weekend update

Mariah and I spent the long weekend (ours started Thursday) in Boston and environs. I had a conference, she wanted to look at colleges. It seemed we could do both, and we (mostly) did. The conference was huge, but the children's lit papers were good and it was helpful to get some feedback on my paper and catch up with some folks. We were in a great location, too--we could walk to the things pictured here.

The Make Way for Ducklings Statue

The Swan Boat (made famous, at least for us, in The Trumpet of the Swan.)

It is a great pleasure to travel with Mariah, who loves children's literature as much as I do, and who took all the pictures here.

True graffiti:

On Sunday we had a little blogger meet-up with Becca and her daughter M before we had to get on the plane to come home. That was truly lovely; we'd met before, Becca and I, but in our pre-blog years, and it was great to catch up in person. M and Mariah hit it off instantly, and Becca and I fell into the kind of conversation you have with a friend you know well but don't see often enough. A perfect end to a great weekend.

I'm sure there's more to say--about the waitress who snapped at me, "When I get to it, OK?" when I asked for more water, about the cabdriver who spent the entire drive to Logan airport motioning as if to run his hands through his hair, but three inches above his head, about the good talks we heard, the great food, the lovely (if surprisingly warm) weather--but you'll just have to imagine it. Mariah's back at school (the attendance lady called to tell me she wasn't, though she actually was), and I've got so much paper piled on the dining room table that the table is invisible. Sigh.