Home again, home again, jiggety jig

Denver Skyline, originally uploaded by Anish Palekar.

I feel like I have been so neglectful of this blog the past ten days, but it has been unavoidable due to to two big conferences that have taken me south of the border and far away from my sewing machine and camera (this beautiful photo of Denver was borrowed from Flickr and is not mine, alas). But it's home, sweet home now, for a month, before we jet off to Boston.

My latest travels took me to Denver for the American Educational Research Association conference. It was huge, with over 9000 delegates - the program was as big as the white pages for my little town! But I was not happy there, friends. Because why? The altitude was my enemy. I was prepared for the dryness and I drank a lot of water. But I was not prepared for the dragging sensation of fatigue and the feeling that I couldn't adequately fill my lungs. Not to mention the insomnia and the effect on my digestion. All of these are associated with altitude. Mile High City, indeed! It surprised me, because I've been to Boulder a couple of times for conferences and don't recall feeling so punk. I guess this is another sign of getting old!

The conference was so-so, professionally. but an amazing thing happened that I couldn't wait to share with you! On Sunday, I came to set up for my session, and I noticed a gentleman standing near the speakers' table. I didn't recognize him, but, as I mentioned, it is a huge conference so it wasn't out of the ordinary. He approached me and asked if I were Lesly, since I wasn't wearing my nametag. When I said yes, he said "You don't know me, but my wife reads your blog and wanted me to come say hello." What??? I was gobsmacked!!! Clever Kristen had seen my status on Gmail listed as "going to Denver", and since her graduate student husband, Jesse, was attending this conference, too, she put two and two together. All kudos to Jesse, for approaching a strange lady with the "you don't know me, but..." line. Unequivocally, that was the best thing that happened in Denver! Cheers, Kristen!