20150113.0732

So, I am back from MLA, and it is good to be back. I am glad to have slept in my own bed next to my wife, rather than in a hotel bed and alone. I am glad to have seen Ms. 8's smiling face again. I am glad to have sat upon my own toilet, showered in my own shower, and shaved at my own sink. I am glad to be back where I can work--for I have much work to do. I am still not caught up on transcribing my conference notes so that I can use them (I think I am 40% of the way through Friday--and I went to sessions on Saturday and Sunday). Freelance work has come up once again (which is good, for I need the money). Teaching should have resumed yesterday, but I was in transit, so I was obliged to arrange for coverage (easy on the first day, as handing out syllabi and course calendars is not so difficult); I have catching up to do on that score.

I have catching up to do on others, as well. While I walked all about downtown Vancouver (and my feet feel it), I have not done the more formal exercise I had begun before leaving; I will return to it tomorrow. I have not resigned from helping with the online L5R Winter Court, after all, even if I did arrange to be away while I was away. As I am no longer away, I probably ought to look into it again. Too, there remain job applications to treat and papers to write; I am still looking for a permanent position (I do not have one, as I believe I have noted more than once), and MLA is not the only conference I will attend this year. (There are two others: the International Congress on Medieval Studies and SCMLA. For the former, I am already obliged to deliver a talk. For the latter, I have an idea I want to run by people; I can hope it will get accepted.) And I do still need to send things out in the hopes of getting them published, as doing so will help me (possibly) get one of those permanent positions I seek.

It is good, then, that I am home today. I am in my chair and at my desk again, where I know who I am and what I can do. Coffee is brewed to help me with it, and I will soon have a bit to eat to help me move along a bit more swiftly and powerfully. In and around taking care of Ms. 8, then, I should be able to get a fair bit done--or so I hope. If not, it is going to be quite the long week for me, even if it has started perhaps later than it ought to have done. But that would not be unusual; it is part of the profession in which I currently find myself, and I ought not to complain overmuch about it.