I hooked up with Donn and Marcie for dinner in Chinatown. A lovely time was had by all. This is the longest stretch I’ve had to talk with either of them all summer, even though our offices are within 30 feet of each other. Orange Beef, Hunan Chicken in Black Bean Sauce, Hunan Shrimp… yum! I’m still avoiding carbs and focusing on veggies and protein.
Afterward, Donn and I spent an hour at the bar with Willis Copeland from UCSB sharing our collective wisdom on parenting. Maybe it was more than an hour. I’d forgotten how much I like Black Russians.
Somebody, I won’t name any names, had had the foresight to skip out of attending the sessions at the conference today and went to the National Archives looking up his or her family history. Another person, not to be named, also skipped out to visit the new Spy Museum. Sounds like it’s very much worth a visit.
I arrived for Day 3 of the conference here in DC, having missed Day 1 and 2. I asked around to catch up on what I’d missed. Universally, people told me that this was a hotbed of the absolutely worst presentations ever inflicted under one roof. With only two exceptions, the keynotes were jaw-droppingly bad. Peter Desberg (who coaches people on making speeches) sat next to me at lunch and it was fun to listen to his color commentary on today’s speaker. It was almost too painful to watch, so I looked around at how others were reacting. After two days of similar pain, those at the other tables had learned to project their souls into other times and places, to astrally send themselves to somewhere more interesting. Since Apple has thoughtfully provided WiFi connectivity to this gathering and actually loaned out iBooks to those who didn’t have them, there were lots of people going online to escape the situation.
Isn’t it ironic that a Federally funded event centered on improving teacher education with technology could do so badly at designing an educational environment?
If anything, the rerun of my workshop went better with the second group. It’s really gratifying to have a room full of people who are at just the right moment to make use of what you have to offer. It’s almost too easy a job.
After the workshop, Pam took me for a whirlwind museum visit before dropping me off at the airport. First choice was the Gilcrease museum, but it closed just before we got there. The Philmont let us in as Senior Citizens for half price because they were going to close in 30 minutes. What a place! It’s another oil-baron mansion turned into a museum with a wide range of holdings stretching across centuries. The architecture reminded me in parts of Hearst Castle.
When I got to the airport, I learned that my flight had been cancelled because of mechanical problems. I got bumped from Continental to American with much more legroom. Arrived in DC around 1AM.