos, and running back out. Finally, I am giving my own presentation this year - on how to write articles for our journal - on Friday. Those who know me may know that public speaking is not my forte. I am MUCH more comfortable behind a camera or computer. 

So...stay tuned. Should be an interesting week.