Whew!

It was an eventful week, and I’m just getting caught up on writing about it, so I guess I’ll just spew it all out in one big post.

The other day I had my first meeting at our downtown offices with a bunch of the Very Important People. I donned the sole suit in my closet, and left far too early (I’m obsessive about punctuality). I was a bundle of nerves. But once things were underway and I relaxed, it was quite exciting, and I had this epiphanic moment where it sunk in that I’ve actually finally found the right career. I can’t tell you what a pleasure it is to sit in a meeting where people are proud, and excited about their products. It is the complete opposite of the tortuous IT meetings I used to have to sit through, practically nodding off from boredom, only to be wakened by the CEO yelling at us. Seriously. It is lovely to sit in a room with people who are respectful and have a sense of humour.

After the meeting, I just wanted to go home and read all our books, but I needed to prepare for our student colloquium, which I helped organize. It was a two-day conference, and the topic was “Apocalypse”. I think it was a great success—the papers were fantastic, and we had folks come from several other universities, as far away as Montreal and Buffalo. Last night we finished with a speakers’ dinner, then we hit the pubs. Unfortunately shots of whisky were involved, and I’m paying for the good time today. The conference lessened my dissatisfaction with academia a little—the students were really inspiring—but it also really pissed me off, because no faculty bothered to show up. Not a single one. Our keynote speaker (who’s not from our university), attended the Friday night pub, two days of conference and the dinner last night. He even lasted through the shots. But not a single fucking member of our own faculty could make an appearance. It’s a shame. Nevertheless, it was a wonderful event.

So after all this gallivanting about, today I’m trying to make up for it with Cakes. She had a bit of a tough week—the first couple of weeks I worked, we had her grandparents here to help ease us into the new routine. This was the first week of the new ‘normal’ and Cakes was not happy. A couple of my days started with trying to flee the preschool while she clung to my leg, shrieking and crying. I had a huge case of mommy guilt. The other night Cakes solemnly declared, “I want you to stay home mommy.” So I explained to her, “mommy likes to go work babe. And it’s good for me.” She looked thoughtful, perhaps not 100% satisfied, but she accepted it. And then she asked me for a cookie. She’s not stupid—if she has a guilty mommy, she’s going to milk it for all it’s worth.