Ironically when I came back on Sunday from the convention, I was all pumped up and excited about all the great blog posts I’d write.  At the time I had cleaning to do (especially tons of laundry) and kids to take care of so I didn’t do much more than put up the scene from Kent Ashton’s Backstory which was done ahead of time.  Needless to say, from Monday through today, my mind has been blank on what to write.  This is crazy.  I got a lot of pictures, so it’s not like I don’t have things to post.

But I’m having trouble coming up with what to say about the pictures.   I mean, I don’t mind talking about the basic pictures, but when I post pictures of the people I took, I want to say more than “this is so and so”; I want to do the person justice and talk more about them.

That being the case, I can discuss what I like about conventions/conferences.  The best thing about them is the people you meet.  It’s fun to put names with faces and get a chance to talk to them.  I also like the workshops where I can learn something new.  I am a total nerd.  I love the business side of writing.  So anything educational gets my attention.  This convention had some non-business workshops, some of which I hear a lot of people enjoyed, but my version of fun in college was hanging out in the Commons area with friends instead of partying.  (And I did have fun tutoring a couple of students and studying for a class I really enjoyed.)  Back then I was a square, and I’m still one today.  This convention had a lot of parties, and I didn’t attend a single one.

This convention took place in downtown Kansas City, a place I termed the concrete jungle since it was nothing but buildings.  There were a couple of neat water fountains, but I only got one.

Fountain in front of “the link” which was a food court that connected up to a couple hotels.

I didn’t get a picture of it, but it snowed while I was there.  Two days before, I was sweating while wearing shorts and a t-shirt, so yeah, this was a major temperature drop.  We’re used to crazy stuff like this in Nebraska (where it can be 70 one day and 30 the next), so it wasn’t a huge surprise, though I did have the urge to put up a Christmas tree.

There was this walkway that ran over the street which let you walk from the hotel to a place where you could eat and shop.

This (to me) is a concrete jungle. It was one building after another.

There were a couple trees, but it was nothing like the open landscape I’m used to.  But it’s not too much unlike downtown Omaha so it wasn’t like a major culture shock or anything.  I had the impression, though, that it was further out of town when I looked at the hotel’s website.  It just goes to show that the perception of something can be different than what it’s really like in person.

That was all the pictures I took of things.  There were more things I could have taken pictures of, but they wouldn’t have fit this blog.

The rest of the pictures were of people I met, and I plan to post those in the upcoming weeks.  Hopefully, I’ll feel more focused by the end of this week.  My mind is still switching to my daily routine.  When I was at the convention, I went into left brain mode. Now that I’m back home, I need to get back into the right brain side which is the creative part.  Getting back into the writing routine is like pulling teeth, which is why I hate to lose momentum when I get it going.  But at the end of the day, it was worth it because I got to meet a lot of awesome people.