Going back to Cali. Or not.

Hello there, blogosphere. I am back from California, from filling my brain alternatively with news of Web 2.0 and how to incorporate it into libraries everywhere and with scenes from the great California sea coast. I could hear seagulls and seals (seals, people!) from my hotel room as I went to bed at night and as I woke up in the morning, and the sliding door to my balcony in the room was shut the whole time. These sounds of nature were definitely the best part of the trip.

What did I learn at Internet Librarian 2008? That I should be incorporating all kinds of nifty Web 2.0 stuff into my library world each and every day, if, for shame!, I haven't already. Wikis, blogs, RSS feeds, you know, the usual. I should be Twittering (which I am, though not enough probably), using Facebook and Linked In for expert connections (what kind of expert connection am I going to make in Facebook, and why do they want to see that if I were a musical instrument I'd be a clarinet?), staffing my library with a FTE just to push out news stories gathered by RSS Feeds and the like. While part of me was invigorated by this conference, other parts of me felt old, way too young to be out of touch with technology, and depressed about how my library seems to be so behind the times. But, as Doug reminded me, and as I reminded myself, we're making progress, and not every technology needs to be utilized in all environments. This is why I missed him. He always makes me feel better, unless he's telling me I'm a complainy-pants. But, I suppose he's right about that one, too. I am a Sheridan after all, and I think that's what we were put on this planet to do.

Anywho, I'll post a few photos of California This first one is of my hotel room at the Portola Plaza hotel. A nice hotel, but the gym sucked. Pardon my language, but the "gym" consisted of two treadmills, two stationary bikes, two elliptical machines, and some free weights all crammed into a hotel room, room 125 to be exact. The headboards were still in place, the giant armoire for the TV was there... and then all the equipment. It was like hanging out in your bedroom with a bunch of strangers, getting all sweaty and smelly. Not so great. But the guest rooms were nice, and it was all free (thank you, job), so I'm not complaining. Not really. Or wait, I guess I am.

Moving on. This other photo is where things get good - the wildlife. Monterey is filled with great birds and sea animals, like sea otters and seals. This fine creature is a pelican about to take flight, and these birds look large in the water but look even larger when flying. I was impressed by the pelicans and was pleased to see them there. I don't think I'd ever seen one before. This other example of California sea life is a fine looking seal sunning him/her self on a rock. Now I wasn't that close to these creatures (our camera has a good zoom, thankfully), but they were fantastic to watch. This guy here just lay like that for at least the 45 minutes I was sitting there watching things down at the harbor. Didn't move at all. What amazing muscle conditioning! I don't think I can hope to achieve that at Curves.

This one here is a good one of the harbor area, or I guess what is called the Bay in California. Monterey Bay. I did not know that fishing is still such a part of the culture here, and I think that it is, but just not for commercial purposes. There are a lot more of these private little sail boats parked long the bay than commercial fishing boats, but I'm sure these little guys have caught a few fish in their day. The pelicans were catching oodles of fish, so I'm sure anyone with a fishing rod would have a great time in the water. My sister and brother-in-law should take my nephew out to the Pacific Ocean. I bet he'd have a blast out there. And speaking of traveling, this last photo I took from my window seat on the little puddle-jumper that took all 12 of us from the rinky-dink Monterey airport to the international airport in San Francisco. The view from my window was pretty cool, but I had images of this propeller breaking off the wing and smashing through my little window, with me dying either by decapitation or by explosion from the then depressurized cabin. Yes, I have quite the imagination, and I blame too much Dr G Medical Examiner. San Francisco is somewhere in that photo. That's probably all I'll get to see of San Francisco for a while! At least I can say I was there, right?

All in all, a nice get away, a good trip, a good conference, and a nice homecoming to Doug at the airport. I am glad I made him charge up his Blackberry, otherwise we might still be wandering around trying to connect, but we found each other, grabbed some Five Guys for dinner and watched some ghosts on TV. A very nice homecoming indeed.