A very deep breath......

Hey, I'm alive. Really.

The past two weeks have been downright nuts. Week before last, I was out in Oakland from Wednesday to Sunday for a conference. I was on the program committtee which meant I was the person who put together the panels in a particular area (for me it was Politics and History). So, I felt duty-bound to attend all the panels which kind of wiped me out. I did make it across the Bay one night to do an alumnae function, which are always fun, but other than that it was just work and more work.

The work was all focused in around last week---on Wednesday I did a lecture for the Supreme Court Historical Society on Thomas Jefferson and the Indian Removal cases, which was a high stakes enterprise as the lecture was in the courtroom itself. Fears were running high that I would do a Chris Farley and knock over the lectern and boot in the front row: as it was, I pulled it off, hit my time frame exactly (45 minutes), and didn't otherwise make an arse of myself. On the whole it was an extremely cool experience, if not the most nervous I've been in my entire life. Fortunately (or unfortunately, depending on one's perspective) CSPAN didn't pick it up. Maybe next time.

What was funny about the evening was the confluence of people at the reception: we had about a dozen students come up, plus my folks, plus colleagues from the business, Historical Society types, Court types, and a couple of knucklehead friends from undergrad days. Needless to say, the knucklehead college friends found my current students, and much information was traded back and forth. I know this as a student greeted me in passing in the hall this morning with "Good morning, Professor Bucketbutt."

Ah, that's what friends are for.

The most bizarre/surreal moment of the entire evening though had to be being outed as a blogger to my Mom in the ceremonial east conference room at the Court. I've never told my folks about the blog, not because we write anything too racy or inappropriate, or that I use the LLamas as a platform to vent about my family, it's just that it was an exercise that was easier to perform without having to explain the whole concept to them. So, my old college roomate not only passed on one of my nicknames (and lawhd gawd knows what else) to the students, but he let slip about the LLamas to my Mom.

At least the second was accidental.

Long and short of it is that I'm behind the curve, blog-wise. I've not only been not writing but I haven't been reading. I have no idea what's the issue du jour, who INDC Bill is mad at and why, what abominations Rusty is using the image of Princess Lea towards.....

So be gentle with me, okay?

Yips! from Robbo: Alas, I was supposed to be one of those knucklehead undergrad friends in attendance on Wednesday evening, but my flight back from the hinterlands did not get into Dee Cee in time. Father Justice, he is a hard taskmaster. Glad to see Steve-O's back and in one piece.