Firstly and very importantly, travel went very smoothly so I am glad for that. Uneventful travel is the best kind of travel. Well, unless you get surprise bumped to 1st class and get seated next to Clive Owen or Lady Gaga or something. Short of that unlikely anomaly, I was very happy to find the people on on my planes were pleasant and the flight had a good vibe.. One nice touch, the woman sitting across from me was daubing herself occasionally with lavender oil so the area surrounding us smelled quite lovely. A highly unusual state on a long-haul flight in economy class.
I did learn an interesting thing about travel. If your boarding pass prints out like mine did with SSSS printed on it, (as mine did) be prepared to be invited for a very special Security check. Super fun.
I must have triggered the system somehow. Was it that Crowley deck in my carry-on bag?
But after 3 airports and countless security controls, I finally arrived at Portland Airport where I caught the free-shuttle and was immediately joined by 3 other Tarotistas for the ride to the Monarch Hotel.
I have to admit, to suddenly find myself chatting away with 3 other people about tarot and what we all do with tarot was really a beautiful surprise and yet exactly what I came here for. Like many people, though I have a pretty active Tarot life online, my real-life doesn't include a lot of discussion or people who are even into tarot much less who are able to speak about it on a level like this. To be around people who are so different, yet share a deep connection like this is going to be fun getting used to.
Just a quick bit of name-dropping, In the shuttle were two of the presenters for the sympsium, Sage Lee (The Royals and the Enneagram, A New Way to Understand and Master the Court Cards) and Judy Dale (Using the Tarot to Interpret Dreams.) There was also a very a very charming reader in the most astonishing and beautiful hat (sorry now I did not get a photo) named Anastasia. Later in the hotel bar, she and I perused the conference schedule together and are both having a difficult time deciding which workshops to attend. There are so many, and many are at conflicting times, so it's not easy to choose. There in the bar we also met celebrated author and Taroist Richard Hartnett and we had a very interesting conversation about decks and people and about reaching out to the tarot world.
- Sage Lee, Judy Dale and Richrd Hartnett
It is now approaching 5am. I am wide awake and starving. In a few hours I will be attending something I have been really looking forward to, a 3-hour presentation from Mary K. Greer titled "A Junguian Approach to Tarot."
I will do my best to get some photos over the next few days. This hotel is just busting at the seams with tarot people and it feels so,..I don't know... freeing I guess. To be around so many people so enthusiastic about the same beautiful and enigmatic thing. I guess that isn't so odd for sports fans for example. But for me, at my very first Tarot conference, it does feel very special indeed.
how i wish i can be there... so many decks, i think i will spend all my penny on them 
