Did she really think I am 22?

I'm enjoying this conference experience more fully than I've experienced conference before, but it's not quite the ideal I picture just yet. Someday I want to be really involved in things and in the swing of things (e.g. up to speed with the current scholarship and publications, etc.), and, hopefully, someday I want to come to a conference knowing that I have a real job. I shouldn't complain, though, my department is amazingly generous, giving me up to 1K a year for conference travel, isn't that unbelievable?

In any case, I may, or may not, write more about this conference, but this post is mostly to record that unbelievably, I apparently still look pretty young, in spite of the fact that I turn 40 in only a few weeks. Talk about an ego booster! ;)  (but I do think that that lady's coffee hadn't quicked in yet, as she sat next to me during breakfast).

(I have to say that when I was in my 20s, even late 20s, people sometimes remarked that I looked 13-15. Motherhood took that away from me, but I consider that a privilege and a joy, truly, every single stretch mark in my belly, but I digress)

Last, but not least, my dear husband deserves a prize for attempting to work (directing 4 students working in his lab for the summer) with two boys in tow at the university. One more day only, I'll be back home tomorrow night.