Swag

Early Tuesday morning I woke up, headed down to Starbucks to get coffee and a doughnut, where it was apparently free pastry day!, and then finished packing my bags so I could head down to Portland for the Public Library Association's annual conference. I then headed downtown on the buses (two-bus trip) with my luggage, which wasn't all that fun, but it helped that the buses were largely empty. I got off in the International District searching for the King Street Station. I finally got there and boarded the train--all the way back in the very last car in coach. (Sadly there are no photos to document the trip--I've never been a very good picture-taker.)

This was my fourth train, I think. The very first train I rode was the Heber Creeper, a real coal-burning, smoke-spewing, choo-choo train that makes a completely circuitous route--it doesn't go anywhere, you just ride it for funsies. And let me tell you how much fun it is to be stuck on a slow-moving train with your family in the middle of Utah. The next train I rode on was the Eurostar Chunnel from London to Paris, and a few days later a train through the English countryside to Stratford-upon-Avon. So this was the Amtrack train from Vancouver to Portland, and ever since I was young Amtrack and Amway have always been confusedly associated in my mind--is it a train, a pyramid scheme, or both? I now know they are separate entities. Sadly American trains are not as fast as European ones. Nor are they as magical as the Darjeeling Limited--a train so whimsical you know it came from Anderson's imagination and is not based on any reality. Of course, then again, I'm not traveling with a mountain of Luis Vuitton luggage.

On the way down I read a great deal of The United States of Arugula a nonfiction account of how America became of gourmet nation chronicling the last fifty years or so of our food history and how key players like James Beard, Craig Claiborne, Julia Child, and Alice Waters, among many others, changed the way we eat and think about (gourmet) food. It's very interesting, and has made me thankful that we live in a world that now contains such items as salsa--virtually unheard of 25 years ago.

Well I arrived in Portland around 3:30, and I took a taxi to the Red Lion Hotel, which I assumed would be hella janky, confusing it in my mind with unfortunate stays in Red Roof Inns. The Red Lion is actually a very nice hotel (free wi-fi!--even if we couldn't figure out how the curtains worked the first night--and a window that actually opened) kitty-corner to the convention center. To get to the hotel from the train station I had to take the worst taxi ride I've ever been on. The hotel wasn't that far from the station, but the man had no idea where it was or even how to drive a vehicle. He couldn't change lanes--sometimes driving in the middle of two lanes--ignored lights, and was baffled by Portland's streets, of which he is a taxi driver. If I am going to die in a cab it had better be in Italy and not Portland! The cynic in me thinks he may have been trying to extend the ride, but he was so bad at driving, I think he just had no sense of direction. Consequently, I hardly tipped him and didn't feel bad about it at all. So I was at the hotel where I was sharing a room with my friend Lillian, who had already checked in without putting my name on the room, and was already at a session. So I waited awkwardly in the lobby for a couple of hours until she showed up.

Once I finally got into our room, I freshened up, and we went downtown on the light rail called the MAX. It was fabulous and absolutely free in the city center. Brilliant! I was expecting Portland to be much larger like Seattle, but the city center is fairly small for a major US city. It reminded my a lot of Salt Lake actually with the broad streets, square blocks, low skyline, and general openness. Seattle is just so constricted. Portland just has more beer, fewer Mormons, and bridges. Anyway, I love Portland. So we first went to Powell's, which as many of you already know is a destination book store, and I found book heaven. I thought Bookman's in Flagstaff was pretty nice, and the Elliott Bay Book Company in Seattle is fabulous--well at their present location anyway; they are moving at the end of this month. But Powell's beats them all. It's a new and use bookstore that takes up an entire city block. When we stepped into the store, all my dendrites started firing and my synapses overloaded. I was pretty much in a daze for the next couple of hours which I probably why I bought two books I didn't even need. First I bought the The Odyssey translated by Robert Fagles, a (very good) translation I have already read and own in my Norton anthology. I also own the Albert Cook translation (I haven't heard of him either) in the Norton Critical Edition series. But this is the beautiful Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition with French folds and deckled edges and that matches the Fagles Iliad that I own and haven't red. A complete set. I also bought the Final Harvest poems by Emily Dickinson selected and edited by Thomas H. Johnson confusing it for the Franklin Reading Edition recommended by Harold Bloom. It's still a step up from the BN Classics volume, but I already have so many of Dickinson's poems in various anthologies already. Still they're very nice books, and they were on sale.

