PST Summer Conference 2011

July 20, 2011

The Poetry Society of Texas Summer Conference was held in San Antonio, July 14-16, hosted by the San Antonio chapter of the PST. I've been to two so far-one in Fort Worth and one in Dallas. Three other ladies and I decided we'd drive down together-it's about 5 hours one way…if you know the way. Remember that point. This is long, so get settled.

Let me tell you first that John had been pushing for me to fly, which would have been out of Love Field rather than DFW, but between the hour drive to get there, having to be there early, who knows how much time waiting to go through security and boarding, the hour flight, and then getting a shuttle to the hotel-shoot, I could have driven and already been there.

So then he started pushing for us to rent a larger car-it'd be safer, more comfortable, more trunk room. Sigh…I finally conceded that point, mostly so it'd give him one less thing to worry about-since I'd be doing all the driving. Thanks for the vote of confidence. Rent cars have been fairly scarce around here because of a big hail storm a few months ago, and I suppose, summer vacationers now. Reserved a full-size car through Enterprise, which is about the only local rental agency in and around town; everything else is at the airports.

Really I wanted a Dodge Charger, but mostly anything except a Chevy Malibu. So of COURSE the ONLY damn car available when it was time to pick it up was a Malibu. What IS it with newer cars? Rear ends are so high you can't see to back up, headrests in the way so you can't see oncoming traffic on the right, the frame struts around the windows are in the direct line of vision so you can't see traffic on the right, and the windows are so tiny you can barely see out of them. Jeez. The only thing I'll give the Malibu is the road noise was muted, and the trunk managed to hold all the luggage & extras for four ladies (or reasonable facsimiles). I was also hauling a big box of ribbon-tied sets of poetry books to donate for raffle prizes, plus books to sell.

Anyway, we got started a little later than I wanted to on Thursday morning, but we were going in the opposite direction of going-to-work traffic, so we didn't have any trouble getting out of town and on the road. I had my GPS and had printed out Mapquest directions along with all the little in-between maps. Marilyn was my navigator and did a fine job. Only two rest stops along the way, which included one gas-up. We decided to try the toll road around Austin (I had my toll tag with me, temporarily registered to the rental). Wow, most of the time there were only two or three cars on the road, one of them being us.

So we got to San Antonio, we were THISClose to getting to the Airport Hilton, we could, in fact, see a Hilton past a Y in the road where the Loop and Blanco Road diverge. But my GPS said stay left; Mapquest said if you reach Blanco Rd you've gone to far. So I veered left, GPS said turn left at whatever. All of us thought, oh that must be a different Hilton that we see up ahead. We're near the airport; maybe there are Two Hiltons, one on each side of the Loop, so we want the one that's on the opposite side of the Loop.

Well, to cut that short, the stupid GPS had us going in circles FOUR times because we were all too stupid to figure out there was a problem…except for Marilyn who finally said just as we were about to do the 5th go-round, "Let's go to the Hilton we can see and ask for directions." OK.
Of course it was exactly the Hilton we were looking for. We all agreed we weren't going to tell anybody how stupid we were…and then, of course, promptly started telling everyone just that. Fortunately for our egos, we learned we weren't the only ones who had really stupid GPSs.

So we unloaded the trunk; had our luggage put in the storage room because supposedly we couldn't check in until 3 pm. I had reserved a single over a month ago (special group rate for the PST); Marilyn and Pat were sharing a double, and Linda was sharing a double with a friend who had driven in from Fort Worth with someone else.

We got registered at the PST desk, got all the books dumped in the book room-we were already running late because of our circular-well, gee, if the GPS says it, it must be true mindset-and the first speaker, the one I had really wanted to see (karla morton, the 2010 poet laureate) was just finishing up her 30 minute presentation, I just barely managed to hear two of her poems-and then didn't even get to do more than say Hi, because she had to rush back to Denton (at least a six hour drive, I think) because she had promised to take her son to the midnight showing of the new & last Harry Potter movie. RATS.

When there was a break, I tried to check-in. Yes, they had my reservation but the room wasn't ready yet. I went back twice more, meanwhile missing more of the speakers (and I wasn't the only one this was happening to.) The second attempt, I never made it to the desk-too many people in line. Nuts to it. The third time I started hearing things about overbooked, shuttle to other hotels, lists, overbooked by 30-60 people.

Well, what we eventually found out-and if they had told us this in the first place it would have helped a little, but they didn't-is they were expecting a bus of about 30 military personnel, but what arrived were around 60. Supposedly hotels are required to accommodate the military, in spite of other reservations.

I don't know. I just know that after standing around and waiting for one manager or another to do this or that, to get our "comp" letters to take to-in this case-the Embassy Suites, and then waiting for this particular manager to go look for envelopes to put them in, then get our luggage, and then wait for the shuttle, then have to drive there, unload, register, wait for the shuttle to go back…several of us missed most of the afternoon and part of the evening's events. We were not happy.

