The view from St. Louis

I am attending a conference in St. Louis. So the first blog post is not the view from the huta aka the yoga/art studio/garden shed in our back yard but the view from my 9th floor window at the Hilton St. Louis at the Ballpark. I look out over Busch Stadium where every night hordes of people mostly dressed in something red climb bleachers more than 4 stories high to watch little (from my window) men in white chase after an invisible ball and run around the field seemingly at random. I can only see about a third of the field but I can hear thousands of people yelling in the bleachers when something exciting is going on. The hotel is showing the game on every large screen tv it owns so if I really wanted to watch the game I could but alas I would still not understand it. My upbringing did not include any exposure to baseball nor to any rules of baseball and virtually no actual participation. My only experience with baseball (though I had no idea that is what it was at the time) was once having a bat thrust at me and a ball thrown at me in high school gym class. Miraculously, I managed to hit the ball and even more miraculously figured out that I should run, though how I figured out where to I don't remember, but I recall that people were cheering me on so I guess I did the right thing. I remember nothing more from that experience and there has been no more baseball for me. Just as well because being legally blind in one eye, I am not good at hitting small objects traveling at high speed.

I managed to get into the pre-conference workshop although it was full when I tried to register earlier. The workshop was packed with information, presented by an expert in the field and left my mind somewhat boggled. I had trouble keeping awake after a more than usually starchy lunch and I finally resorted to an afternoon cup of coffee which did the trick and woke me up. I realized later that the two cups of green tea I'd had earlier were actually decaffeinated so that did not help keep me awake after lunch.

There is no wireless in my room so I am sitting in the hotel lobby with my iPad. Several groups of librarians are congregating around the lobby so the din is getting louder and louder.