20131003.0650

As soon as I finish this post and a cup of coffee, I will get on the road to go to New Orleans, Louisiana, to attend and chair a couple of sessions at the South Central Modern Language Association conference.  It will be my seventh time at the conference and my fourth presiding over panels, but even so, I am excited about the prospect of returning to the event--as I have noted.  There are always new ideas to ponder and new people to meet, as well as old friends to see again, and all of these are good.

I am perhaps a bit less excited about being away from home and family.  The plan had been that my lovely wife and I would be going to New Orleans for the conference--together--and would enjoy a somewhat lengthened weekend in the old city, taking advantage of its offerings.  Then we found out about our child, and some of those plans shifted; hurricanes and hand grenades were out, but a muffuleltta was still very much within reach.  Then, fortunately, my wife found work--but work that requires her to report in tomorrow, just as I would be going to my first session and she would have a panel of interest.

So I am going alone.

It would not be the first time I have made a solo trip to a conference, and I doubt it will be the last.  But I have managed to create for myself again a space that functions as an extension of myself, something I have noted is important to me.  More, my lovely wife has grown even more lovely in my eyes in the past weeks; I have never been eager to be away from her, and I am far less so now.  (The promise of being a father has awakened something in me or reinforced it, such that I am more than usually compelled to be at home.  And I am not displeased by the change.)

Still, I will be getting into the car and setting out on the twelve-hour trip from here to there, because I do have a job to do, I do need the development opportunity that the conference provides, and I do enjoy being among the excellent group of scholars the South Central Modern Language Association attracts, exchanging and debating ideas about language, literature, teaching, and culture.  This year, given circumstances, we will have much to discuss.

As I remark in an earlier-linked post, my trip to New Orleans will have me away from my usual pattern of writing for a few days; I may be able to sit and hammer out a post, but I cannot guarantee doing so.  I have every intention of returning to doing so by Sunday or Monday, however, so those few of you who appreciate reading what I write (for which I thank you; tell your friends to join you in it) may rest assured that there will be more to come--Good Lord willin' and the creek don't rise.