Monday, May 19: Another sign of spring here: the stairs on the side of the house emerge from their snow cocoon.

 
Tuesday, May 20: Mostly I spent the day packing for a trip, but I did take time out to play with the new trick I learned on my phone: removing the background from a photo and replacing it with something else. In this case, I changed out the tan carpet for grey satin. Not sure how much I’ll use this process, but it’s good to learn stuff regardless. Keeps my brain active is what I tell myself.

 
Wednesday, May 21: Travel day. Flew out of Spokane and connected in Salt Lake City again. Had time to go through their tunnel again, and went all the way to the end and up into that concourse this time. Found a big iridescent art piece at the top of the elevator (see picture below) and a dinosaur skeleton opposite that when I turned around.

 
Thursday, May 22: First full day in Chicagoland. I decided I needed the kind of pizza I grew up with: thin crust pub-cut sausage, cheese, and mushroom. I didn’t make the drive all the way out to the place where my parents bought from (it’s now in a different location but tastes the same) but found a reasonable facsimile not too far from my hotel.

 
Friday, May 23: In the years since I started coming to this craft conference, there’s been a lot of new stuff built in the area. This whole building was new last year, with a conveyor belt sushi place (my favorite), an Indian restaurant (haven’t tried yet but plan to), and a smoothie place (haven’t tried this location but enjoyed the ones I go from other stores in the same chain). There’s an H Mart behind this building, also new last year, where I went to get interesting snacks to keep my energy up for classes and such.

 
Saturday, May 24: I didn’t discover the table with stickers and such to decorate my name badge until second day of the conference. I really liked these dots.

 
Sunday, May 25: Break in my hotel room between dinner and the evening conference activities.

 

*****
On this date in 2004 through 2024: No journal entries
2003: Heavy, Again
2002: Let the SMACKdown Begin! (Content warning: contains ableist language I wouldn’t use now that I know better.)