Exhausting.

That one word sums up how I felt when I finally collapsed in my bed after a grueling, but fulfilling American Library Association conference in Anaheim. I managed to walk away with a lot of new ideas, connections, a large handful of really exciting YA galleys, and three blisters! Yay!

Heading into the conference, I was actually dreading the experience. I strained a muscle in my back and last week I had difficulty walking. Every time I stepped on my right foot, I experienced a shot of sheer agony in the left side of the bottom of my back. Fun! Being the glutton for punishment that I am, I put off going to the doctor until the conference was bearing down on me, hoping that the back would get better on its own.

Finally on Friday, the day We2 was scheduled to get to Anaheim, I broke down and went to my emergency room after two phone calls to the Kaiser appointment line failed to get me in to see any doctor before 7:45pm. A few X-rays and a jar of pee later, they gave me a morphine shot laced with an anti-nausea med.

Sleepy, but ready to go, we got in the car in the late afternoon. I only had to make Him pull over on the freeway once so I could throw up. ALA HERE I COME!

Luckily though the medication somehow worked a miracle. The morphine finally got the muscles back there to settle down and I spent the rest of my Friday lightly snoozing in our cool hotel room.

I'm still absorbing the conference itself. I have a ton of ideas percolating and it's going to be hard for me to think about focusing on just one. I've noticed lately I have had a tendency to flit around to lots of projects, I end up doing lots of things half as well as I envision. I think that's less a statement about me than it is a statement about how life is when you work somewhere that could use at least a 50% increase in staff.

I am so glad to have had the opportunity to meet and hang out with so many librarians that are beyond dedicated to their work. It's so refreshing to be surrounded by people that refuse to settle for less and continue to advocate for the rights of teens in public and school libraries. It inspires me to go back and do better at my local branch and also makes me think more about how I can better contribute to my profession.

Hopefully I'll have more of this processed by the end of the week and I can start meeting with some higher ups to talk about new ideas...