But Call Me Betsy

Woke up this morning a little before 5 AM as Henri was doing is trick where he bangs on the closet door and then jumps on my head and then gets down and meows in a pitful mournful way, all in the name of being helpful in getting me up for my 7:30 flight. Drank some coffee, drowned the cat, called the airport taxi and made it with time to spare. The flight to Chicago was uneventful--a few crying babies that made me wonder why there aren't more cases of child abuse reported. This one woman was traveling alone with four boys between the ages of 2 and 7. I never would have been able to do it. I probably would've given them all adult cold nighttime medicine. Weird to be back in Chicago, if only at the O'Hare airport and I wondered if maybe I would see someone I used to know--maybe Christy or Bennett Weiss or Becky. I called Dan and was so engrossed in talking to him that I completely missed my connecting flight. Totally. I went up to the desk at 10 (the flight was supposed to l...

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. Su...