Vegas Day 2
All work and no play
Today’s my conference day. Three two-hour long conference paper sessions, three and four papers each session. Whew. I decided to stick to the Le Guin thread in the conference and unfortunately missed a lot of interesting papers on other topics, particularly Star Trek. One of the sessions was an author reading with Le Guin and another writer. After the talk, she signed books—a maximum of three, and if you wanted more than that signed, you had to get back in line again. The book dealers were out in force, and they had just piles of books. Le Guin must suffer from carpal tunnel syndrome.
As Le Guin was signing my books, I asked if she was planning to attend all the sessions about her work. It only seemed polite, she answered, and sure enough, next session, there she was. I watched her throughout while I listened to papers, wondering if she would ask questions during the discussion section after the papers, but she mostly listened quietly, smiling here and there when appropriate, drawing in a small notebook. I was glad to see this, as I knew my paper was in the next session.
When we moved to the next presentation room, I headed up to the front table where a very nervous looking young man was sitting. It was his first conference presentation, he’d just finished his undergrad degree, and the subject of his paper was sitting in the audience. Nothing like seeing somebody really nervous to remind you that you’ve done this a dozen times and it’ll be fine. Sure enough, it was fine: my paper was respectable if not fabulous, and I was able to answer my questions from the audience. Le Guin came up after the panel and said thank you—to which my only response could be thank you!
I snuck back to the hotel room for a quick phone call home—everyone is still alive, and evidently better, as Will says Grandma took them to the BIG movies! He has a big splinter, and it’s just a hoot to me that my mother, a powerful nurse almost never unsettled by anything that happens in the hospital, decided to leave it for me to deal with. Chris was having fun on his trip, having found a compatible evening out partner at his workshop, but the beach was sort of a bust because of a red tide, which is too bad because his hotel was a resort on the Gulf Coast.
And then on to dinner. The other woman on the panel invited me to dinner with her, and we walked up and down the strip, looking for somewhere interesting to eat and seeing the sights, from an absolutely fabulous Dale Chihuly ceiling in the Bellagio to the guys standing on the street handing out the strippers-direct-to-you cards. We ended up far down the strip having dinner at the Luxor, which I’m sure is a tawdry replica of Egypt, but at least resembled something Egyptian, much more so than Excalibur evoked Arthurian legends. Nothing like having the buffet in Vegas. Good thing we had to walk a mile or two to get there! Altogether a pleasant evening spent in good company.
Today’s my conference day. Three two-hour long conference paper sessions, three and four papers each session. Whew. I decided to stick to the Le Guin thread in the conference and unfortunately missed a lot of interesting papers on other topics, particularly Star Trek. One of the sessions was an author reading with Le Guin and another writer. After the talk, she signed books—a maximum of three, and if you wanted more than that signed, you had to get back in line again. The book dealers were out in force, and they had just piles of books. Le Guin must suffer from carpal tunnel syndrome.
As Le Guin was signing my books, I asked if she was planning to attend all the sessions about her work. It only seemed polite, she answered, and sure enough, next session, there she was. I watched her throughout while I listened to papers, wondering if she would ask questions during the discussion section after the papers, but she mostly listened quietly, smiling here and there when appropriate, drawing in a small notebook. I was glad to see this, as I knew my paper was in the next session.
When we moved to the next presentation room, I headed up to the front table where a very nervous looking young man was sitting. It was his first conference presentation, he’d just finished his undergrad degree, and the subject of his paper was sitting in the audience. Nothing like seeing somebody really nervous to remind you that you’ve done this a dozen times and it’ll be fine. Sure enough, it was fine: my paper was respectable if not fabulous, and I was able to answer my questions from the audience. Le Guin came up after the panel and said thank you—to which my only response could be thank you!
I snuck back to the hotel room for a quick phone call home—everyone is still alive, and evidently better, as Will says Grandma took them to the BIG movies! He has a big splinter, and it’s just a hoot to me that my mother, a powerful nurse almost never unsettled by anything that happens in the hospital, decided to leave it for me to deal with. Chris was having fun on his trip, having found a compatible evening out partner at his workshop, but the beach was sort of a bust because of a red tide, which is too bad because his hotel was a resort on the Gulf Coast.
And then on to dinner. The other woman on the panel invited me to dinner with her, and we walked up and down the strip, looking for somewhere interesting to eat and seeing the sights, from an absolutely fabulous Dale Chihuly ceiling in the Bellagio to the guys standing on the street handing out the strippers-direct-to-you cards. We ended up far down the strip having dinner at the Luxor, which I’m sure is a tawdry replica of Egypt, but at least resembled something Egyptian, much more so than Excalibur evoked Arthurian legends. Nothing like having the buffet in Vegas. Good thing we had to walk a mile or two to get there! Altogether a pleasant evening spent in good company.
posted by Lisa at 6/27/2005 09:10:00 PM
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