Where Have I Been? Plus: The Power of Music...

It has been a couple of very stressful months. I have really missed blogging.

I was honored by having been asked to present at the 2007 UELMA Conference by my good friend Nan. The last time I saw her was at The Who concert in November.

The conference was really great. I was able to connect with a few old friends. It was really great to see Susan, but she had to race back to the city to work a shift. I would have loved to have been able to take her to lunch.

I saw and spoke with the ever-amazing Randy Silverman. So great to see him bringing his passion for preservation to the school librarians. He had a huge crowd hanging on his every word and paying particular attention to the "cooking show" version of a spine repair.

Connected with an old friend, Diana Bowman, with whom I went from Elementary School all the way through High School (where she played my wife in the critically acclaimed production of The Diary of Anne Frank. The last time I saw her, she was in my branch of the library looking for work. It was great to see her, to hear that she had found meaningful work at the school for the deaf and blind.

Instead of eating lunch, I sat and caught up with a friend, Juan, from the State Library and Reforma. It was great fun to sit and talk about a variety of subjects ranging from the two Wendovers, to Danger and Jukebox caves in Tooele County, to the Great Salt Lake and Antelope Island, to the Spiral Jetty and the Sun Tunnels, to shop talk about Libraries and Library Services, and a variety of other topics. Thanks, Juan.

Music, singing and playing the guitar, allowed me to be able to participate at this conference. I had caught up with Nan at the UEA convention a few months ago, where we were co-presenters, and she asked me to come to UELMA. I told her about the presentation I had done at ULA and asked if she would like me to do a variation on that theme. Although I missed my good friend Cydnee, who helped me in St. George and has now moved on to great and fulfilling challenges in Idaho, I had a wonderful time with a great group of Librarians who seemed to enjoy what I had to share.

I was a little intimidated by the presence of Ted Dilworth, a true musician and school librarian at Hillcrest Elementary where my kids used to go to school--Ted has recently completed work on a musical based on the Greek folktale The Twelve Months, which will make its public debut with the Hillcrest kids April 17th at Highland Middle School in Ogden. He was very supportive and once I got going, I got going and had a great time.

It was silly, very fun, and I hope that the conference attendees got as much out of it as I did. I expected maybe 25 people or so, but was pleasantly surprised with over 50 who filled all the seats and even the aisle. Music Together had sent me some promotional CDs and those quickly went and I was left with people wanting more.

I hope I will get asked to come again next year. Thanks Nan, for the warm and wonderful invitation that turned into one of the best days I've had so far this year.