After Powell's, we started looking for somewhere to eat, but central Portland pretty much closes by eight. However, we went to Deschutes Brewery because I've already had their very good beer. Their Inversion IPA is so good! I got the sweet and spicy macaroni and cheese. The sweet and spicy aspect was interesting and delicious, but as far as mac and cheese goes, it wasn't that great. I've basically decided to only order mac and cheese from restaurants in the South that do not use penne pasta. Seriously America! I make better mac and cheese at home.

We got up early the next morning for Nancy Pearl's Book Buzz where she introduced us to representatives from Penguin, HarperCollins, Random House, and Macmillan who told us all about books coming out this spring and summer (and fall) of which librarians should be aware. We ran into fellow-student Marissa and moseyed down to the J Cafe for lunch where I had a delicious panini. We sat at the outside tables because it was a gloriously sunny and warm day. in Portland! (The next two days were gray, windy, cold, and rainy.) We headed back to the convention to see some person I didn't know named Natalie Merchant. This is because 10,000 Maniacs was a little before my time, and even though I've heard and like some of their songs, I didn't know who their lead singer was. She's been working on a new project that comes out in April called "Leave Your Sleep" that she started for her daughter wherein she has taken English and American poems and adapted them into songs. She introduced all the poem/songs and poets, and it was quite nice. Man, does she have a voice, and she's pretty funny. She also cracked up a few times during the songs. She was accompanied by two guitarists and a cellist, who was amazing! I love the cello. She came back for one encore song, explaining that when she was a child you would find her at the public library, and sang "Kind and Generous" dedicated to and a thank you for all the librarians in the room. I was just happy that is was a song I knew. After her performance, was the keynote address delivered by Nicholas Kristof, a New York Times reporter who has won a Pulitzer (with his wife) for coverage on the Tienanmen Square protests and then again for his coverage on Darfur. His speech was from his book Half the Sky about the oppression of women in developing countries. He specifically shared stories about sex trafficking in Cambodia and the education of school girls in rural China. It was a little grim, and he acknowledged that he's seen some grim things, but that what he remembers first and most are the humanitarians and volunteers who are working to make the world a better place. And his speech was a call to arms in many ways of creating opportunities for women so we can make the world better. It was really interesting (and depressing), but I was left wondering what specifically this had to do with public libraries and librarians.

After the keynote address, we made our way to the exhibit halls. I haven't been to a convention or expo center for a long time, and I forgot how freaking huge these things are. There were hundreds of vendors--mostly to do with technology--but we made our way to the publishers' booths to score some free galleys. And boy did we ever! I got The Passage by Justin Cronin a massive book, Angelology by Danielle Trussoni of which I had recently read a NYT review, Beatrice and Virgil by Yann Martel, and The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake by Aimee Bender which I am reading right now. It's the story of a girl who one day was able to taste the hidden emotions of the people who have made the food she eats which of course a curse and not a blessing. So far, so good. I also scored a free copy of the first book in Brandon Sanderson's Mistborn trilogy. And I bought, for a mere five bucks, a Penguin Deluxe Edition of Moby-Dick which I will one day read. And even if I don't, it's a beautiful copy. Lillian, who just finished reading it, and already owns two copies of the book, still wants this edition. Some guy also shoved a poster in my hand, which turned out to be a pretty freaky poster of a demon and I had no idea what it was even in relation to. I left the poster in the hotel wastebasket. Looking at the pile of books, later in the hotel room, I despaired at how I was ever going to get them all home with me, but I did.

