Last day in Chicago

So I feel like I haven’t been here all that long. And I guess I haven’t. Arrived on Monday night; leaving this afternoon. I’ve barely gotten to see the city, well except for all the parts I saw on my long walk to the hotel on Monday night.

The conference, which I wanted to go to and didn’t want to go to at the same time, has been good. I’ve gotten the chance to geek out journalistic-ly (when the worldwide publisher of Time spoke), saw a girl I went to college with, and remembered what it was that made me love journalism and magazines in the first place. I’ve gone to so many sessions that they’ve all started to run together, but I did get some good ideas for increasing my magazine’s Web presence. Even if some of the sessions left me brain dead and snoring. (On a brighter note, I got to hear the editor-in-chief of Wired talk about free things they use on the Internet to make their Web site better. I plan to use many of those. Now, if I could only convince someone that we actually need a staff to do all the Web stuff. . .)

I did make a minor fool of myself at the meetings yesterday. I got rather crazed during one really boring session about content management systems and starting looking around the room. I realized the guy in front of me was wearing his shirt, a patterned, short-sleeved button-down, inside out. Why? I wondered. And kept pondering this as the boring session continued. I even considered all the seams. But now that I think about it, the tag wasn’t on the outside, so maybe the shirt was made that way? Anyway, I digress. After the session, we were standing outside the ballroom waiting for the doors to open for the luncheon. And I was chatting with Dawn, the girl I’m here with. I informed her, loudly, that I had gotten fixated on why the guy in front of me was wearing his shirt inside out during the last session. She laughed. Then, suddenly, I realized who was standing behind me—inside out shirt guy! Awkward!

So FOLIO comes to a close today, and I head back to O’Hare. Then it’s back to St. Louis, picking up my car, driving to my parents’ house in Bernie, and going to sleep. And tomorrow morning, I drive back to Nashville. Where I hope (cross your fingers!) the gas situation has eased a bit. It’s getting a little ridiculous. I mean, come on, people!

Nashvegas people, I’ve missed you. I’m ready to see you all. I’m actually a bit sad that I’m missing “Project Runway”/”Ghost Hunters” night with Mindy and Rachel and choir rehearsal at church. I’m ready for my bed and my house, even if I do need to go grocery shopping!

I hope you’ve missed me! See you all soon!