Morning Houston, artistically rendered through condensation on my 10th-floor window.
That's . . . what it's like here. "Welcome to the sauna," someone said to me last night, and yes, yes, it is. "You'll never need moisturizer," someone else said, and yes, yes . . . this too is true. Anyway, here we are.
The flight yesterday was uneventful, though Ubering, which I'd never done before, wasn't entirely. I did get my app up and running and get a ride from airport to hotel, but from the hotel I had trouble. First it was ages to get a driver --- I never did get "driver details finalized." Then the app stopped taking my payment methods, like all of them, all of which are legit. The long and the short of it was that I missed dinner (but I'd planned for that and bought a sandwich at the airport, so I didn't starve) and most of Micah's talk, trying to figure out a ride. End of story: I'm now a Lyft customer. After wrangling with Uber's customer service and being told that someone would contact me by email (they still haven't), I remembered that Lyft exists, downloaded the app, activated my account, and was on campus in 15 minutes. If only I'd thought of that sooner . . . but now I know.
I did catch the end of Micah's talk on the future of literary criticism, then had a great time over drinks with people after. Micah and I got a ride together back to the hotel and are riding to campus together again this morning, where we'll have breakfast and then lead a 90-minute seminar on editing an anthology.
Because I got stuck at the hotel yesterday afternoon and missed stuff, I am really leery about coming back here to change before my reading tonight. So when I got up this morning, I just got dressed in what I can wear. I think I'll forego the heels, since there's a lot of walking between campus buildings involved in this day, and it's just easier to wear sandals. The vibe is pretty relaxed, anyway.
So:
Brooklyn with crop top, because there are a lot of men in this group, and I think I'll just feel easier in my own mind. Sandals, half-updo hair. I'll do. If I do have a chance to come back here, I'll freshen up some, but I think it's a lot safer to plan to camp out there all day, and to save my glammier evening outfit for some other time.
Lovely hotel-room background --- they upgraded me to this massive suite with a kitchen, so in a way it's kind of a shame not to be spending more time here. I really should have brought the whole fam.
Drinking some water, getting my head together for the day --- high of 101F, oh boy, with 88% humidity, so the RealFeel(TM) temp is 103. But it's nice and chilly here in this room . . . fortunately, I guess, the UST buildings aren't quite as refrigerated.
Anyway, it's a fun time with fantastic people. Last night, three separate friends who are or have been students in this program used the word joy to describe their experience. Who the heck talks about the joy of graduate school? These people, that's who. I'm looking forward to spending more time with them all today.
AFTERNOON UPDATE:
I did come back to the hotel after noon Mass today --- everyone else was dispersing for a while, and I figured I might as well come back, shower, think about my reading, peck at a little writing, etc.
So, I've flipped the script in my outfit plan.
I decided that I felt a little dressier and more polished in marine-blue Maggie than in Brooklyn with crop top. I'm still opting for flat sandals, since I'll be on my feet a lot, walking on campus, reading, then standing around at the drinks party after. Anyway, this works for me. I think I might pop Brooklyn back on to travel tomorrow. I've been sleeping in Audrey. I'll just roll up the linen lab coat and deal with wrinkles when I get home.
Funnily enough, I did have a wool-dress conversation --- my friend Dorian remembered that I'd been wearing a wool dress at the Catholic Imagination Conference and was surprised to learn that Brooklyn, too, was a wool dress.
So, reading tonight, which should be fun. I've marked out two sections of the novel, which I think should take 35-45 minutes, depending on how long I talk before reading each section. It's nice just to relax into something that's already written and let it do most of the talking for me.
I'm going to let my hair dry a little more, then eventually go down and get a ride back to campus --- erring on the side of early-for-dinner!