20160515.0922

I remain at the International Congress on Medieval Studies for a bit longer yet; it wraps up today, and a good friend and I will be indulging in my usual post-Congress tradition of taking in a movie and, I believe, resting up before the return to the wind-swept plains tomorrow. (I will probably not be making a post to this webspace tomorrow.) It has been a good conference all around, one that has done much to refresh and rejuvenate me, and I am glad to have attended it therefore. My ability to do so in the future is uncertain, given the uncertainty of my employment situation, but I nurse the hope that I will be able to make it back to this part of the world at about this time next year. I would certainly hate to miss out on it.

There remains work for me to do about the conference before I head out, of course. Yesterday's work went well and will need to be reported severally; look for information to appear at Travels in Genre and Medievalism and at the Tales after Tolkien Society website. The more recreational activities in which I indulge while here also went quite well, which is always pleasing; they account in large part for why I make a point of making it to the Congress. Indeed, I have several new project ideas as a result of having attended the event, and, given my uncertain situation, I feel relatively free to pursue them--in and around the ongoing preparations for the move to the Texas Hill Country, of course. I am confident that the work I might do will find a home somewhere, even as I continue to look for a professional home to call my own.

Good as the Congress is, though, I can hear the call of family. I have been away from the Mrs. and Ms. 8 long enough; I look forward to being back with them once again. (I note with some pride that my many friends and acquaintances at the Congress remark favorably upon my daughter, with a group of them even sending things for her with me. Is it any wonder, then, that I hold such people in the esteem that I do?) The long drive tomorrow will be welcome, largely because I know what lies at the end of it, and I will be happy, indeed, to return thereto.