While I have been occupied with other things, my conference work has snuck up on me. I spent most of the day today engaged in trying to catch up with it, and I fear that I did a poor job of it.
Most of my time was taken up with finishing the paper I am slated to give at the International Congress on Medieval Studies in Kalamazoo, Michigan. Although the paper is on an author whose work I appreciate greatly and with which I am familiar, the paper was difficult to write. I want to ascribe the difficulty to my recent circumstances, but I have to wonder if I had trouble writing because the idea I had is wrong. It is not a comforting thought, the more so because I really have no way to know if I have erred until I actually present the paper--and screwing up on an international stage is not the most enticing of prospects.
I also spent some time doing paperwork for the South Central Modern Language Association conference, to be held in New Orleans, Louisiana, this October. I am chairing one of the regular sessions, and I had even gotten permission to split the session into two meetings to accommodate a number of excellent submissions. Then a number of other concerns cropped up for me, and work on the panels slipped my mind. I am not pleased by it, and it is not entirely enjoyable for me to admit, but there it is; I have no excuse, but I have done what I can to correct the error. I hope it will be enough.
I hope also to soon have things back as they ought to be. I know that they will get there, but soonest is best.
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