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October 19, 2006

Of disjointedness

Imagine my surprise on opening my own blog this morning and finding that my last post was over six weeks ago. Where did that time go? The semester is half over, I have a whole stack of things I've been meaning to post about, and suddenly they all seem too old to bother.

We moved, you know, over the summer, and we still aren't all moved in, and particularly not the space I now laughingly refer to as my office. The closest I am to feeling organized in any category is one shelf where the books I've read in preparation for the Major Exam are on one end and the books waiting to be read are at the other end.

I'm off next week to a conference - Victorian Interdisciplinary Studies Association of the Western United States (VISAWUS). Originally, I was going to be part of a panel with a former instructor/friend and a friend of hers, but now we're each on different panels, so that's a little disjointed. And frankly, even though the conference is at Pepperdine, at Malibu, I wouldn't have gone if not for the idea of this panel. So while I'm looking forward to the beach and the ocean, I'm dreading the trip in general.

The whole idea of travel by air has lost its appeal for me. It's so damn hard to get to anywhere from Syracuse, and worse to get back because of the few airlines continued insistence in overbooking flights from anywhere to here. Almost anywhere I want/need to go involves a connection and a minimum 2.5 hour layover - wasting all kinds of time in places not conducive to work or study. I became aware, since becoming a student, of just how many public places have piped in music, or television. There is almost nowhere to go that is quiet enough for concentrated study.

I used to love to travel. Loved the adventure of air travel, of seeing all parts of the country. These days, I find myself really enjoying having both feet on the ground, except when four wheels are involved.

This is a paradox for me. I'm traveling to the NCA conference in San Antonio next month, a place I love and a conference I really want to attend but another trip by air that I'm dreading. All the new restrictions, the constant overcrowding, the long lines and wasted hours around the trip have really gotten to me. So now, I find myself deciding that I don't want to apply to any conference I can't drive to, which, as you might guess, really limits my choices, which is not so great for the whole cv building game we graduate students are expected to play.

I can't decide if this is just third-year-itis, or if it's just because I can't seem to get a grip on my surroundings, or what.

Posted by cageyer at October 19, 2006 11:21 AM

Comments

Posted by: Leah at November 1, 2006 12:25 AM