AHA Day 1

AHA Days 1 & 2

Arrived safely in Philly and met up with Pilgrim/Heretic. She is much as I expected, but younger. Excellent roommate, though! And she's totally cool. I thin we decided we're just going to stay in Philly. We went to a pub that specializes in Belgian ales and had dinner -- frites, mussels, and beer. Yum!

Friday was good -- I went to the only paper that deals with anything like my area -- interesting person from Notre Dame -- A grad student, I think. And I ran my idea for a book project by P/H, who liked it. Mad dash to print expensively at Kinko's, a business lunch with other people from a history organization specializing in reviews and discussion lists, and then a mad dash to the interview. I think it went well. It turned out to be a screening interview, as half of the search committee came down with some awful illness. I really liked the people. I think the job would be a great fit -- everything I like about teaching CC, in terms of student demographic and focus on teaching and collegiality (and also a heavy teaching load), but also the things I miss -- teaching upper division courses and having expectations of writing. I really hope I made it to the next stage.

Then back to the hotel, where P/H and I met up with 1B*. Soooo much fun. great dinner in a Cuban restaurant, and lots and lots of laughing. If we go with B*'s idea of blogger trading cards, I collected a bunch this weekend. In addition to P/H and B*, I met Timothy Burke, who was ill and still one of the most friggin' brilliant and articulate speakers I've met, Nathanael Robinson, David Beito, Manan Ahmed, and Juan Cole, who was so very cool. I always thought he'd be all Mr. Arrogant, because he's kinda famous, but he was just the most pleasant person. I also met Sharon Howard, who's meeting up with me again in a few minutes. I am feeling very privileged.