Papers given: 1
Excellent papers heard: 5
Panelists on my animation panel who seemed genuinely surprised that adult cartoons are not just stupid shows for children (and who thus didn’t seem to understand the rhetorical situation of their own presentation): 2
Friends from grad school seen: 5
Times I’ve gotten to see Vanessa this year: 3
Amazing blueberry steak at Acqua al 2: 1
Unnecessary and dangerous staircases in the airbnb: 2
Times I fell: 1
Places on my body I hit when I fell: 4
Giant dark bruises that are bigger and purple-r every day, so dark I’ve googled “when do I see a doctor about a bruise”: 1
Best crabcakes ever (The Old Ebbitt Grill): 1
Glasses of a dry rose while eating the best crabcake ever: 3
Glasses of dry rose I was charged for after eating the best crabcake ever: 1
Best fried yucca ever (at the same restaurant, on two different nights): 2
Times Melissa, Margaret, and I were called “gentlemen” while having the best fried yucca ever: 11
Adorable Peruvian waiters who took great pleasure in serving us gentlemen the best yucca ever and pisco sours he made himself: 1
Grouper servings: 3!
(for context, average grouper servings per year: sadly, 0)
Barry episodes watched with Melissa: 5
Lesbian bars that wouldn’t let Melissa’s bag in and thus that we didn’t go to: 1
Lesbian bars that didn’t have ridiculous bag rules: 1
Games of knock-off Jenga that I didn’t lose: 1
Monuments visited: 2
Museums visited: 3
Museums visited just for the sake of having a great lunch (bison!), though: 1
Grammar problems I saw in Smith-fucking-sonian museum placards: 4
“Stellar” Sea Cow skeletons observed: 1
By definition, unstellar sea cow skeletons observed: 1
Exhibits that accidentally look like threesomes: 1
Restaurants/bars where we were the only white people: 2
Books the McFarland table at the conference had by me: 1 (of 2)
References to Bill Cosby and Michael Jackson at the National Museum of African American History and Culture that made me uncomfortable: 3
Exhibits that downplayed Clarence Thomas’s assholery: 1
Exhibits of Emmett Till’s coffin, which made me cry: 1
Placards explaining that the turpentine camps of Florida were awful: 1
Discussions in which I had to explain to Margaret that Florbama has so much of the coastline that Alabama probably wants because the Spanish weren’t gonna give up those white sand beaches: 1
Maps at the museum proving my point: 1
Months until Melissa’s baby is born: 1.5
Conferences that Karlissa gets to attend this year: 1
Conferences in our future: many, many more
