Live, From Cambridge!
I put a solid 1500 miles on the rental car covering the terrain between Boston and Montreal a number of times. I had a conference in Montreal toward the end of the week. I gave another paper on the Cradock Four at the Canadian Association of American Studies meeting, which was part of the Canadian Conference of Learned Area Studies meeting at the Marriott Chateau Champlain.
The meeting was fine. More importantly, I got to catch up with my beautiful and talented friend Amaryah Orenstein (coming to a PhD program in history near you, assuming you live somewhere near Waltham, Massachusetts). I stayed with her family, and was able to spend time not only with Amaryah, but also with her sister Yoninah, who was in the midst of dealing with year one law school exams. (There -- you've both been mentioned. Get off my back!)
From Montreal I headed back toward the US. Rich and I could not coordinate our schedule to hook up again, so I went straight on the Newport, where I played more bad golf and was able to get some time (and several Scrabble games) with my good friend Mike. Then it was more golf, and a relatively quick trip to Boston, where I spent the weekend with my friend and coconspiritor Josh here in Cambridge. There was a good deal more beer within the Greater Boston area 36 hours ago than there is now.
By 5:10 Central time tomorrow I hope to have touched down in the Midland-Odessa Metroplex. It will be very nice to be back home. I'll miss the trees and hills and inherent surliness of New England. I'll miss being immersed in the culture of reigning sporting dominance. But I also cannot wait to see the endless skies and rugged desert and my girlfriend. And I have to say, I won't miss 45-degree nights in late April and now early May.