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Dunno what all the hype’s about: The Palmer House. It’s damned cool looking in places, but the rest of my experience with the location was nothing special.
Dunno what all the fuss is about: The O’Hare airport. I’ve chalked up some airport experience in the last few years, and O’Hare has always been one of the most painless of them all, especially given its size.
Favorite 4Cs session: Guy does nothing but sit back and plays a simple little videotape of high school students talking about their writing classes.
Least favorite session: In the same panel, the presenter tries to pack 50 slides’ worth of material into her 12-minute presentation. Unpleasant for her, hell for the rest of us.
Best insights: Jerry Nelms’ and Ronda Dively’s work on learning transfer as presented in the Qualitative Research Network. As they admitted, they only scratched the surface. But even a little of that stuff is fascinating.
Biggest regret: Missing the Digital Writings installation on Saturday. I have the worst excuse ever: I didn’t wake up on time. Shit!
Best surprise encounter: Beth Buyserie, assistant comp director at WSU. Good to see she’s interested enough in this comp thing (she’s got an MA in Lit) to come to 4Cs two years in a row. Hurrah!
Most inane source of satisfaction: My favorite panel title, “Something About Poetry Building Communities,” actually made it to the official program.
Best Chicago food: Uno’s pizza was great, but my favorite place was B&B’s Diner, on the same block as the Hilton. An utter, utter dive, but oh so good.
Unexpected plot twist: Through just a little tiny bit of indirect inspiration, I came up with some interesting ideas for future projects. That’s never happened before at 4Cs, so I’m happy. More on those ideas later.