never too busy to party

Music: Amon Tobin: Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory (2005)

Last week was among the most overwhelming of my career: I returned home last Sunday from a conference in Minneapolis, but with my advisor in tow. The following day I picked up a guest speaker from the airport, dined, and whined, then the next day was playing host. Factor in two, brand new lectures. Wednesday I spent the day with my advisor, made a visit with some friends from Minnesota who now live in Leander, and then high-tailed it back to the university for guest number three, who was also giving a lecture. Two things happened in the midst of this busy Wednesday: first, my laptop hard-drive died. Just up and died. I lost two weeks of lecture materials. Bummer. Second, some shit put nails under my tires on the passenger side; between the guest speaker and dinner, my kindly advisor hung out in the Sears tire place who repaired one of my tires (the other was not repair-able and so we used my spare). Then, the following day I woke up with my eye-swollen shut: stye in my eye. Painful, but I had a new prep, then errands, then dinner with advisor and friends. So, come Friday I was completely toast. I went to the doctor. Got some meds. Didn’t make the presentations that day.

Given the heavenly hell that was last week, I really wasn’t in the mood for throwing a party, but I picked up the keg and threw it anyway. That was a wise move. As soon as it got underway my mood changed, and I was feeling better. By 4:00 a.m. I was feeling quite good, in fact, and the mood of positivity has carried me to this Friday. Of course, I was back in the car repair shop today and have another $1,500 estimate (I’ve spent almost $6,000 on the car already in the past four months). But I am not going to let it phase me; party vibes will get me through. Now, all of last week is honestly a blur---and the lack of blogging is a testament to the hectic pace of life lately. I’m having a cigar and catching up on email messages on the back patio. I shall sleep in tomorrow. And if I start to feel overwhelmed (I have five presentations to prep between now and Monday for our annual conference next week in Chicago), I can always look at the gallery of party photos to cheer myself up and remember what’s really important. Dancing. Dancing is important. And costumes. And smiling. Smiling is good. And friends. All these papers . . . well, these papers can go to Hades.