Tuesday 29 May 2007

Today

It is today.

Am a little unsure what that means (i.e., what is today? Literally, not philosophically.).

Am quite tired.

So, what the bloody hecks am I doing up at 5.33am? Grrrrr.

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There is a crow on the faux balcony outside my window and it makes me sad that I cannot try to help it. My mother says it is probably diseased, but its foot is all that appears to be injured. Last evening, it scared me since my windows are open to combat the evil that a/c seems to inflict upon my sinus system, and it was trying to flap itself steady onto the 1.75 inch window ledge until I opened the curtain. Then it limped into the corner of the ledge. It is still breathing, but is not light enough for me to see its eyes. What do you think would happen if someone tried to bring a crow through customs (tee hee hee titter sniggle)? Poor crow. Have nothing to feed it unless it likes coffee grounds or milk (dairy or soy) or chinese rice with red very hot pepper.

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Yesterday, set up booth at NAFSA. It was as one of these things usually goes for the first time:
* hanging banner with the pretty cathedral picture was taken out of our materials by someone in our office, so we have two boring ones instead (one of the boring ones' information was to be on a smaller display board on the table display, but more of that below)
* display board was only delivered on Thursday
* it appears that one complete display board was in two parts of pre-wrapped bubble wrap (what sense is that?), so we have unintentionally only brought one part, which cannot therefore be used
* blue of the display board background is BLUE, the table banner is blue, and the hanging banners are blue, again. This is just entirely avoidably silly and annoys me greatly.
* logo on table banner is about the size of my hand. This is completely insufficient for passers-by to easily spot. But whatever.
* professor who is with us has brought many of his own brochures, which do not match anything else but each other
* these brochures bring our variety of brochures up to 10 and only include humanities subjects
* a 6-foot long x 2-foot deep table is not sufficient for 10 different types of brochure if one is attempting to go for an attractive display look. If one is going for a 'car-boot sale' or 'garage sale' look, then perhaps this is fine. This is not the look I am going for. There was an argument yesterday :) It involved the professor giving the example of a candy store with a large variety of items, and me saying that one doesn't just jumble up all the candy but tries to have orderly sections of chocolate, candies, gum, etc. and that six feet of space is not really enough for very many sections. Neither of us succeeded in convincing the other, but we have compromised and have 5 different brochure types on display, arranged in diagonal, cascading alternate groupings. The diagonal-ness makes up for the busyness of the visual chaos.
* the professor is now either alarmed by my OCD-ness or joining the ranks of the multitude who finds it incredibly funny. Whatever.

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It has been questioned whether an alternative location has been found for the reception on Wednesday evening. And the answer is YES!!! Hoorah!

It will be held at The Gale Mansion. The coordinators have been incredibly helpful and understanding and I have had to make no other decisions other than cost and a limit on the wine. A review of location will follow the event.

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Minneapolis is v. windy, and it has been lovely weather-wise since we got here. Downtown has some really interesting buildings (British Professorial Conversation the other evening was very mocking of the fact that the architecture has indulgently been chronicled in a book. Lord Almighty, just stop b!(*&ing about everything! The Ugly American is certainly a common sight, but there are other Uglies as well, and HELLO! isn't part of the purpose of this conference to discuss intercultural tolerance and understanding?). Anyhoo, so far it has been mostly empty outside other than all us outsiders but is fairly clean, unsmelly, and there are jazz musicians playing in the streets. There are lots of good restaurants, and I am taking Sally for Mexican food on Friday evening!

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