Out on the Town

It’s the day before I’m due to give a paper in Manhattan, and I’m starting to think we’re going to make it, crazy as it seems to take an infant into the city.  We have clothes for for all three of us, some food, a big batch of diapers, and lots of little bottles of milk.  I’m even one or two obsessive tinkerings away from calling the paper done.  So Katherine and I are headed out for a final walk, Sydney’s headed to the garden . . . and then we’ll figure out what we’ve forgotten when we join up again this evening.

Things that have made all the difference in making this look like fun: 1) Sydney offered to drive me all the way into the city, so that we don’t have to drag Katherine and our stuff through trains, subways, and the like 2) My paper is in good shape and I even came up with some new ideas while drafting it 3) We’ve gotten a bit more sleep than we did last week 4) We’re going to meet up with Lauren, my best friend from college, for a long-overdue reunion on this trip 5) I remembered that the market in Grand Central has FANTASTIC food (cheese, breads, fruit), and I plan to hit it up on my way back to the hotel on one of the conference evenings.  These thoughts will get me happily to the conference, where I fully expect to get my usual high from being around hundreds of people who like the same books I like.

Erin