We went to Seattle from Tuesday to Friday, so I could go to a workshop on preservation of digital materials, and to see my brother, and niece and sister-in-law, and Robyn Hitchcock, who was performing in town.
At the workshop, I ended up sitting next to a friend, someone who we got to know when she was part of couple that is no longer, you know how that is, and at the end of the workshop she said, "well, was it good enough, or a good enough excuse" - quite wise - and I'm not sure, really. The workshop was just fine - there was a question on the evaluation form where you were supposed to say how much of the material was new to you, and the choices were 25%, 50%, 75%, all - I chose 50%, but really, as Mark said, I was just being polite - 25% seemed too low to me; I wanted about 30% as a choice. Still, there was valuable info for me, to work into future librarians' classes that I will teach, and also welcome confirmation of other beliefs - people saying the same things I have said about a library issue, and getting paid to do it. The speakers were all pretty good, save for one who had to deliver someone else's talk, never a good deal, and then was uncomfortably smug when speaking on her own topic (which was collaboration to effectively fund and preserve cultural heritage digital stuff - "I'm working with important people to do important things, but obviously I can't tell you exactly who and what ..."). I skipped the reception to go cook dinner for the fam; maybe I woulda liked her better if I had a glass of wine with her.
It was a great trip, we got frequent flier tickets, we upheld our tradition of shopping at the market and I cooked supper, we got to see Robyn Hitchcock, we had dinner out (at Cafe Flora), I quaffed a few beers with the bro, and he dug out this old letter I had written him in 1978, that was pretty stunning in its honesty. So I'm also not sure, although I am often overwhelmed and admiring of how frankly my brother writes, if I wish I was more like that 23 year old me in that letter in this blog, or less.
A few more Seattle pictures: |
| Seattle to see Robyn and Dave, Jen & Mimi |
And now that I am back home, cookies production has started in earnest. I guess the analogy for my cookie season start is the snow storm we are having today - started as nice fluffy snow, turned to ice and is now rain. I can hear some neighbors out shoveling, and wonder if if I should go too - but I think I am going to make nukhorn dough, instead.
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