Going to Chicago

[Janine]

What would be really nerdy: going to see A Klingon Christmas Carol. We're not planning on doing that, but I will entertain your attempts to persuade us.

OH
MY
GOOGLE

How can you NOT go see that?

I'm afraid that I might need to download a copy of your packing photos and fauxtoshop some frilly pink panties onto what I'm sure will be tidy stacks of boring black and grey. I wonder which will get more likes, your original packing photos or my enhanced versions. Hmm.

[Janine]

Details of nerdcation, please! :-)

Nerd vacation. :-)

[Badger]

tidy stacks of boring black and grey.

Not true. I'm bringing at least one blue shirt with me.

Uh, no comment on the pink chonies.

[Janine]

Not true. I'm bringing at least one blue shirt with me.

I'll believe it when I see a picture of you wearing it in front of a famous Chicago landmark.

ps. This was a fun place to get a burger and fries: Ed Debevics

[gochicken]

I'll believe it when I see a picture of you wearing it in front of a famous Chicago landmark.

Ed Debevics! Wow... forgot all about it!
And then there's the Wrigley building, or Water Tower, or on Navy Pier with the skyline in the back, or in front of the Drake Hotel, or next to the Lions at the Art Institute? It's all bringing back memories for me... I spent 6 years there way back in the 80's! Enjoy your trip, Badger!

[TavaPeak]

Like the Assyrian style bas-relief for the Klingon thing. Guess you'll have to watch some Big Bang Theory episodes and bone up on your Klingon.

[conversa]

My recent sunrise breakfast at NoMI (Park Hyatt) was at once majestic and serene.

[Badger]

NoMI looks fancy, and legit: they have a Corpse Reviver on the brunch menu, and you can get all sorts of hooch in the foo-foo hot chocolate they serve in the afternoon.

Here's one detail I'm ready to spill now: going to Avec. Not pre-Klingon on apres-Klingon, sadly.

[ncb4]

My ears picked up at the mention of the Newbery Library: would this project have something to do with children's literature (my bailiwick)? Your trip sounds awesome, and you should most definitely go see the Klingon Christmas Carol: you have to do it for me, as my proxy! I'm stuck here in Georgia with my Franken-neck.

~Nancy

[Badger]

My ears picked up at the mention of the Newbery Library: would this project have something to do with children's literature (my bailiwick)? Your trip sounds awesome, and you should most definitely go see the Klingon Christmas Carol: you have to do it for me, as my proxy! I'm stuck here in Georgia with my Franken-neck.

~Nancy

Hi Nancy,
I'm so excited about going to the Newberry, I can't even tell you. The project does not have anything to do with children's literature (and if you met me and Kiddo, you wouldn't want us within ten miles of the genre), but if I see any amazing picture books or YA novels on display and I'm allowed, I'll get a (craptastic) photo for you.

We are. Um. Considering spending an evening with the Klingons. But then, I'm also a stingy, humorless petaQ. (Is this the first time someone's used Klingon on the forum? If so, I demand admiration and applause, and please don't break my glasses.)

[TavaPeak]

Qapla', Badger! (Do I get to mention here that I got in to an MFA program this week? ;-)

[ncb4]

Qapla', Badger! (Do I get to mention here that I got in to an MFA program this week? ;-)

I don't actually speak Klingon, so how would I tell you congratulations, TavaPeak? That's wonderful news. Where is it, and when will you start?

[ncb4]

Hi Nancy,
I'm so excited about going to the Newberry, I can't even tell you. The project does not have anything to do with children's literature (and if you met me and Kiddo, you wouldn't want us within ten miles of the genre), but if I see any amazing picture books or YA novels on display and I'm allowed, I'll get a (craptastic) photo for you.

We are. Um. Considering spending an evening with the Klingons. But then, I'm also a stingy, humorless petaQ. (Is this the first time someone's used Klingon on the forum? If so, I demand admiration and applause, and please don't break my glasses.)

My sister and her family are going to be in Chicago right before Christmas, so since I can't attend, I forwarded her the link and suggested they go. They did not respond with the same effervescent enthusiasm with which I wrote. Hmm. I am so different from my three sisters that they've always joked I might have been switched at birth. But after my email they are acting as if they want to hire a PI and prove that I am some sort of changeling and not a blood relative. All because I truly think it would be amazing to attend the Klingon Christmas Carol.

Of course, I might have to actually learn some Klingon first. So although I can guess from context that being a stingy, humorless petaQ is the same sort of epithet that might be flung at Ebenezer Scrooge in the KCC, I'm still not sure precisely what the word means.

And don't be so sure that I wouldn't want you and Kiddo near the YA genre. It's not all Beatrix Potter, thank goodness. Jack Gantos, who has received two Newbery medals—his middle grade novel won the Newbery Gold this past January—says he learned to write when he was incarcerated in a federal penitentiary at the tender age of nineteen. [He says he spent eighteen months there instead of going to college—or sailing around the world, which was his original plan—all because of a slight misunderstanding about whether it was a good idea to accept packages with unknown contents from so-called friends and transport said parcels on one's boat. How do you say "oops" in Klingon?] I've had the privilege of having lunch with him, and of hearing him speak a couple of times, and he is one of the few people on the planet who can literally make me fall off my chair laughing—and this is when he simply tells stories about his life. Kids love his books, so I'm betting that kids would really respond to your sense of humor as well.

~Nancy

[TavaPeak]

I don't actually speak Klingon, so how would I tell you congratulations, TavaPeak? That's wonderful news. Where is it, and when will you start?

That's the only Klingon I know! I'll be doing a low-residency creative nonfiction MFA program in Tacoma. Which may mean a trip to Bihn Mecca at some point...

[Badger]

Qapla', Badger! (Do I get to mention here that I got in to an MFA program this week? ;-)

NO WAY!!! CONGRATULATIONS!!! Where?