Never!

Before the conference folks walked down the hill to the gallery for the last talk of the day, I decided to check out the surrealism exhibit. What the hell?--it was a recreation of a Marcel Duchamp dealio, and he always amuses.

Nick was in there, too, shuffling around in the fake dead leaves strewn around on the floor.

I tried looking around at the paintings. But I had disdained the flashlights at the door we were supposed to use. What a stupid fucking idea. And my eyes wouldn't focus on anything. No sleep--just making sandwiches and salad and cheesecake for 40 or so until 2:30am, running platters and coffee and water and tablecloths from building to building, rearranging and cleaning since 6:30 in the morning. And this following a week of arranging meetings for MIT, grading, and getting the conference finances all in order.

"So everything is going well I hear?" I was too busy to actually have gone to anything at this conference I'd helped organize.

"Yup."

"Cool."

"So maybe next year I do one thing. Like I bring the a/v equipment. But I'm never doing this again."

"Yup. I'll bring cheesecake or something. Never...... never, never, never again."

Fist bump.

"Never, never, never, never....."

Not that I mean to really complain. The conference went well. Even Professor Gilmore came and declared to the office ladies that the conference didn't suck this time (a grand compliment, coming from him). And all the grad students echoed his sentiment. But last night, by the end of the plenary talk, I was shaking from fatigue. Erin took me back to her house, where I had a glass of wine and I fell asleep watching Supernatural. And then woke up at 1pm the next morning feeling hungover. And somehow I need to pull off a fat list of shit to research before I see my advisor in 3 days. Which I am completely incapable of even thinking about.

One day I'm going to learn to put my schoolwork ahead of other people's crap... one day... one day...