My cold is proving more manageable with antihistamines kicking its ass temporarily, and it should keep me going until it’s time to go home on Sunday. If today is Friday, it must be day 3 of #Boucheron2025 in New Orleans! You can find my conference-related musings on my PolyWogg site at https://polywogg.ca/day-3-of-boucheron2025-in-new-orleans/.

At the lunch break, I came back up to my room momentarily, mostly to use the washroom and mentally regroup (it is REALLY loud in the lobby area). But I went for a quick stroll to grab some food. According to Google Maps, there is supposedly a McDonald’s less than two blocks from my hotel. Except I was pretty sure that I had walked that street area before and didn’t see one. Now, it supposedly closed at 7:00 p.m. that night, so potentially I didn’t notice it, but really? How do you miss a McDonald’s, closed or otherwise? There’s gotta be a big M outside, right? Anyway, I have been a little bit too reliant on eating at the hotel, and I confess that the price of food in New Orleans at any of the local restaurants or the hotel is higher than I expected. Many of the rates are higher than Canadian prices, before the conversion. It’s taking a bit of the fun out of the trip, realizing I’m burning through expenses for food. Even the local markets to get drinks or snacks, or antihistamines, are not cheap. But I digress. I also know that part of my reaction is to the fact that I’m feeling a little conferenced-out today. One of the panelists in another session today basically asked if everyone was tired yet? There was a lot of agreement on that front.

For a mid-afternoon break, I wandered down to the lobby and OMG, they were serving SNOBALLS. So, it’s basically a snocone in a cup, and I love anything with crushed ice, from slushees to simple drinks to snocones. I wanted blue raspberry but they only had that in a premixed alcohol format. Yes, there are tons of snocone things all over NOLA, and most of them are alcohol-based. I settled for Strawberry for a mid-afternoon refreshment. I felt like I should be sitting on a verandah somewhere rocking in a chair.

After my last panel, I came back upstairs as my cold was sucking my energy, and I literally fell asleep for three hours. I knew I was tired, as I had to force myself to stop yawning at several points, but I didn’t realize HOW tired. I skipped Murder Mystery Almost Dinner Theatre hosted by Heather Graham with a cast of mystery authors putting on a soft whodunnit, mostly cuz I hadn’t decided if I was going or not — one of the guaranteed social interaction events that I suck at anyway — but I ended up sleeping well past the start of it.

Let the good reads roll…I’m a bit conferenced out. There were times today when I had my introvert response of “Ewww, people.” It’s time to wrap it up and go home. Is it cheesy to say I miss my wife and son? Oh well, I’m cheesy, nice to meet you.