Welcome to the freak show

Attended an OLA pre-conference in Tulsa yesterday. The theme? Creating macros with the OCLC Connexion client, featuring none other than macro guru Harvey Hahn. For all of you catalogers out there, yes, he's incredible -- a programming god. For all of you non-catalogers out there: It's a cataloging thing; you wouldn't understand.

And frankly, I didn't understand either. I managed to hang on through the beginning of the session, through subs and functions, VB and OML, syntax and string concatenation, but after lunch (pumped full of carbs and a tasty slice of chocolate cheesecake) I lost focus. Most of the other attendees did as well. I wanted to keep up, and Harvey's so darn enthusiastic about program flow, but I zoned out and kept zoning. I must have dozed off for a minute because I think I was dreaming in Visual Basic.

Distracted, I watched one of the attendees gnaw on his wrist hair. The couple on the front row caught my eye as they engaged in unprofessional public displays of affection and passed notes. Then I noticed the woman on my left nod off with her thumb in her mouth.

People-watching is so much fun at annual conferences, don't you think? Sit back, take in the freak show, congratulate yourself: "At least it's not me! Thank God, that's not me!"

I've found, however, that the perception most people have about catalogers is that we are all side-show freaks.

More than likely, someone was watching me. "She coordinated that scarf with that jacket? Thank God, that's not me!"