Going to CLA

For the first time! Well, sort of. I went to the joint ALA/CLA conference in Toronto in around 2003, but really that was more ALA than CLA I think.

Edmonton here I come! I've been living within 2 hours of Edmonton for a little over a year and a half now but this is only around the 3rd or 4th time I've been there, and 1 or 2 of those were only to the edge of the city when I was first moving here and I had to meet the truck at the customs office south of the city to clear my stuff through customs.

I'm more excited about this one than the archives thing I went to a couple of weeks ago, but I just wish Edmonton were a little bit closer so I could sleep in my own bed.

Still, I hope it'll be good. I do know at least one or two other people who will be there and hopefully will run into them. I don't think CLA is as massive an affair as ALA so maybe there's a chance of running into people you know there. In 9 or 10 ALA conferences I went to (between annual and midwinter), every single time people I'd seen and spoken with in previous years at the same functions would ask me if it was my first year and if I'd just graduated - I know partly because of my 'much old than I look' appearance, but partly just people not looking.

Although, apparently I look "even younger!" since I cut my hair. Maybe I'll be mistaken for a MLS student and cougar up a young fella whilst I'm in the 'big city'!

Reading old journal entries

It's a weird thing to go back five years. I'm amazed and appalled how little and how much has changed.

I found my daily journal from 2005. I've been keeping a journal off an on for many years, many of the old ones have been lost or destroyed, but the more recent (and more full and detailed ones) I still have.

Reading 2005's journal I recalled my hopes and fears for my then present and future. The men I was interested in, the men who were interested in me - and in between those I actually dated. Weight I'd gained and lost. Struggles at work. Struggles with self-image. Hopes for two jobs I applied to that year and the one I accepted. The big change in my life of moving cross-country. Family...

Ups and downs. Some of it I still write in my journal about. Some of it I've gained new perspectives in the last five years. Some of it I haven't. I've got new struggles I hadn't even dreamed of then, I've left some of the struggles behind, and I'm still wrestling with some of the same things.

I'm not sure it's entirely good for you to read your own old journals. Interesting and thought provoking maybe, but challenging too.