Conference Travel

I can't believe it's only 8:30 (as I start to type this). If it were 9:30 (as it would have been if this were only yesterday), then I wouldn't feel quite so silly about going to bed. But if I go to bed at 8:30, I'll be getting up at 4:30 or something! I'm going to try to push it at least another half an hour, I think, and then if I'm still as tired, I'm just going to call it a night.

The reason I'm so tired (oh right, I'm pregnant) is because I was at a conference this weekend. J and I went up to Wellesley, MA last weekend. J had a workshop there and I decided to crash his hotel room since I had a conference in Boston starting on Thursday.

On Wednesday night, while J was at his workshop dinner, I went out for Indian with my sister and her (new) husband. On Thursday I went to an afternoon of talks at my conference and then met up with my sister again for dinner (Italian in Boston's North End).

By Friday afternoon, J was done with his workshop, but Friday was the first "real" day of my conference and I went to many, many talks. That afternoon, while I was at the conference, J moved our stuff from the Wellesley hotel to our friend's apartment in Somerville and that night we had plans to meet up with several people. I stubbornly held my pregnant ground that we would not have to travel far so that I could just get up and leave whenever I got tired, and so everyone met at a place that was just a few blocks away from where we were staying. The great part about the night was that I got to see lots of friends who I haven't seen in forever, including Eliaday. The hard part about the night is that I was enjoying hanging out with people so much that I pushed through until I was really exhausted. By the very end of the night (12:30 am!), I don't think I was being terribly social and all I really remember saying is that I was so, so tired. (A great way to make my friends feel like I want to hang out with them!)

I decided to sleep in on Saturday and miss the morning talks because I knew I would be too tired to appreciate them anyway. Plus, on Saturday night there is a cocktail "hour" that I am invited to every year and I knew I would be out until at least 10 pm (it turned out to be 11 pm). By that point, J was supposed to be on a plane heading to San Diego for another conference, but the storms caused his flight to be cancelled, so I got to keep him in Boston for one more night. Too bad I was at this cocktail party for practically the entire night. :(

So I wasn't tired the whole time - just mainly by the end of each night, and now that I am home I am realizing that I am very tired. Mostly, I was just hungry the whole time. It's not that I didn't have time for meals - it was just that those meals didn't seem to hold me for the sessions of three half hour talks. Fortunately, I brought a few bags of roasted pumpkin seeds with me, so I munched on those throughout the day, along with conference cookies and a couple yogurts I bought from the cafeteria downstairs.

This morning I didn't have to do anything except get up and get myself to the airport and then get myself home to my apartment. (J finally made it to San Diego today.) It all worked smoothly, but I'm tired nonetheless. I don't think it's lack of sleep though. I think it's just having to be on all day, for a couple of long days in a row.

I ordered some Thai food tonight because our usual less-expensive Chinese or pizza places just didn't sound appealing, and I don't have much food at home to work with if I were to cook something myself. So I decided to order Thai and consider it both lunch and dinner for today for both me and the baby. And in the end, I have enough left over for lunch or dinner tomorrow, so I think it turned out to be a good (and yummy) investment! I ate my food while going through the past few days of email and cuddled with both kitties (who were very happy to have me home after a few days of being by themselves).

After eating, I noticed the heat still hadn't come on, even though I moved the switch on the thermostat. Hm. So now I am using my space (electric) heater (probably more efficient and cost-effective anyway), and typing on my laptop while sitting under the covers in bed. It's probably not really that cold out, but I always think that our apartment is cold.

Yay, I see that the clock has turned to 9:00. I'm off to call J to say good night, and then I will head to bed. (Funny, he's probably just heading out to dinner.)