Small World

Years ago when I was contemplating a masters in English, shortly after graduating college, I read the most deliciously satirical book Small World by David Lodge. It's subtitled An Academic Romance. A sequel of sorts to Lodge's book Changing Places, in Small World we enter the small, too-often petty, occasionally blustery, esoteric, and pretentious world of academic conferences. Reading the book cured me of my wayward desires for an advanced degree in literary criticism!

Well, today I registered for my first-ever academic conference in a field from which I wasn't rescued in time! I'll be attending the American Academy of Religion / Society for Biblical Literature conference in Washington, DC this coming November. (See some program highlights here.) To their credit, AAR/SBL has a fantastic student rate (ony $70) for the entire conference. This lured me in. Unfortunately I checked the flights after that. [gulp]

I truly am excited for the opportunity to go this year, though. And I plan to finally fly Jet Blue for the first time. Woohoo!

In other news, tomorrow is E's last day of summer. I am so sad! D and I are taking the day off from work and promised to spend the day however E wanted. He chose a Star Wars marathon--watching all six Star Wars movies (1-6; not 4-6, 1-3) in one day. So our alarms are set for 6:30 a.m. with a 7:00 a.m. showtime!