elanya

Fascinating, I know.

I am going to SHA again this year, and I leave... tomorrow! Am I ready? Hello no! When I started my program, I was the kind of person who would have their presentation started months early, and the powerpoint ready to go a week before the conference. Today... I have one slide done. It is the introductory slide and my great accomplishment is that I have *gasp* selected the slide layout I want to use maybe! I'm honestly not done culling all the info I need for the tables that are supposed to be the whole point. I've realized that this isnt ong to happen, so I am just using a selection of them, and accepting that it is a 15 min presentation and this is going to have to be Good Enough. I miss the excited on-the-ball student I used to be, but honestly this is year 6 in this program and year 8 of consecutive gradschool and I'm feeling worn. I need to push through and get out, is what I need to do.

I'm exaggerating slightly on the state of my presentation - Most of the things I need to say are already written, I just need to cull them from the presentation I did this summer for the Bahamas Historical Society. Most of the slides and other stuff is there too, it just needs some rearranging. And I'll have plenty of time to get everything done.

I'm looking forward to the conference on other levels, too - it is always nice to see folks that I don't have as much contact with, and this year there will be a Special Guest Appearance from L7Annie (The Other Lannie) who I haven't seen in... a year or more? I am excited to see her and hear all about her adventures :D I'll see Merc and Brad and some other now-gone A&M folks as well... I've never been to Baltimore either, so it will be neat on that front... oh and of course I'm sure there will be some interesting presentations - there always are :)

Right now I am going out to dinner with some local friends and extended local friends who are passing through town, so hooray! And then I come back and Pack All The Things. I keep threatening to go back to my list-making ways, but maybe I actually will tonight.

I'm here! I left with Brad around 5:30 this morning. We made it here just after 8, despite some nasty traffic. he managed to get registered, and i got into the room I'm sharing with Catherine and Dana. I need to arrange for a cot for tonight though!

The first session I went to was really cool, even if it was kind of random (looking at economics and class in Nevada mining towns). I sat through about 3-4 sessions tis morning before I needed to crash - despite downing a GIANT vat of tea. went to a few more sessions this afternoon, but it looks like the bulk of stuff I want to see will be tomorrow, so keen. I'm still really tired. I'm also reminded how terrible I am at the sort of networking and, well *talking to people* you are supposed to do at conferences. Feh - I can barely talk to the other people in my program :p I have see, and briefly caught up with - some old friends and acquaintances, at least, but I always find myself feeling needlessly isolated at these things, and it is totally my own fault :p

In other news, the Hilton is very nice, but it is also one of those hotels that assumes that if you are willing to pay a zillion dollar per night, you are also willing to pay $6/hour for internet in your room. LOL! No. Fortunately, lobby internets are free. But don't expect to hear a whole lot from me while I'm here - hopefully I'll have other fun things to do.

I didn't sumbit an abstract for SHA this year - I though I might take a year off, and I didn't know what, if anything, i might have ready to say about my fieldwork...

Of course now I look at the program and see that apparently the theme of the year 'Coastal Connections', was pretty much custom designed for my sort of research....

Oh well >_<

ETA: The program looks really good this year too... Well, maybe I can volunteer for free registration and find someone else to room/travel with, hrm :x

I realize I forgot to alert people yesterday, but I did make it home, and in one piece :) There was a little bit of anxiety over a few things. I almost missed the airport shuttle, though I'd have probably been okay with a later one, and apparently I'd mis-booked my shuttle home and not noticed somehow when I did it, and when i checked before I left ;p Of course I lost the free Fairmont internet and never managed to get back online after that, so I couldn't check the day before or anything. Anyway, there were enough spaces and i got home, caught up on stuff, and took a nice hot baqth. i think I have mostly divested myself of bits of black makeup.

Ahh yes! I got to play Underworld on my last night in town. it was tons of fun, though I am relaly disappointed I had to miss the end of the adventure - there would have been some epic sruff for my poor little one shot character! Also, I don't even know what happened to her in the end, so I don't know how I would have made it out of the now-demon-infested dark elf city... Which means I don't know if I can play her on the boards, which had been the initial plan. because I need more distractions, right? Still, I got to see (and RP with) shanmonster as well as xypharan, and see another girl I know also, which was sort of an unexpected treat before I got to TO and started planning stuff with Rob.

I made it back to the hotel 15 min before the shuttle was schedule to leave, and got my Dark Elf make-up mostly washed off, and then found out that the hotel hadn't split the bill properly, so i had to go downstairs.... it was painfully slow to get sorted out, so see above. the only reason I did make the shuttle was that the driver was writing out some receipts. But all's well that ends well! I got home, called Jason and Zari, got online, and chilled for a bit. Jola was soooo excited to see me! And then went and fell asleep on my bed <3

I took a loooong bath, and went to bed at a reasonable time (i.e. before midnight).

And now I'm back at work, wooh.

