Sunday 10 May 2009

Kalamazoo Day Two

[yes, again, two days late. Day three will probably get posted tomorrow, but there's a lot of driving to be done in the next 24 hours so... we'll see.]

Day two was a day of meeting people. It began with a blogger meet-up, which was probably the high point of the day. I met Richard Nokes (Unlocked Wordhord), Carl Pyrdum (Got Medieval), Matthew Gabriele (Modern Medieval), Another Damned Medievalist (Blogenspiel), The Rebel Lettriste (The Rebel Letter), Steve Muhlberger (Muhlberger's Early History), Dr. Virago (Quod She), Notorious PhD (The Adventures of Notorious PhD, Girl Scholar), Peter Konieczny (Medievalists.net), Medieval Woman (Purring Prophecy) and so many more. It was great to meet everyone -- and a little weird when people actually knew who Vaulting and I were. I'm going to have to check that hit meter again.

The middle of the day I spent hastily preparing to give a paper, which, all-in-all, went well. All I can say is that people clapped politely, and no-one asked the killer question: "so, what exactly are you trying to argue here?"

In the evening Vaulting and I hit the classiest joints in town (pita pit, the grotto at capone's) for dinner with a friend and then bounced back and forth between the Early Medieval Europe and ICMA receptions, where the old adage "meeting people is easy" became true, if with the caveat "once you've had a few." I inadvertently introduced myself to a certain rather important medieval persona from the Met, geeked out about Doctor Who with some Bryn Mawr alums, and talked Zappa for half an hour with a wonderful gentleman from Denver. Oh and I met a woman who is going to sing her thesis, while accompanying herself with a harp.

Kalamazoo: a strange, but wonderful, place.

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