Adventures of a Tofu Slut

Seen on the front window of a catering place on the way to work this morning: Happy Pride! Eat, Drink and Be Married

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I'm back from my conference, as you might have guessed. "Back" as in "back at work", since I never left town. It was a pretty good conference, even considering the reduced numbers because of fraidy-cats who wouldn't come to Toronto. I saw some very interesting presentations, and some excellent speakers (rarely at the same time, unfortunately), went to a number of job-related sessions, and one session on kid's book awards just for fun. However, I think the theme of the conference was "the person who was supposed to give this speech can't make it due to personal reasons, so I'll be reading her speech for her, while being unable to figure out which Powerpoint screen goes with which pages of notes, and by the way, I can't really answer any questions because I really have no idea what I'm saying". Actually very amusing. I did also wander through the exhibits, but it was a little overwhelming, and very children's book oriented.

I think I've figured out what the trick is with associations and conferences -- you have to get involved with the subgroups and committees in order to actually meet anyone (or at least anyone that might be useful to you in the future). Of course, I probably won't ever go to another conference this size, and I'm thinking of dropping my membership in favour of more specialized associations, but it's a good lesson to remember.

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The excitement of the week: I'm going on vacation! I leave Saturday! I can't wait, as you might have guessed by the extraneous exclamation points!

I'm going to Vancouver to hang out with my parents and see various friends out there, including a side trip to Chemainus (on the island) to see the show that vestra is music directing. I fully expect that this trip, like all vacations with my parents, will involve much eating and reading, along with wandering around. I'm so looking forward to being on vacation. But mostly, I'm looking forward to going somewhere where, unless the world has gone completely mad, it isn't 34 degrees, otherwise known as "feels like 42". (Until I moved out to Montreal, and then Toronto, I thought 20 degrees was hot. Hah!)

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Because I'm going to be away for the changing of the month, let's just take a look right now at how I did on my resolution for June, which was find a new hobby. Well, as it turned out, due to my new eat right, lose weight, be able to climb up the stairs without falling over plan (which, you'll notice, I'm not boring you with here because I have a whole separate journal for that -- don't tell me you're not happy about that) I no longer have time for hobbies. Who'd have thought that going to dance class or the gym every night after work, and then cooking actual dinner, as opposed to chips and salsa, would take up so much time? So, I'm taking that as one for me.

July's resolution is to see more movies. And you know, when I made these, I thought I was being all smart, because all I want in July is places to hang out that are air-conditioned, but I forgot about the fact that summer movies pretty much suck. So it might be a bit of a struggle.

I'm back from Austin. How was Austin, you ask? I have no idea, since all I saw was the airport, my hotel, and the strip mall surrounding it. Oh, and a section of the highway. So exciting. I realize that I was at a conference, and the important stuff is supposed to be what happens inside the hotel, but still, would it kill us to be able to actually see the city that we're conferencing in?

One thing I can say, though, is that Austinites sure are fond of Valentine's Day. I went out Friday around dinnertime, and all I could see for miles were hand-holding couples. The line-up at the Cheesecake Factory, of all places, actually curled around the block (and that's not where I was going for dinner, don't worry). After leaving my last meeting that night, walking from the conference room to the elevators, I was confronted by thousands of baby couples dressed to kill who were at the hotel for some sort of dine&dance-type thing (which, incidentally, showed up a major flaw in the hotel construction, which was built so that all the rooms faced into an atrium, which housed the restaurants and ballrooms -- we could hear everything that was going on). Valentine's is not really on my radar, so maybe I've just never noticed, but I don't remember having seen that kind of intense celebrating before.

Anyway, the conference was good, for the most part. A little exhausting -- I never quite recovered from the 4 am start time that got me down to Austin, or all the travelling, but luckily neither did my roommate, so we went to bed early every night. Also exhausting was the constant socializing. If you're an socially well-adjusted person, you have no idea how painful it can be to enter a room full of people that you don't know (but should really get to know). Apparently I managed to cover up the stress pretty well, though, because a couple of people actually mentioned, in random context, what an outgoing person I was. Fooled you! Fooled you all! And I eventually ended up at the same banquet table as the only person at the conference who has a louder laugh than me. There was much shrieking. I'm sure the other tables were ready to kill.

The whole experience definitely brought my career anxieties to the fore, though. I wavered hourly between excitement over my chosen career and confusion as to why I had ever wanted to do this, between enthusiasm for becoming involved in my association and worries about what happens next. I think I'm okay now, but I'm still a little concerned about the future and whether I'll be able to handle it, or whether I'll just stay stuck in the same job for the next 20 years, which would be easy, but would kill me. Sigh.

Oh, I forget to mention the cheese. At the reception the first night, the only thing that kept me from crumpling into a ball of fast asleepness was the vast assortment of cheeses that were provided. Also there was a fabulous veggie plate with cherry tomatos, broccoli, and black olives (among other stuff). Yum.

In other news, I no longer have the will to alphabetize. This goes on much longer and I'll have to turn in my librarian's card.