Hello, Bangor! I’ve been here for the past two days as the Maine Library Association holds its annual conference. Astute fans will note that I did the same thing last year at the same time. Last year a lot of stuff was happening throughout that year with my full time job, which made it hard to really devote as much attention to organizing the conference as I needed.
Not this year!
So this year has been much more hectic and crazy, and I will be one happy Bryce by the time I’m looking at Bangor in my rearview mirror. Helping to organize and run a conference like this helps me appreciate all the work and effort that goes into making a larger scale event successful. There’s just a ton of behind-the-scenes work that has to happen, and almost all of it is done by volunteers. I can’t imagine the work that has to go into a Comic Con or a World Con. My hats go off to all those fine people.
Still, I’ve been sort of running around all over the place for the past few days. The ALA President came to town, there’s been dinners to attend, presentations to work on. Crazy crazy.
Wish me luck. If anyone wants to see me or say hi, you’ll know where to find me. I’m the one with the beard long enough that people are starting to comment on its length. (“When are you going to trim that?” they ask. “When I have time,” I answer. It might not be until December folks. But at least birds will have a place to keep warm in the meantime.) And sorry I don’t have more time to blog at the moment . . .