Problems with liquids.

All week I’ve been having issues with liquids; from the small ones (i.e., spilling drinks two or three times a day) to the big one (i.e., the car accident). It’s starting to wear on my nerves. Worse yet, since I had a nasty nightmare last night that I put the rental car into a river.

It does have me thinking more than a little about the idea of karma and Murphy’s law and what goes around comes around. The more bad things happen to me, the more I’m inclined to believe in karma, as strange as it sounds.

In other news, I probably will only be on a little this week. I have lots of errands to do in the beginning of the week — contract delivery — and the conference from Thursday through Sunday. Then the fun of figuring out what to do with my car.

I also finished this great book today: Territory by Emma Bull. It’s a retelling of Tombstone with magic. Pretty cool. I’d recommend it to people who like alternate histories.

Flooding strikes back.

So, I ended up in a flooded ditch tonight. Am fine, spending the night at a friend’s place because the roads to where I live are all flooded out. Unfortunately, the car is totaled. And my poor cat has to spend the night home alone.

This really happened.

And the number one sign you’re a nerd is things like this:

So, I was at a union executive committee meeting. All of us but the VP of membership were there, and we were waiting on her. Ron, the president, was talking about a presentation a professor was going to give, sponsored by Sigma Tau Delta (STD). STD is an English honor society. I joined way way back in, oh, 2000 or so, when I was getting my first degree.

Me: Hey, Ron, is STD a lifetime membership?
Ron: Yes, why? Are you a member?
Me: A long time ago, back when I was actually an English major.
Ron: Why did you turn to the dark side? [I am a sociology grad student now, despite that first English degree.]
Me: Because force lightning is cooler than force persuade.
Ron: …True that.

Worst. Night. Ever.

Well, probably not, but it was definitely not fun. Let’s start from the beginning.

Yesterday was shaping up to be a splendid day. I have a bit of a cold that’s going around, so when they called a snow day and closed the university, I was esctatic. It meant a chance to stay in bed and try and get better. Even my realtor called and cancelled my appointment in the afternoon to go look at places for fall (apparently the backroads were pure ice).

I was happy. Until about 6pm.

When the power went out.

No lights, no HEAT. IN WINTER. WHEN THE TEMPERATURE WAS IN THE TEENS.

I lit a bunch of candles, fumbled around in the dark until I found two flashlights. Got all my blankets and piled them on my bed. And curled up with a book. (But not before this happened to me. Sadly, I was only wearing socks at the time.)

My power came back on at around 5am this morning, but apparently a lot of people are still without. My house still hasn’t quite warmed up (or hadn’t when I left at 7am).

The fun continues today, where the university is not closed. The main roads are patchy, but mostly clear, and the backroads are… pure ice. I did a little sliding getting to the main roads, but nothing serious. No, the serious part happened when I got out of the car. And did a nice wipeout on the COMPLETELY ICE-COVERED SIDEWALKS on the way to the building. Luckily, my laptop is fine. My back and rear and the ankle I slid on before going down… throbbing and will probably be nicely blue by the time I go home this afternoon.

But since I’m here on campus (and warm, so warm), time to attempt to get some work done before my 1pm meeting. Of which I still don’t have the materials needed. Wonderful.

Travel

Well, to my surprise I’m now co-author on a paper that was accepted to a regular session at the ASA (American Sociological Association) annual meeting this fall. Which means that, well, it’d be very very good for my career if I go to the ASA annual meeting this fall.

The bad news is that it happens before fall semester starts. Before loan money comes in. While all grad students are poor.

So, basically, what I’m looking for is two things:

1. Someone who is willing to put me up in Boston from July 31 - August 4 (this is the ASA conference, plus a section pre-conference, which I’m submitting a paper to).
2. Someone who is willing to put me up in Seattle (or nearby Seattle) from August 29 - 31. This is when PAX is. I will have money by then, but I think it would be more fun with other people, even if it is a working trip. The beautiful thing about using adult female video game players as your thesis participants/subjects is that your field work is at… events like PAX.

Anyone? Bueller? Bueller?