beware of the librarians

If you can at all help it, never fly with a plane full of librarians.  For people whose lives are more or less devoted to organization, they don't queue well at all, and they tend to take up more space than the average person due to this terrible habit they have of carrying large over-stuffed tote bags, which they invariably got for free from a vendor or publisher. (Librarians are obsessed with swag).  They may come in a close second to college students when it comes to collecting free stuff.

However, the oddest, and perhaps most irritating thing, about travelling librarians is that they treat airplanes like a cocktail party - not in terms of their drinking habits, but in terms of their socializing.  On my flight to Seattle earlier today, numerous librarians left their seats and wandered through the plane cabin to chat with other librarians.  They stood in the aisles and around the lavatory chatting with one another.  And not just a quick "hi, how are you?" conversation.  No, some of them would actually stand and converse for 30 to 45 minutes.  Unbelievable!

For heaven's sake, people, this is an airplane, not a social hour.  If you need to catch up with someone, make plans to do it over drinks or dinner, but please don't block the aisle while you chat about your current research interests or library approval plan.  Ridiculous.

So if you can at all help it, don't ever, ever, ever fly with librarians.  Check the ALA website to learn when and where the upcoming conferences are located, and then avoid them like the plague. 

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Aside from ridiculousness on the trip out here, I'm excited to be out in Seattle for the weekend.  I had dinner and drinks with some fun Indiana people tonight.  I have some meetings to go to over the next couple days, but I'm hoping to see some of the city as well.  I'm sure I can make time for that :)  I don't know if I'll post more while I'm out here, but if not, I'll give you an update once I'm back in Virgina.