This crazy week is starting to come to an end. I fly to Columbus, Ohio, today and drive to Ohio University, which is about an hour and a half away to attend a conference. I’m going to be pushing it a little to get checked in and make it to the dinner. I will miss the wine reception. I’d really wanted to go see the museum where the wine reception was being held. This is a women’s history conference, so I will be one of a few men, if I’m not the only one in attendance. I’m pretty sure that by perusing the program, I am the only man presenting a paper. I hope they go easy on me. At least I’m gay, that should give me some brownie points with all the feminist.

I made it back home at 2 o’clock this morning. I should have been home hours before but there were at least three different delays. One because a flight attendant was stuck on another flight that was running late, and two more times for mechanical issues. Once we boarded the plane, we had to return to another gate because we had a passenger that needed to be put off the flight. He was high as a cat’s back and stumbling around. We finally took off ‪around 10 pm‬, so we reached Burlington ‪around midnight‬. It took another hour to get out of the airport then I was on my way home. The roads were quite treacherous, but I made it.

I had a cat that was very happy to see me.

I’m headed back to Alabama today for Christmas and New Year’s. Thankfully the museum is closed during this time and I only had to take three vacation days. I look forward to seeing my family. They drive me crazy at times but I still love them and miss them. One of the drawbacks to possibly getting the job in Chicago is that I won’t get to see them for the full length of the holiday season anymore, but we all have to make sacrifices. By the way, still no word from Chicago.

I’ll be in the friendly skies when this posts. My plane left at 5:45 this morning, but that means I will reach Montgomery around 11.

I’m back home in Vermont with Isabella. She’s always so sweet when I get home after being away. She just wants to be near me wherever I am. Now that I’m home from my whirlwind trip to Chicago, I have to just wait and see how they respond to my interview.

I’m off to Chicago today. My plane leaves around 3 pm, and I should get there about 6:30 pm. I plan to have a nice dinner then settle in for the night and get ready for my interview Tuesday morning. I’ve got everything packed except a few Little last minute items, and then I’m ready to go.

Stellafane. Your first question is probably: what the hell is Stellafane? Stellafane (Latin for shrine to the stars) is the name of the clubhouse built by the Springfield Telescope Makers club of Springfield, Vermont in the early 1920s, and has since come to refer to the club’s land and buildings on the summit of Breezy Hill. It also refers to the Stellafane Convention, a gathering of amateur telescope makers and amateur astronomers (star party) held every year at that location. The Springfield Telescope Makers grew out of a class on how to make telescopes that was started by Russell W. Porter in Springfield, Vermont in August 12, 1920. The members of this small group decided to form a club and held their first meeting on December 7, 1923.

The reason I mention Stellafane is because I am going to the convention today. Porter was an alumni of the university that I work for. They are the curators of some Porter material that my Museum would like to borrow. Porter built some great telescopes such as the Hale Telescope at the Palomar Observatory in California. Porter was a pretty fascinating guy as an artist, an Artic explorer, and a telescope builder. So I’m going to Stellafane to help borrow some of the artifacts they have about Porter. It should be an interesting day. 

Today will be a day of research. Thankfully, I won’t have to drive far. Traffic was horrible yesterday. At one point I had two cars merging into my lane where I was occupying said lane. Luckily, I squeezed on through and managed to avoid a wreck. With so much traffic plus the rain, and accident would have been a major disaster. All I have to do today is drive into Providence (11 minutes from the hotel). Hopefully traffic will be better.

Unless something changes in the morning, I will be spending the next few days in Rhode Island. It seems that my boss needs an extra pair of eyes to help with research at the historical society in Providence. So, I will be spending the next two days plowing through old letters and documents, and essentially looking for a needle in a haystack.

I finally made it back to my apartment around 12:30 am. Isabella sure was happy to see me.

I fly back to Vermont today. It’s been good to be home, and to be honest, I’m not looking forward to returning to Vermont. However, I am looking forward to seeing Isabella. I’ve had a coworker taking care of her, but I’m ready to have her back. Otherwise, it will be back to the same old routine at work.