The Great Library Geek-Out

Whew! We're back from a whirlwind weekend in San Antonio. We spent Saturday at the ALA Midwinter Meeting, and had a blast. I worked the Unshelved booth from 9-12, and the SLIS booth from 1-5, which left me one hour to run around grabbing cool library swag and talking to vendors about job opportunities.

As Mom and I started through the Exhibits Hall to find Unshelved, her eyes got bigger and bigger at all the bibliophile goodies, and when we got to the booth, she breezed "See you later!" as she rushed off to score as many free books as possible. I looked across the isle and nearly salivated--Unshelved was across from the DC Comics booth. An aisle over, I found Dark Horse Comics and Marvel Comics--scored a little swag there, too.

I had a great time working with Bill and Gene--Bill gave me webcomic tips, and Gene gave me more insight into the furthering of my comic education. Thanks, guys, for the fun experience, the conversation, and the cool swag!! I also had a complete library geek-out moment when Nancy Pearl walked by the booth and said hi to the guys--eek! Speaking of whom, my loving Mom bought me the Deluxe Librarian Action Figure as an early graduation present.

Alex was tempted into coming later--thanks for the extra badge, Gene--and made the exhibit rounds for me, grabbing posters, pins, books, pens, book bags, and I don't know what else. His most fantastic score by far was a Timothy Zahn advance copy--the Dark Horse rep had only two copies, and she wasn't giving them out until Monday. But something about that Overdue Media badge won her over...

I spoke with many enthusiastic SLIS alumni, and gained new encouragement job-wise--granted, the interested parties primarily wanted me to relocate to California, but it was just nice to know that there are jobs out there. Take that, negative new-librarian articles!

Back at Mom & Dad's place, we celebrated a late Christmas--with all the neat gifts, Mom had also included an awesome article on why there aren't many female comic artists. Awwww, so thoughtful. Then I finally got some sleep Saturday night, after my 5 hours between work shifts Thursday, and my inability to sleep more than 3.5 hours Friday (due to library geek excitement).

...Did I mention that I met Elvis, too?

Oh, and Tihleigh, I've got something for you...

Update: Photos now uploaded! Building progress update to soon follow...