Thursday, August 01, 2013

hot in cleveland

This weekend, I'm spending four days in Cleveland at Digipalooza 2013.  It's basically a corporate-sponsored event by our eBook provider.   Honestly, an eBook Support conference.  So far?  Awesome.  A painless drive by our lead-foot chauffeur had us cruising in almost ninety minutes early.

A leisurely check-in followed by the discovery of the following things:
1) my room is apparently huge - king-size bed, conference desk, cutest little club chair and ottoman; the bathroom has enough room for all my nonsense to spread out.
2) there's free wi-fi, but only in my room, so yay!
3) I only need four minutes to completely unpack, including getting the soap out of its packaging.

We wandered about downtown Cleveland for a bit, getting our orientation down.  (Their great lake is north of the city).  Had a well-earned lunch at Zocalo, complete with a frozen guava margarita.  Took a two-hour break before registration.  (I wanted to nap, but worked on my Staff Conference session instead).

Tonight, there was a mixer.  I'm not too good at big crowds of strangers.  Thankfully Cooper and TheFields were there to be excellent company.  We found a table strategically placed near the (open) bar and snack table; this worked, because we attracted two fellow white-belts (first-time attendees) and descended quickly into geekery galore.  A fun evening full of fantastic confabulation:
1) The Three Stages of King: "Which Stephen King book is the best?" ... "Real question: is he even worth reading?"
2) Even amazing books are sometimes flawed: "Harry Potter plotholes. They exist."
3) At the movies: "It has Robots.  And monsters. What is there to NOT like?"
4) Mixology: "Gin tastes like pine cones.  No, Christmas trees!"
5) In TV Land: "Is J.J. Abrams done already?  Was he done halfway through Season One of Lost?"

An early evening back in the room.  (American TV has a LOT of randomosity.)

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