So the Kalamazoo program just got posted on the conference website, and I found out I've got a really lovely time - I'm on Thursday at 3:30, meaning I can present on the first day, get it over with, and then go get drunk on the free wine (or go socialize for a bit and then wander off to Bell's and commence serious drinking there) -- (I LOVE that my all time favorite brewery is in the same city as my field's biggest conference, meaning I get to go there once a year and enjoy the glories of Bell's on tap), and then sit back and enjoy the rest of the conference instead of freaking out the whole time about how my presentation will go.
On the other side of things, I'm on a panel about Wales in Medieval and Renaissance times (vaguely put), and the panel is comprised of myself, someone from Columbia, someone from Cambridge, and the panel organizer, a professor at U Wales - Swansea. I'm alternately feeling outclassed and wondering what the hell happened that I can play this game well enough to be on a panel with people from those schools, despite the fact that "medieval studies" at my particular school is unfortunately becoming more and more difficult. The medievalist we have now is fabulous, but we've only got one and the mailto:f&&*^$&^@*!*&$*&^$**+#&*^%$ing dean (I love that this seems to think that I just listed an email address) we got this year refused to approve a funding line for another medievalist, so we're down to one and will be staying there for the near-future. So it's good I'll be able to meet other people there. This whole thing is just crazy.
Anyway, the lovely thing is that hopefully knowing that I'm going to be with people who, by virtue of the classes they've been able to take, will hopelessly outperform me and out-know me if I don't work my ass off figuring everything out on my own will, again hopefully, finally provide the type of hyper-stressful motivation to kick the ADD habit and force me into more voracious reading. Because I have definitely NOT been able to take the same classes they have - I've been able to take some really excellent classes, but by virtue of the department I'm in the selection of "early lit" classes is quite limited and doesn't include things like paleography, and I'm certainly not on the level of a professor at a university in Wales when it comes to talking about the Welsh in literature. So I'd better acquit myself well, and this had better be the best damn paper I've ever written.
But I have exams first. So I'm going to go blow off stress reading more of Stephen Greenblatt's uber-gripping Renaissance Self-Fashioning for my meeting with David on Monday afternoon. (quoting Monty Python:) "yay......"
Oh. And, WOOOHOOOOOOO!!
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4 comments:
YAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
My kyd ys presentyng yn the byg leagues!!!!!
Cambryde; Columbya; Lehygh
Now get your ass in gear and stop playing ADD games - that's MY job! You're not going to get my car to play with when you're home at spring break unless Tony tells me you've read enough to earn it - so there! Is THAT enough pressure???
Byg gryn!
Loveya!
Mom,
TBTBTBTBTTTBTBTBTBBBBB!!!!! You don't get to monopolize the ADD in the family. EVERYONE in the family has ADD. And I'm not playing. It SUCKS. The end.
Love, your daughter ;.)
TBTBTBTBTTTBTBTBTBBBBB!!!!! yourself! Such a way to talk to your sainted mother.... And yeah, ADD (or in our case ADHD) is SO damn genetic! And I spent the day playing ADD games and getting nowhere really fast - and I don't have time to get nowhere really fast OR reallly slow - but sheesh! I got Ritalin SR finally - do you suppose I actually dare fill it and try it???? It's slow release so Dougie the Doc thinks it'll be fine. Darrell the Shrink thinks it better get tested over a weekend.... What do you suppose he thinks I'll do???
Bygger gryn!
Loveya!
The End
Again
Oooh,oooh, fill it! Fill it! And then let me try some! I figure I should have a productive weekend because I don't want to look like an idiot in front of David on Monday, but after that, it'll be a few more weeks until I can meet with Kate again....
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