Thursday, April 13, 2006

Trains, planes, and automobiles

I left the house at 6 a.m., when the fog still blanketed the roads along the river, and arrived at my hotel in Atlanta at 7:30 p.m. I could have driven to Atlanta and arrived sooner, but instead I spent the day in and out of a variety of trains, planes, and automobiles, and I graded an entire set of freshman comp essays during a three-hour layover in the Reagan National Airport. My only source of exercise all day was the long hike from concourse D to the baggage claim at the Atlanta airport, and then on the train from the airport to the hotel I got off at the wrong station and ended up seeing more of MARTA than was strictly necessary, but on the other hand, it only cost me $1.75.

I have a room (courtesy of the college) at a hotel of such interior loveliness that I have to keep resisting the desire to stand in the middle of the lobbying looking up and gawking like a tourist, which I suppose I am. And after all that time traveling and hiking and waiting and sweating, I enjoyed a sandwich of smoked ham and sliced apples on raisin bread, for which I paid the ridiculous sum of $7.25. But I have to say, it was worth every penny.

Tomorrow the fun starts: attending conference sessions, presenting a paper, looking over publishers' displays. This is an entirely stress-free conference for me: the paper has long been written and it has already been accepted for publication, I'm not interviewing anyone or being interviewed, and there's no one here I need to impress. I may sweat a bit before I give my paper tomorrow, but aside from that, it's all gravy.

Tonight, though, I rest. After spending a very long day being intermittently in transit, I'm ready to just settle down and be still.

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