Tuesday, April 15, 2008

Conference Update

The conference went really, really well. I got a lot of great feedback about my paper and, thus, the concept that my entire dissertation is organized around. I feel really great about this as this was the first time I've discussed my work with people in my field who are not at my home institution. C and Wild Man did fine with out me, as I knew they would. In fact, I found it really insulting that so many people at the conference said to me "You left your son home alone with your husband; how is that going to work out?" I found this particularly insulting because we are supposedly enlightened academics. Granted this is a conference that is very welcoming of families, and I saw lots of men and women with their children. But I still don't like the assumption that fathers are incapable of caring for their own children for three days on their own. It was also really great to see my good friend, whom I haven't seen in over 7 months. We actually avoided lots of panels in favor of just chatting with each other, although we did go to a really interesting panel on Mommy Lit that I will likely blog about in detail in a few days.

I have lots of other things to say about what is going on in my life right now, but I'm not at the point where I can write about these things without getting more stressed out or emotional. So that's my update on my life: stressed out and emotional. How fun. . .

2 comments:

L said...

I'm glad the conference was so great and I can't wait to hear about the Mommy Lit panel! I do feel wistful when I read your description of how you got such good feedback and responses... I guess what I'm working on is so "far-fetched" in a sense that I've only gotten blank stares so far at most conferences I presented at.

Oh my friend, stressed and emotional, I know how that feels -- the uncertainty of not knowing what's coming next is very stressful indeed. I hope everything works out great for you and your family!

Anonymous said...

Stressed and emotional...I'm sorry. As Luke would say, "That's not good."