Tuesday, April 23, 2013

Travel Ready

I've probably mentioned this already on the blog, but I'm far too lazy to bother to check: I'm going to Toronto this weekend. Specifically, I'm going to attend the HASTAC Conference at York University, and deliver a paper--or at least a brief talk--as part of a roundtable on Sunday. The paper I'm not too worried about. Granted, it's not really written at the moment, but the skeleton outline is there. One of the nice things about basing your scholarly style around large amounts of reading is that when it comes time to do the writing part, you already know what secondary stuff you're going to be using. That saves time. It'll be a particularly interesting talk, because it's based on a project I was working on last year, and it'll thus necessitate a more personal approach than I'm used to doing. It's probably going to be a tone that's very similar to this blog, in fact.

Anyway, I'm not worried about the paper. As usual, it's the idea of traveling that makes me instinctively clench my gut. I think I know myself well enough by now to know that I depend a lot on routine and habit to define my day to day--having a schedule I can depend on is important to me. And when traveling, that sort of rigidity doesn't work. Granted, the planning can help a lot, but you also have to be fluid to opportunities and respond well to setbacks. I can do both--I just don't particularly like it.  The dizzying highs, the terrifying lows--no thank you. I'll take some mellow mediums, please. Such a life motto does mean you miss out, though. I've lived next to the biggest city in Canada, our big ol' cultural mecca, for five years. And it's been three years since I've stayed in Toronto for more than an airplane ride, and four years since I traveled there by myself. Hopefully, the conference will go a little way in addressing what I've been missing out on.

Later Days.

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