Conference Drama, a Forgotten Exam, a Crappy Turkey, and Other News

Conference Drama

Last week I attended a national conference, one I attend every year. (Of course, I didn't go last year, but that's another story.) It was in the City of Brotherly Love, which was certainly nice, except for some HORRIBLE Dim Sum. Really, really bad.

But I digress.

While I was at the conference, I attended a reception -- now that I'm an editor, I'm a bigwig, ya see, and I get to eat cream cheese and nuts on crackers and drink cheap wine.

Anyway, while I was at this reception, I happened to be sitting next to a REALLY BIG NAME, an elderly gentleman, very well respected in the field. So, I started chatting with him, and he started telling me this story about his college girlfriend who dumped him, and how it affected him. With tears in his eyes. That is a story I'm going to remember for a long time!

So, the conference was generally about drinking too much and eating out. I was happy to get home on sunday.

A Forgotten Exam

Then, on Monday, I was headed to my geology class, thrilled to be back in class after missing a week for the conference. I saw one of my fellow students on the way to class, and he asked, "You ready for this test?"

After I picked up my jaw off the snow-crusted sidewalk, I hightailed it to the professor's office and begged for a little special treatment (this after telling the TA the week before that I really hoped she wasn't giving me any special treatment because I'm a professor). She let me postpone my test until Wednesday. So I studied for about 5 hours Tuesday afternoon and Wednesday morning, and I'm pretty sure I finally aced it. Now just the lab project and the final exam. Of course, I'm missing another week of class next week (for yet another conference) so who knows what will happen when that's over.

A Crappy Turkey

Slogger says the turkey was good, but for me -- yuk. Tough, not quite cooked through, awful. The only good thing about Thanksgiving dinner, for me at least, was the pumpkin pie. Oh, and that we didn't have to clean the house, since it was just the two of us!

Other News

* Editing a journal is freaking hard work.
* I have a chapter due next week, and I've only written two pages of it.
* I'm looking forward to spring semester, because I'm teaching an online course and supervising student teachers. No need to go to the office! (Except for the &*(^&^%%$^& meetings)

I don't know...

... which is worse:

Spending most of Saturday at a football game in which my team was annihilated?

Or spending most of Sunday getting ready for the week to come?

It should be a crazy week, with traveling twice to Capitol City, meetings and courses galore, and a great big ginormous dissertation to read by Friday. So....

Back to work.

Note to Self:

Try not to schedule a dentist appointment and a gynecologist visit on the same day. Ever. Again.

Banquet or Basketball?

Tonight is my college's awards banquet, when the college bigwigs hand out scholarships and awards to our undergraduate and graduate students. Slogger and I signed up to go -- late -- which required the banquet organizer to make a special call over to the banquet hall to change the numbers.

Then we realized that the banquet is the same date/time as our first women's basketball game. We've been season ticket holders for seven years, and almost never miss a game.

So the plan is that Slogger will go to the game while I go to the banquet, and then I'll sneak out of the banquet early to head to the game. I'm not sure how I'll manage that, but ... I'll just break out my super-sneaky-spy talents and pretend to head for the bathroom.