the sensitive man

It's been brought to my attention that in recounting my activities at the AAN conference I left out Chad Oliveiri, editor of The Rochester City Paper who, it was pointed out to me, did so many nice things for me and others during the weekend in Evanston that not mentioning him here is losing me readers in Rochester, NY, wherever the hell that is. So, here's to Chad who:

1. Called me the minute he arrived at O'Hare to apprise me of his ETA to Evanston.
2. Met me at Urban Outfitters where I was trying on urban T-shirts and made less than 10 snide comments about my patronage of trendy clothing stores.
3. Offered up his room for other AAN editors needing to drink specialty liquor (see previous entry)*
4. Walked me to CVC to find sinus medication to try to alleviate vomit-inducing headache **
5. Kept me abreast of all gossipy things that happened while I was throwing up in my room (see #4)***
6. Announced to the entire editorial committee that I was an early riser (information he was told, not information he had first-hand knowedge of) and proceeded to offer my room for Dan Savage to take a shower in****

* Actually I offered up Chad's room for this, but only because when he saw my room he made a point of telling me his was much nicer.
** I would like to point out that I told Chad several times I did not need him to walk me to the CVC and also made it clear that if positions were reversed I would not abandon large crew of alcohol-swilling journalists to walk to drugstore with miserable whining friend.
*** Although one could argue that being a gossip and a nice guy are slightly at odds with each other. I wouldn't make this argument but someone else could.
**** actually this would have been fine with me and great blogging material, but it did not happen.

OK, that's enough tribute to Chad for now. Believe it or not, Nate and Dan's stories are through to the art department and SFR will indeed make its deadlines. But not without paying a price. As I type this, Dan is passed out on my office floor.