Out of the (conference) frying pan into the fire

Okay, so now I'm in Cincinnati (flew in from St. Paul this morning) for the National Women's Studies Association national conference (in a unionized hotel, please note). I missed the last day of Inclusive Science, but really enjoyed myself, and felt I had something to contribute. Things feel a bit different at this conference.

I arrived pretty early for this conference (the main program starts Thursday night) because the science and technology task force had a 3 hour meeting this afternoon. I'll blog more about this later, but I did feel completely out of my depth again - like when I first started attending conferences. I didn't know how to contribute, and (probably because I was tired) felt everything that came out of my mouth was really lame, and not what I was intending to say.

And dinner was a trying affair - most of the group that met together then went to dinner at a Mexican restaurant nearby which was also subsequently frequented by a hundred thousand 10-year-old tumblers. I was on the end of the table, so couldn't really hear, and getting the check was an extraordinary affair.

Now I'm in a hotel (no longer my friend Gina's house, boo), where I can't work the tv and have to use air conditioning 'cause the windows don't open, I am facing the prospect of no sessions tomorrow and not sure what else to occupy myself with, and (because now I'm getting whiney), I'm still hungry.

It's times like these that it's best to just call it a day and go to bed early. My mom says that everything seems worse at night; today is one of those days I particularly agree.

See you tomorrow. Or maybe the next day.