Afterward, we found the rest of our group from school, and we all headed downtown and grabbed some pizza and beer at Rocco's. Again we sat outside because it was so sunny and warm, almost uncomfortably so. We then went back to Powell's, where I didn't buy anything this time. Afterward we went and got some gelato--which is always a treat. At this point, I was ready to go back to the hotel room, which is in fact, what we did. As I was trying to decide what sessions I wanted to go to the next day, I quietly despaired at why I ever wanted to be a librarian and how much more fun English conventions are, even if they don't have any swag.

But the sessions turned out to be pretty good. I first went to one about Learning 2.0 which was about librarians learning and using Web 2.0 technologies and bringing the public library into the 21st century. I have a handle of most of these, but there's still a few I could learn. During his talk, I picked up on things I had learned in Research Methods which was both exciting and depressing. On one hand, I hated Research Methods and this was freaking Spring Break, but on the other hand I knew what he was talking about and realized I had actually learned something in class, so it wasn't a total waste. (Later, on the light rail, I heard a couple of guys talking about functions and arrays, and I sort of knew what they were talking about, thanks to my JavaScript class.) The next session was a crossover advisory for teen and adult fiction--the teens who want to read adult books and the adults who are interested in teen books. The panel consisted of two public librarians who are readers' advisers and two authors: Kaite Meditore Stover, who writes horror, and Brandon Sanderson, who writes fantasy. I decided to skip out on the last session that day, needing some down time by myself.

Lillian and I went downtown to scrounge up some food, and take advantage of Oregon's lack of sales tax. Sadly, I did not buy anything. At the hotel we watched Julie & Julia which is currently on Starz and Netflix. I really like this movie. The Julia part really is the best part of the movie, even though I like Amy Adams and Julie's memoir. Meryl Streep's Julia is just so amazing!

On Friday morning I went to the Top 5 of the Top 5, but due to time constraints it was the Top 3 of the Top 5. They acknowledge the arbitrary nature of the "top five" genres they talked about: horror, fantasy, women's fiction, crime fiction, and humor--humor not really being a traditional genre at all. They then talked about the top five up-and-comers in the genre, five trends, and their five personal favorites. There was a link to the slideshow I wanted to share, but I didn't write it down, and I can't find it right now. Anyway librarians have to be knowledgeable about every and any genre despite personal preferences. There are so many books I need to put on hold at the library.

So I ran downtown one last time to grab some street food, I got a really good taco and great baklava (which I've found to be rare), but I had a gyro that has just awful and threw most of it away. (However, there's a place on the Ave that makes fantastic gyros.) I also checked out the central branch of Portland's public library. It's old-fashioned and stately. I still think SLC's main branch is just one of the best libraries ever, but I am prejudiced. Then we checked out, and took the train home. And once we arrived in Seattle, it took another hour and a half to bus home. I plan to visit Portland more, and wouldn't even mind settling down there to work.

Two Netflix movies were waiting for me: Double Indemnity and the second season of Brothers & Sisters. And the Bodum Chambord French press I ordered finally arrived. I ordered the 3-cup size which is only 12 ounces and I'm kind of pissed at how small it is. Apparently, the Swedes think 4 oz is a cup. Damn that metric system! You know, cause I thought that 3 cups would be 24 ounces. I mean in the world we live in, a small/tall coffee is 12 oz (sometimes you can get a short which is 8 oz), but really. Seriously, Bodum?!? I know I should have read the product description more carefully, but calling it a 3-Cup Coffee Press is rather misleading. To me 12 oz is a small "cup" of coffee. Anyway, it did make delicious coffee, and one day I will probably buy a bigger, better press. (I'm also not really sure how to clean the plunger/filter--Rae?)

Well, spring quarter starts on Monday, and I'm not really excited about starting a whole new quarter. Another reason to prefer semesters. But hopefully, it'll be a good one.