This week’s blog isn’t all about me, but it’s mostly about me (a necessarily skewed perspective since I took off solo for the weekend and Dan refuses to write up a blurb about what he and the kids did. He says he’ll tell me about it instead).
However, as an antidote to all the stuff about me, let’s start with some stuff about the kids. We had a sort of uneventful week (partly due to a desire to limit our spending for budgetary reasons), so we stuck close to home most of the week. I took the kids to a nearby duck pond to feed the ducks, but they were a little nervous about the aggressiveness of the ducks (as you can see). There were a couple of baby ducks that Andrew and I admired. I’m not sure that Evelyn could even tell which were the babies, as she indiscriminately enjoyed feeding the “baby gucks” (including all the full-grown ones).A funny side note about this particular day--I'd had a frustrating morning, spent in a fruitless search for something. So when Andrew asked (as he does every day), "What are we going to do today?", I responded, "I don't know. Maybe nothing." Whereupon Andrew knelt down, threw his arms up in the air and said (and I quote): "Oh no! Now all my hopes are doomed."
Sometimes our quiet plans backfired. One afternoon, while Evelyn was sleeping and Andrew was having quiet time, Andrew decided to dump out every single toy in grandma's living room. (He was "cooking," so he further "mixed" the toys together). This actually turned out to be a good thing, since it drove home the point for Andrew why it's not a good idea to make a big mess (I made him help me clean it up, and he learned that big messes take a long time to clean up.)
We also did a bit of dancing this week to The Lion King. Every time we turn on music to dance, I think, “we should do this more often.” It’s fun, it’s healthy, and Evelyn is particularly cute when she dances.
Thursday, Dan and I parted ways: he took the kids south to see their Bubby and Poppy and cousins; I stayed with my dad and took a flight to Minneapolis the next morning. (For those of you who are wondering why I went to Minnesota, I’ll tell you: I was presenting at a conference. Oh, and I got an award while I was there.)
After a fairly uneventful flight, I took the light rail into the city. I met a couple of friendly gentlemen (through no real effort of my own—I think they were both a little drunk and were happy to talk to anyone who stood near them). One of them asked me where I was from and, when I said Utah, he asked if I was Mormon. Of course, I said yes. His friend thought for a minute, and then said knowledgeably, “Oh, Mormon. That’s the Big Love thing, right?” I tried to explain that it wasn’t, that anyone who practices polygamy technically isn’t Mormon, but I’m not entirely sure they got it.
Just as I was getting ready to leave, one of them asked if I was going to go out and play while I was here. Then he stopped, a funny look on his face, and asked, “Wait, do you drink?” I shook my head. He looked incredulous. “Not even a little wine?” Nope. Then, as the doors were opening, he asked, “How do you stay married then?”
Thus started my trip.
I found the hotel without too much trouble. When I checked in, the clerk said, “Congratulations! In recognition of your silver status, we’ve upgraded you to a corner executive suite.” Only, it wasn’t my rewards status, it was my dad’s. But they upgraded me anyway. I’ve got pictures to prove it.
Here's the picture of the room from the entry way.
And here's the view from the window. (If you look closely, you can see Target stadium behind the white octagon building with the green roof. I believe a Twins game was currently in session.)
By the time I got settled, it was too late to check into the conference, so I skipped the last session of the day and took the light train back out toward the airport to the Mall of America. It really is pretty overwhelming—there’s Nickelodeon-themed amusement park in the center of the mall; surrounding it are three floors of stores, stores, and more stores. (And some restaurants). I lasted about two hours and then it was jus tall too much. Some parts were pretty fun—the Lego store had some enormous lego constructions (including some not-quite-life sized dinosaurs) that were frankly amazing. Mostly, though, I saw price stuff and missed my kids (I think that had a lot to do with the Nickelodeon park, since Andrew’s favorite TV show is Backyardigans, and Evelyn has recently discovered Dora).
The conference has been pretty good—the panels I went to were mostly interesting (there are always one or two exceptions, but they were generally individual talks, rather than entire panels).
Best of all, though, I got to spend some time with some good friends from graduate school. I had dinner with Matt, Stacey, and Cory on Saturday night (and again with Matt and Cory Sunday night). They really are amazing people—I feel privileged not only to have studied with them in school, but to still have their friendship!
Sunday afternoon was the awards ceremony (and really the reason I went to the conference in the first place). It was kind of funny: I’m not sure what I expected, but whatever I expected it wasn’t entirely what happened. The ceremony was nice—they fed us, thanked the people who helped set up the conference, remembered the past president who passed away unexpectedly in January , and then began the awards (best article, dissertation, book, etc.) Since this is a biennial conference, they announced two winners in each category—last year’s winner, and this year’s winner. For those who don’t know what I’m talking about, I won the 2009 best dissertation award from the Rhetoric Society of America. They read my name and the title of my dissertation, I went up to the podium, shook David Zarefsky’s (currently acting as president) hand, and got a big plaque. Then I sat down. And that was it.
I don’t know, I guess I expected to have this moment in the spotlight that would change things—but no one really even congratulated me after the luncheon, except for people who already knew me. (Well, and a couple of people who saw me in the elevator later in the day and recognized me). But as far as I can tell, no new avenues open up because of this. And I suppose that’s a good thing—it encourages me not to rest on my laurels, but to actually try to publish something that will demonstrate my worth.
In a sort of odd coincidence, I actually knew the woman who won the dissertation award this year; she’s the student of one of my friends from graduate school. We also have a mutual friend, Risa (who won this year’s CCCCs best dissertation award). What’s funny to me about this scenario is that while I like both of these women, and Risa, at least, I know is sharp and witty, neither of them are in any way pretentious about their scholarship. I’ve always been a little too easily cowed by people who show off their knowledge (who can be more flash than substance), so I suppose it’s gratifying to me to a) find myself in good company (in the best sense of the word) and b) to know that you don’t have to be pretentious to win the respect of other people.
After the luncheon, I ditched the conference and walked to the art museum and had a lovely couple of hours wandering around and remembering why I minored in art history in the first place. The collection was nice—several works by people whose names I recognized, but not so large a collection that it was impossible to see everything. They also had a fairly extensive collection of Japanese art, and some lovely “period rooms” decorated according to different centuries.
I realized (not for the first time) that my tastes are pretty old-fashioned. Although I understand modernist art, I'm not really into it, but I *loved* this painting by John Everett Millais. What can I say? I'm a sucker for the pre-Raphaelites.
This is a recreation of a Japanese tea room.
And this, a Japanese audience room.
There were some lovely old churches near down-town as well. I'm still not sure what was going on here--when I walked by, the bells were pealing, people were pouring out of the church, and some acolytes were waving gold streamers in the air.
I flew home earlier today; Dan drove up with the kids a couple of hours later. And I have to say, while it was fun to get out of town, occasionally invigorating to be with smart people, there's really nothing like being back with my family.
