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.
"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.
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