Oh god. What a stressful day! Try as I might, I cannot relax. I'm just one big stress and adrenaline ball. You don't need to know the details, but let's just say that my traveling to Congress in Vancouver was a highly stressful experience, one that I am still trying to come down from, 4+ hours after I arrived at my hotel. My M.O. for decompressing is to sit here drinking a bottle of wine I bought at the store next door.

I was delayed by the time I got here and incredibly keyed up on stress-related hormones. I was so late that I didn't have time to do anything but throw my bags into the hotel room and rush out again to have dinner with someone - someone I'd never met! I was meeting one of the people who is contributing to our co-edited volume, who is also here at Congress. So I was meeting a colleague, essentially. And I didn't have time to change before I left, so I looked like a beach bum in clamdigger jeans, and a faded black shirt with a button missing, and some kumbaya-ish sandals. Agh!!! And I was meeting her at a swank place, too, that I'd suggested - to which I had to walk-run in order to be on time, adding to my lovely stress-sweat. I feared a disaster. After all, this wasn't meeting a blogfriend, with whom I know we're already in a register that understands stress and looking like you've just come back from a beach party. Maybe this person would be all uptight and business-like and want to be Discussing Work in Serious Ways.

Anwyay. She turned out to be lovely, and totally down to earth - she didn't seem taken aback by my appearance or my stress-y energy. And you know what she told me? That she had quoted me in a grant application she wrote! Long before responding to the CFP for our book...It is so weird for me to think of people even reading my work, much less quoting me. Weird - but good. She feels that it was very serendipitous to have been accepted to contribute to our volume, for this reason. She also says that being accepted was one of the highlights of her academic career!!! My goodness - wow, is all I can say about that.

Anyway, I am going to finish my glass of wine and focus on de-stressing...tomorrow's going to be a long, Congressional day...