10 – at the train station, extremely exhausted and also very late for my friend’s panel that starts at 1030. I’m barely awake and already need a nap.

10:08 – not exactly sure why but one stop from where I got on the train we all had to get off the train to take a shuttle to another train station. “Trains are running from there,” the worker on the platform says. Shuttle is free obvs but none of us could hear what the train driver said except this is the last stop for this train. Also I took the steps instead of the elevator but that was a mistake. My knee feels better but is definitely not walk down the steps better, sigh.

10:21 – this detour is obviously making me later.

10:24 – there’s one guy on the shuttle who is very visibly upset. I think he’s going to be late for work.

10:26 – He and another guy got off the shuttle (it’s stopping at all of the train stations until we get to the open one) but as we pulled away they looked confused so they may have made a mistake. I think I saw one try to get the shuttle to come back but the driver definitely was like “Sorry, homie.”

10:45 – finally got on the train (3-4 stops later). This is the time I should have gotten to the stop by the convention center so I actually am extremely late when before I was just going to be a little late.

2:35 – time for volunteer shift. Fun facts the volunteer coordinator shares:

• There are only four people who work on the conference all year.
• This year’s conference had ~700 volunteers. Usually there are only ~400.
• There are ~11k people in attendance .

8:40 – home and settled in. A recap of things not jotted down during the conference:

1. The volunteer shift was easy peasy. I worked the registration desk, and not that many people came in because it was the tail end of the conference. The best part was a woman who saw the sign that said they wouldn’t reprint lost badges unless you re-register for the conference at the full conference rate and said that it pissed her off and made her not want to come back to the conference. “It hasn’t even happened to me, and I’m mad about it. I mean, it’d be one thing if we didn’t have the little barcode in our app or they couldn’t pull us up by name. That’s just a money grab. It doesn’t make sense! See? It just makes me mad.” To which I could only channel my inner Captain Holt’s “VINDICATION!”

Then another woman was pissed because she hadn’t gotten her badge yet and was looking for her conference room and then got kindly escorted by security to the registration desk. I’m not sure if she was running late or what, but she was hot that they were policing the badges so heavily. So even more vindication because, seriously, chill.

2. Before my volunteer shift, I went to the book fair, and it was a delight. I met a bunch of really nice people and talked about writing and books with them. I wore my Frog and Toad shirt today, which is a total crowd pleaser/conversation piece.

Also, I met Taylor Mali who wrote one of the best poems of all time. You know the one: “What Teachers Make.”

If you are a teacher and you have never seen him perform that poem, you really should watch the video above.

I also bought his metaphor dice and got a picture with him because that is what fangirls do.

Then, I spent the rest of my money at the We Are Urban Haiku booth. The pictures on the site do not do justice to how beautiful the journals are. I wanted to buy all of her shirts and journals, seriously. But my wallet restrained me so I only bought three shirts. And five pairs of earrings (not on the site).

And of course, KK and I ended the day at Fixins AGAIN, this time with SS and Jasmine. It was 10/10 every night, no notes.

With that, the conference is officially over, though there is an offsite event I want to attend tomorrow.