The CCCCs, Day Two (Sort of): Northwest Airlines Still Sucks

What is it that they say about the best laid plans? Deep sigh….

My original plan, before Northwest Airlines decided to just leave my luggage sitting at the airport for about 20 hours before doing anything about it, was to get up first thing in the morning and go to sessions and such at the CCCCs all day Friday. My lost luggage and highly smelly clothes changed that. So instead, I went shopping at Macy’s, actually changed into my new clothes at the store, and got to the conference at about 11:30. I shmoozed with various folks for a while, went to the book exhibit, shmoozed some more, went out for a long lunch with my near future colleague John Dunn so I could answer those kinds of questions he wanted to ask when he was on the interview but which he couldn’t ask (you know what I mean). And by then, it was three-ish, I was beat, I had dinner plans (I’ll post more about that on my unofficial blog eventually), and so my conference day was over.

Damn you, Northwest Airlines!

Of course, it wasn’t a complete loss. Thursday night began with the St. Martin’s party at Tavern on the Green. I felt like a proud papa talking with some colleagues at some PhD programs where we have sent/are sending some of our recent MA graduates and enjoyed some of the best food I’ve had at a St. Martin’s shin-dig. I was a bit surprised by Tavern on the Green though; not as nice as I thought it might be, but my expectations might have been too high.

Thursday night, I did end up meeting up with my usual partners in crime at the CCCCs, Bill H-D and Steve B (and the usual Purdue folk). Since I’m not splitting a room with Bill and Steve this year (my wife came with me to this CCCCs), we were only out comparing various notes while enjoying refreshments until about 1 or so.

When I did get to the conference on Friday, I thought the book exhibit was a little disappointing, maybe because it seemed to me like there weren’t a lot of presses there. The textbook business has been buying each other for a long time, but the same seems to be happening with academic presses as well. I noticed that Routledge has bought LEA, for example.

Oh, and our luggage did show up, finally– about ten minutes before we had to leave for our dinner plans.

And now I’m getting ready for my Saturday morning presentation. I’m actually sitting in the lobby of my hotel (my wife is still asleep), The Paramount. Basically, a thumbs up. It has this uber-pretentious/mod thing to it. The lobby has fashionably mismatched furniture, polished concrete, lighting designed for effect instead of visibility, and they’re playing 80’s pop music at a volume beyond atmosphere. My parents would hate this, but we think it’s kinda cool.

Originally, I was going to present and leave, but given my inability to go to panels yesterday, I’ll be hitting at least one panel presentation. Unless I run into someone, of course.