Three Weeks

I'm finally back home (in the wee hours of the morning Monday, thanks to E. for the crazy PDX airport run!), finally over the jet lag, and finally read through all the blog posts of the last almost-month. Nice to be reminded of the many other, much cooler, ways to spend the ides of March and thereafter! Both conferences went well, though the historians were far preferable to the lawyers, and the funeral provided some good closure along with a lot of drinking with my family. I have a shitload of cousins, and they're all boys, and they all make strong drinks. Plus, the two who were in Iraq got to come back for the funeral. And in between all the flying and training and bussing and (drinking and grading and) so forth, I got to see some other super-cool people. So here is a list of things I wholly enjoyed on this trip:

1) Ann, Saru, Kristin, Ramya, Jessica, Marie, Veta, Nancy...seeing old friends and meeting new ones (Megan!) was unquestionably the highlight of the insane travelling.
2) Four different Chinatowns were visited. I feel like this is an accomplishment.
3) No matter where we went, people kept feeding us hummus and macaroons on this trip. It was the hummus and macaroon tour of the Eastern seaboard. I think the vegan thing makes East Coasters nervous about what to serve. Especially because I was eating cheese, eggs and fish this month, so...perhaps I'm less than vegan.
4) Robust. Saru's new word.
5) History conferences, historians and the general enjoyment of getting to be in an intellectual community of people who all work in the same field (in this case, US history).
6) The $3 (that's right, people) book sales the publishers offer on the last morning of the conference. Crowds of grad students and super-old-guys waiting outside for them to open. Also, free books, just for signing up for e-mail lists. I came home with like, 15 books from my comps list. For super cheap!
7) Meeting famous historians and being all star-struck about it. I'm such a dork.

Here is a list of things that were found to be highly problematic:
1) Lawyers and conferences about law.
2) Conferences that talk about culture. Culture. The word. The idea. The "studies." Yes, Clifford Geertz, and all that, but at some point I'm just a throwback traditionalist who doesn't really care. Give me economics! Where's class? I know, I know.
3) The Museum of the American Indian in DC. Highly Problematic. No mention of slavery or the African American presence and excessive fetishization/exoticization. Where were the trailer parks?
4) The National Constitution Center in Philadelphia. I don't know why I even went. Oh yeah, because someone else was paying. Given that this is pretty much my subject, I found myself offended by the shallow, banal, uncomplicated treatment of it. On that note, academics are FUN to bring to museums.
5) The new "folk art" wing of the Gallery of American Art. I'm not sure why tin-foil creations from the garages of crazed/religious middle-aged white guys qualify as folk art, but not the stuff everyday people -- oh, let's call them "folks" -- make. Where was the needlepoint? The quilts? Women's work gets shafted again.
6) The Met, but only because the Costume Institute was closed between exhibits when I was there. Not so much problematic as annoying because depriving me of pretty fashions throughout history.
7) The prayer of the faithful. My family's idea of a funny joke was having me read this at the funeral. Well, mainly it was to give the priest the idea that someone in the family was still a good Catholic, since he knows all my atheist, divorced aunts and uncles aren't, and I'm from far away and look the part. So I got to say a prayer for Pope Benedict and all his bishops as well as for George W. and all elected officials, "that they may pass laws protecting all human life." I mentally chanted to myself that this line was about war and not abortion in order to feel better.

Finally, you must check out this site with a free online quiz to determine if you have a calling to be a monk, nun, or priest.