Fall is definitely in the air and I couldn’t be happier. Strolling about outside, looking at all the beautiful colours and breathing in the crisp air, I reckon that to be a near perfect day.
In other news, my conference this past weekend was a great success! I got to reconnect with some wonderful academic colleagues, have some great impromptu chats about history-related things, toss around some new ideas, etc. It was great. I also feel that the panel I presented as a part of was very successful. We had a big turnout (actually, I think we had one of the bigger turnouts of the conference) and the participants seemed really interested in my paper. I got a lot of wonderful compliments and very solid questions asked, both in the formal question period and in more social settings outside the formal program. It was a lovely feeling. I capped the trip off with a visit with some family in the area and then a truly terrifying Greyhound bus ride back to Edmonton. Seriously, the Greyhound is awful. It was definitely the one crappy part about the trip.
I also have an amusing anecdote for you. Typically when I give a paper at a conference I wear my glasses rather than my contacts. And the reason I do this is so that I can take off my glasses to read my paper so that I can see the words on the page (I make it like 15 pt font because my glasses enable me to things at a distance) but not see the faces of audience members when I look up as I read. I just find it calming because, if someone is frowning or shaking their head when you present their ideas, it can throw you off and be a shot to your confidence level and I've found that it makes me a bit flustered leading into the question period when I prefer to enter that stage confident. Son, anyways, that's my little trick. And it usually works perfectly because, at every single conference I've presented at so far, which is over twenty I'd guess, you always just sit at a table with your fellow panelists at the head of the room. This time though there was a lectern and we were all supposed to walk over and present behind it. So, my turn rolled around and I took off my glasses (as always) and gathered my papers and made my way to the lectern. And then had a mild panic attack when I realized that the papers were about half a foot lower than they would have been if I were sitting. So I couldn't see the words. I mean I sort of could but just barely. And I'd left my glasses on the other side of the room and everyone was now staring at me waiting for me to start. Luckily, because I always want my conference presentations to be good, I practice the papers that I'm giving about fifteen times leading up to a conference to make the length, cadence, etc. is right. So I had huge chunks of the paper memorized and just went for it, leaning over a bit more than probably looked right when I needed to see the words on my papers.
pants: RW and Co / shirt: Zara / scarf: Hudson’s Bay / shoes: Zigi Soho via Nordstrom Rack / purse: H&M
