Day Off

Has something happened to Michael Jackson?

Got back from the Ivy + conference last night, sponsored by MIT and held in either Cambridge or Boston; am still not clear where we were. We stayed in the Hyatt; v. expensive and the only real perk was being able to watch The Real Housewives of New Jersey on Bravo after the days events. I presented on a panel of three on Thursday and had the distinct sensation that I was stuck in the middle of that nightmare where you realize you're late for a calculus exam after not attending class for the entire term. Lesson: study your PowerPoint slides before presenting to a room of Ivy league colleagues.

Realized from this trip that I haven't been on an airplane in a few years. I was appalled that passengers are still required to take off their shoes, standing vulnerable and (in my case) barefoot. Is this necessary? I rebelled by not taking my make up bag out of my carry on. On Monday, we were delayed for six hours due to some unknown reason. Surprisingly, everyone seemed to accept this inconvenience without too much fuss. On the return trip, we only suffered an hour long delay. I found myself irrationally enraged by the woman in the seat behind me who got on her cell phone the second we were allowed to turn on our electronic devices. I wasn't irritated so much by her jumping on the phone, but more because she was so loud and I was forced to listen to her uninteresting, one-sided dialogue for ten minutes. I did not retaliate.

So, I took the day off to catch up on my household chores (laundry, grocery shopping, etc.). As you can imagine, the cats are thrilled.