lesbiassparrow

After the longest ever return trip from Ireland I am finally back in Los Angeles; the flight involved a surprising amount of sitting on various airport tarmacs due to a misbehaving cargo door. We ended up being madly diverted all over the place which meant missed connections and an overnight stay in Toronto. But at least that meant I got to drink some Molson on draft (which I haven't had in forever) so it wasn't all bad.

Ireland was so much fun if a little damp at times - especially at the Tall Ships race in Waterford when icy rain dropped from the skies and the wind decided to ensure that not all the ships could get into harbour. I think I will need to detox for a week after the amount of booze, cigarettes, and food I have consumed; it's steamed vegetables and water for a month for me. (Or for about 3 days which is as long as I usually last on these things).

My father decided to repeat his more or less annual 'give a gift that will be a nightmare to carry back on a plane' routine by giving me something very expensive, heavy, and crystal as a present. It was a lovely thought, but I must say my first thoughts on getting one of his presents is usually 'how on earth will I get it back in one piece?' rather than happiness and delight.

After picking up the nine billion emails I couldn't get while in Ireland (my mother has the world's slowest internet connection) I found that I've been invited to a conference in New York in March next year. It's very odd as the rest of the people invited are prestigious and famous in academia and I, sadly, am none of these things. I don't even teach in academia though I publish the odd thing. They seem to have the right person - they're not mixing me up with anyone else or anything but I can't imagine why they'd want me there. That won't stop me going as they will pay for the trip and accommodation and I never turn down a free trip anywhere. And I'm certainly not turning down a free trip to New York of all places.