Oh, right, the conference was okay, but I wound up doing more social stuff with Rob than networking. More fun that way, I expect :)

I am here! i got in yesteday, a good 3+ hours later than I intended! After rushing across the terminal at Chicago to make my connectin jst as it was boarding, we proceeded to sit on the plane for two hours because of maintentence, and then because the maintenance delay made us miss our spot in line, and then because we had ice on the wings, and missed our spot again. whee! i was oblivious to most of this as I had a Good Book, in this case, Terry Pratchett's A hat Full of Sky, which has been sitting sad and unread on my shelf. I have since remedied the problem, but alas, now I have nothing to read on the flight back!

I had decided that since I am a Big Girl, I could navigate my way to the hotel via TTC on my own. Although I was evenutlaly successful in this, I will admit a small foolish error on my part, being that although I remembered that the Royal York had its own Subway stop (or connected to one), I thought that it was, in fact the Royal York station, and not Union, but when I got off at that stop and recovered enough sense to ask the TTC guy, I just hopped back on the Kipling and transfered at Yonge and all was well :) I even had a token saved from my last trip here!

Coincidentally, I arrives at *exactly the precise moment* as my roommate, so we were able to check in together. We then began the Saga of the Internets. Wherein, they were not working in our room. We stopped at part I, where we needed to try a new cable, and instead embarked on Random Wanderings in Toronto part I instead. We quested for food, which we eventually found in a little Asian bistro on King, the name of which I forget. I had a Thai curry. my plan is to have a different ethnic food for every meal while I am here! Because I can! I may make exceptions for some things, like Schwarma (which, incidentally, I had for lunch. With lentil rice. From Ghazal. Nyom). We got lost on the way back because we somehow overshot york. By, like a lot. We were talking, and the I saw we had crossed yonge street and got Concerned. We were chilled, but made it back fine.

To begin the Saga of the Internets part III! Wherein the ethernet cord did us no good, and though we really should have been able to connect to the internet fine, still couldn't on either computer. The (different) help desk guy gave us all manual settings and still, nothing. I asked to have someone come up and change the modem, which they did but under some duress, but that didn't work either! It remains a mystery. I then went to try the wireless downstairs, but although it worked when I checked, it cost $14/hour and I said pants to that! It was late, so after a little bit of swearing, I took a nice long hot shower and went to bed too late.

Only....

As I was going to bed, I saw something Out of Place. There was..... a sock! A pink and white little girls ankle sock with some kind of pink print on it. WTF was there a *sock* on the floor in the fricking FAIRMONT! It's madness, madness I say! So I called and complained, and today they changed us to this room. Where the internet magically works FOR FREE and I'm not saying anything.

And since it is now much later I am going to skip over other exciting details before I go to bed (such as: new purse, ankle blisters, seeing rob, Korean Grill House, really running in to everyone in Tim Hortons, the fact that i am going to al all night LARP before I leave and will also get to see Shan) to tell you all that in the new room, THE SINK IS NOT DRAINING!

Fairmont Royal York, you get a big fat fail. You might be really pretty and plush but holy crappy this is the crappiest hotel stay at the nicest hotel I have ever had :p

Perhaps I will have a chance to elaborate on the nice bits later. Right now someone is coming to fix the sink :p

I found some other ECU types in the bar. We'll call them the sane ones. I chatted with them all night, and with some new people, and just came up as they called last call. I had one drink, hopefully it will not prevent me from sleeping. :)

realize that i'm really only gone for like a weekend na dno one really cared but hey - this is the only time I've left Texas since... August? ;p

( Marginalannie )

I tried to post this earlier, which you all saw. Since then, I've been to the gym, and had a bath n the tub which lets me stretch out fully. I am more relaxed i not more social. I was going to go down to the dance, but there is an awards ceremony first, which I am not inclined to care about. I even got dressed all pretty and blowdried my hair even, befoe I remembered that bit. Anyway, I have sucked up up and bought some internets.... and here I am. Wooh! Later on I will make a post about highlights of the conference. There have been some, really :) And I will go down to the dance.

Thinga are going well - my paper wen't well, I schmoozed some, and caught up with some ECU peeps, including having lunch with Dina at a Brazillian grill place (I'm compromising my diet a bit... Not completely, just a bit! So far....). TAll you can eat salad bar, and they bring you different freshly grilled meats (and pineapple, nyom). 15$, so pretty sweet!

I also had some fun Mythos-related thoughts in the morning part of the session.

Now I am off to find a late dinner, though I mighgt just go back to the cheap pizza place I was at last night. Pretty good stuff there!

Just to let people know, I got to Albuquerque just fine. The first part of my session starts at 8 (a.k.a. Ungoldy Early - it somehow slipped my notice that this was actually mountain time here :p)

They have wireless in the rooms, but it is the kind that costs you 10$ a day. I might get it on Saturday night or afternoon until I leave on Sunday - we'll see.

I went through my presentation twice yesterday - it isn't flashy but it gets the job done. I present well, I think I'll be able to field questions well.

Anyway, try not to miss me too much ;)