Free room for the night. Big whoop. We had to pay a registration fee for the conference and we were missing the conference. Marilyn, Pat & I had debated whether to chance packing everything up Friday morning on the supposed guarantee we'd have room at the Hilton the next night-but we still wouldn't know or be able to check in until at least 3. So we opted to stay at the Embassy.

Hilton was trying to say, well, if it's your preference we won't comp the second night. Oh yes you will, says I. It's not our preference but a matter of being assured a place to stay and not having to drag stuff back and forth, and because we were missing programs we'd paid to see, and we were Not happy, and we got the second night comp'd (complimentary) also…which pretty much covered the cost of the rent car, by the way (all John's and my dime since it was his preference.)

Aside from the inconvenience, let me tell you the Embassy Suites are way nicer than the Hilton, too. All the rooms are actually two-sitting/office area and bedroom. Free breakfast buffet ($10+ at the Hilton), free coffee, one free drink every day, and probably some other stuff, but those are the highlights.

Now I've been telling you all about that because no one is really interested in a poetry conference unless you're at one. But let me tell you, you missed a fun time. Theme this time was Dancing with Poetry. All the speakers had programs that connected music to poetry (which can have rhythm, rhyme, meter, etc.) Two of the speakers taught some line dancing; we had dance demonstrations at lunch on Thursday, and at both dinners Thurs. & Friday.

One young man, who had recently won the UIL award…University Interscholastic Literary? -is a Performance Poet, which means he doesn't read poems, he performs them. Visual and verbal poetry. He entertained us at Friday dinner, before the keynote speaker.

We had contests-the traditional "You Be the Judge," which I didn't win, but came close-sort of; a special dance poem contest, which I also didn't win; and then our monthly contests, in which I did win 2nd place. We also had the Life Member Fund raffle drawings. The first two or three times they drew one of my tickets, they were for prizes I'd donated, which I refused to accept, so they drew other tickets. Finally managed two other prizes, one of which I gave away; the other-a knapsack filled with things for the poet-on-the-go, that I kept.

Oh by the way, the banquet room had round tables arranged around the dance floor, and then the long head table up on the dais; different people were asked to sit at the Big Boys table at each meal. I was up there Friday night…and I have to tell you, I don't like sitting up there. I had Pat on my right, and another, second-Loretta on my left. It turned out 2nd Loretta had been a novice nun for five years many years ago, but when it was time to take final orders, she decided it wasn't her vocation, so she came back to Texas, where she met her husband, who is a retired florist, and provided all the roses and other flower decorations. Pat is also Catholic. When 2nd-Loretta told me she'd almost become a nun, I cracked up, told her about Catholic-man John, told her he prayed for me a lot, and she said to tell him that she was putting me on her prayer list, too. LOL

I had also been asked to be the Spotlight Poet in our "mock" monthly meeting on Sat., but I knew one lady-1st-Loretta--had just recently won a book publication contest, and since she had some of the book poems with her, I suggested to her and the Spotlight chair that she be allowed to be the Spotlight. After all, I'm at the monthly meetings in Dallas-they could hear me anytime; whereas Loretta lives in Odessa. She is a good poet-and funny.

Speaking of which, the last poet on Sat. was an English woman who read her funny poems.
And just so you know, the speakers do a lot of topic talking-they don't just read poems. It's educational, funny, surprising. One speaker had a workshop and had us work on push-pull poems, which it doesn't matter to this report what that means, except I no sooner had something down on paper than I had to fight tears. Anne (poet/teacher) told me later she'd seen me struggling and wanted to come over and hug me but didn't want to draw attention to that struggle either.

Before we shuttled-off the Hilton coil and went to the Embassy on Friday night, Marilyn, Pat, Linda, Budd, 1st-Loretta and I had free drinks (a second minor comp for all the inconvenience, frustration, irritation) at the Hilton bar. (I had my first vodka and tonic with a twist of lime; that is, it was actually my third one since I'd had one the night before because that's what Marilyn had, so thought I'd give it a try, and then I bought one-gasp!-at Happy Hour Friday early evening.) Plus Loretta ordered some hot wings and "made" us share. Had a lot of fun just talking together. Programs were scheduled so closely together, and breaks were so short, that talk time was limited to meals and after the last speaker each day.

I'm not sure when we got back on the road Sat. afternoon-probably around one. Made three stops on the way home, the last one partly a rest stop, but also conveniently at the Czech Stop so Linda could buy some kolaches (sweet rolls) for her husband. Toll road was a little busier going north on Sat. but not much. Reached Linda's around 6, I guess, dropped off everyone, then got myself home around 7.

Now, I took several snapshots and several videos this time. As soon as I can get them processed, I'll let you know the links. The videos going on YouTube will be unlisted-not for general public viewing, so you'll have to get the links from me if you want them.