Not sure if it actually is, but that’s what Meredith said yesterday when we were driving here. “Here” is LaCrosse WI and the conference is the Wisconsin Library Association. The library school does a booth, we’re doing resume reviews, and all the usual networking, schmoozing, recruiting – I’m not presenting at this one, though.
There was a reception yesterday at an art center, the Pump House Regional Arts Center. Really nice space. The food tasted good, just looked a little weird – a giant chafer of some kind of black bean dip, with lots of sour cream and deep fried pita chips for scooping it – a big vat of white lumpy stuff. Bread cubes, pickled peppers, salami & cheese on sticks. And a tiered platter of I couldn’t quite tell what it was – I was calling it deconstructed nachos – but it wasn’t corn chips & Mexican toppings, it was some kind of cracker-y substance with what looked like goat cheese & greens.
We proceeded on to a pizza place recommended by a local, or at least quasi – our colleague Omar who’s living half in Madison and half in La Crosses, because he works in Madison and his wife is in school in LaCrosse. Our waitress was inattentive, to put it politely, although Mark was more bothered by her than I was. We split a salad that was pretty ordinary, and a pizza that had a cripsy crust that verged on hard, sweet tomato sauce, and a lot of grease. Also served really hot.
The place was full of conference-goers, and the table next to us had a bunch SLIS alums, who all graduated the same year, all former students of mine, one who’d been in DC the last few years. We talked across the tables a bit; that was nice.
It was stormy; we went to bed to thunder and lightning, and woke up to it, too. The wifi in the hotel seemed adversely affected by the storm – it was indifferent in the evening, and almost non-existent in the morning. I went over to the convention center and drank black coffee and worked on my laptop during the first session – then got more coffee and a banana and an apple for breakfast in the exhibit hall. We had lunch – better coffee; espresso drinks, a latte and a mocha, and I had a bagel and Mark had a scone – at our favorite local coffee place, Jules. The bagel was home made, and a little too doughy – maybe they didn’t boil it as well as bake it. On Wednesday, I had had a cup of their veggie chili, Mollie Katzen’s recipe, the one with bulghur wheat in place of the hamburger, that I had just made at home, too. It came with a nice little sourdough roll. I was so glad to get home Thursday night to sleep in our own bed, and I even ate the last of my veggie chili for lunch on Friday, with my own whole wheat bread – toasted, not doughy a bit.
Jules Coffee House in LaCrosse
