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Sunday, November 20, 2005

Six hours to go...

I'm starting this final post as we drive over the bridge on 9th street in Pittsburgh, headed out of town and away from the Westin (my hotel), the Omni (my second home), and the David L. Lawrence Convention Center (that I intend to boycott until they get wireless--who's with me?). This is my second attempt at a posting--last night, I was completely unable to condense my experiences over the past five days into a blog-based highlight reel, but I'm willing to give it a second go. (I have plenty of time, since I won't be able to publish this post until I'm home back home, unless one of the travel plazas has wirelss.) Here they are, the lessons I've learned in Pittsburgh:


  1. The best roadtrip companions are the ones who'll laugh at the same unintentionally-funny roadsigns.
  2. Even I'm bored by Ohio sometimes. (Sheesh, can I-80 be any more mind-numbingly dull?)
  3. The RCWP was very fortunate to be so well represented at the Annual Meeting, to have the access to the technologies and other resources that we have, and to be so well-thought-of by the other attendees. (I can't tell you how many people I met that either knew someone who was a member of RCWP, or knew by word of mouth how many RCWP'ers were in attendance. Towards the end of the second day, I was stunned by how many times the people I talked to mentioned have met someone else from the group earlier in the day.)
  4. I'm not the only one who thinks it would be a good idea to start tying balloons to people from your site to enable you to find them at NWP Socials (said policy to be implemented in 2006).
  5. If one wants one's students to understand the ways in which genres function, one shouldn't declare a day "Letter-Writing Day," or "Description-Writing Day"; or, as the presenter put it while discussing the context-dependent nature of genre, "You can't write a eulogy until someone dies." (This from an NWP-Strand session on genre theory that was very compelling, and at which I was given cookies.)
  6. Presenting at NCTE isn't at all as bad as I thought it would be. (Even had a decent-sized audience, too!)
  7. NWP Technology Liaisons are incredibly welcoming, incredibly dedicated, incredibly bright--they're just incredible people in general, and I was excited to spend two days attending meetings with them, and honored to be accepted by them as a colleague with something to contribute.
  8. Always ask what's in the Pittsburgh Pierogies. Always.


It was a pleasure, one and all--I've emjoyed reading and listening to your experiences via the blog, and I can't wait to hear the rest of your Pittsburgh stories in person.

Signing off from somewhere south of Cleveland (which, I'm told, in fact does not rock),

Stephanie

1 Comments:

Blogger Nobis said...

Regarding #4, can't we wear funky hats, say, with feathers or such, instead?

9:00 PM  

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