Do you want to spend the first day of summer at the lake, beach, or the pool? I’ll be at work, but personally, I’d love to be at the beach.

As I said yesterday, I’m in Boston for work until Thursday. I’m staying in Cambridge, and I have a beautiful view from my 7th floor room. My room overlooks the Charles River, and it also as a view of downtown Boston. The Charles River is my favorite view because of the boats going down the river and the hot men running or bicycling by the river. The last time I was in Boston for any length of time for 10-12 years ago when I was in graduate school and came to Boston for dissertation research. Back then I also stayed in Cambridge near the Charles River, though I was closer to Harvard then. Also, it was February and the river was frozen over. I remember just how cold it was that year.

Today, I have an interview scheduled with a prominent business man in Boston who is an alumni of the university where I work. I then have another interview this evening with a young teacher who is also an alumni. I was able to look the younger guy up in the yearbooks and back when he graduated a few years ago, he was quite good looking. I hope both of these interviews go well. Then on Thursday, I will head home, though I may do a little sightseeing before I go.

I slept much of yesterday, trying to recover from my whirlwind travels. It was a good trip though. The ladies at my conference were very nice (I was one of about a half dozen men there), and my paper was well received. I was worried it might not be “scholarly” enough, but apparently it was.

Saturday, I got to meet one of my blog followers in Columbus. That was a real treat. He was a very nice guy. We went to lunch, and he took me to the Wexner Museum. I was glad not to be alone. First, I never would have found the place since my GPS took me to the hospital. Second, I’m not a big fan of contemporary art, and was happy to have someone to discuss it with. I can’t thank him enough for showing me around.

By the way, Ohio University in Athens is a beautiful campus. Ohio State University is a huge campus. Both though have some cute boys. It’s refreshing to see them run around without their shirts. You rarely see that in Vermont.

I’m exhausted. Yesterday’s trip here was filled with delays. My second plane was delayed nearly an hour, and then when I got to the conference they couldn’t print my parking permit. Ugh! It was just one thing after another.

Today, I present my paper. It’s not until the very last session of the day, so I have lots of time to fret. I also have to be back at the registration lobby at 7:30 am to get my parking permit. Long day.

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.