day three hundred twenty-four.

 

day two hundred fifty-six.

busy saturday here in the other twin cities.
an early morning at the public library, for computer tutoring sessions with senior citizens, followed by a nice brunch at the courier cafe:

(i love when places give you your own little pot)

then:

jessica, of the DC jessicas, came to visit! 

 spicy salmon at siam terrace.

she is on a dream vacation through the state of illinois and was kind enough to breeze through my area for the evening.

we followed our dinner with a movie and sorbet at cakes on walnut.

happy times.

day two hundred seventeen(-ish).

tuesday: DOT presentation day
best question asked in my session room:

"what i'm saying is...why can't bears see a car coming?"

runner up:

"clowns on unicycles are also incredibly distracting."

an evening at kramer books for pie, token-operated bathrooms, and literary pursuits

from the dupont escalator

day one hundred seventy-five.

ALA: day three

(sunday)

hello, seth meyers.

i had a, let's say, low impact sunday at the conference.
i showed up after lunch and took a break to go to the grocery store.

but i did make it my business to go see this man:

enigmatologist and nyt crossword editor, the legendary will shortz.

he split the room into two teams to play puzzle games with plays on presidential names, american cities, and tom swifties: fiction v. non-fiction (fiction won)

he revealed that the youngest submitter to have a puzzle published is only 14, and the oldest 95 (and creating puzzles since 1955!).

he also said that sometimes when editing, he changes things just because they "aren't important enough for you to know" rather than inaccurate, like that UCLA was jim morrison's alma mater.


a few examples from the cities game:

1. The Playboy Club is putting out a movie with an ___________ cast.


2. Of all the fruits grown in Asia, residents of Bombay think the ___________ the best.


and from the Tom Swifty game:

3. "Get rid of all the conservative party in England," Tom said _________.


(leave a correct and non-cheating answer in the comments and i will send you a postcard!)

after my grocery field trip, i loitered for a while with GSLISers whitney and katherine

this happened:

then we were off to the GSLIS alumni reception at the renaissance hotel down the street

swanky.

post-reception, dairy-free chocolate noir sorbet from pitango, which tasted like the best chocolate ice cream you could imagine eating on a humid summer sidewalk in chinatown surrounded by transplanted illinoisans (as in, delicious)

day one hundred seventy-four.

ALA: day two
(saturday)

"my job is holding the bowl."

vegan cooking demonstration, with black bean salad eating and free cookbooks at the end.

i heard a librarian whisper, "i could never eat at outback again!"

cookie marketing!

chilling with sir salman rushdie.
he is such a natural speaker; even his tangents have smooth transitions.
we enjoyed hearing about the many ways j.m. barrie looked nothing like johnny depp.

librarians are obsessed with twitter.
people were tweeting about seeing their tweets on the giant tweet screen
(tweet)

madam toni morrison, our speaker for the evening.
i was sitting with GSLISers whitney and aaisha and we have a (quiet) cheer when she name checked the u of i and its massive collection.

we had thai food in chinatown afterwards, and whitney and i walked around for a bit

we had dessert on the brain.

conference shoulder looking less debilitating

off to day three!

day one hundred thirty-eight.

my mom came to visit yesterday so we did some vintage/book shopping downtown
(editors note: we did not purchase any of the following items)

dusty faux french toast: $16

lady grater

we had tapas for dinner with my sister and then went for dessert.
mom managed to eat only half of this enormous, layered, anything-similar-should-be-ashamed-to-call-itself-a brownie.

today i got finger printed for my internship.
i have an identity; i am identifiable.

day twenty-six.

i spent the weekend in chicagoland, celebrating my friend ashley's upcoming wedding.
we took the weird chicago bus tour (of the red light district & haunted pub varieties). it was a lot of fun and crazy. i would be interested in doing it again, but perhaps the "devil & the white city" or al capone versions.

we did pay a visit to one of these, in an unassuming walk-up:

and then i had a moment of convergence, when a photo from an hour before converged with some bathroom graffiti:

we finished the night at a place called lulu's, for baskets of fried things.
this guy showed up:

i ended up with a hotel room to myself, since not many stayed the night.
one bed was entirely dedicated to my unused pillows:

the dessert table at sunday's shower:

many more pictures, stories to share, but perhaps via other avenues.
for now, i have a healthy sleep deficit to dismantle.