Maybe I should have stayed at home…

I largely ignored the snow on Monday, because I was (once again — ugh) sick, but the winter weather (or, at the very least, threat thereof) in Dallas today is really messing with my life.

As I write this, I’m at the Drake Hotel in Chicago, attending the Council for European Studies conference. I am presenting a paper in a short hour or so and my plans were to stick around for the panel following mine, take a leisurely shuttle back to O’Hare, and then fly home late tonight.

With only the whispered threat of snow/sleet in Dallas, though, American Airlines cancelled a load of flights coming into DFW this afternoon and evening, and my flight was one of them. I spent 20-30 minutes on the phone with a ticket agent, who booked me on a United flight into DFW at roughly the same time as my original flight, so I am at least (allegedly) still coming home, but of course United could cancel that flight at any time, too.

I don’t know what it is about my conference presentations this year, but it seems like every time I’m about to get up and present my work, someone (or in this case, Mother Nature) throws me a curve ball that completely distracts me in the immediate run-up. In New Orleans, it was a professor’s out-of-the-blue suggestion that I transfer to another school; here in Chicago, it’s the fact that I may or may not make it home tonight, and may or may not be stuck at Chicago O’Hare for God knows how long this afternoon/evening.

At the very least, I suppose it can be said that these distractions prevent me from really getting nervous at all about my presentations, although I rarely do get all that nervous anyway, so no big gain there.

I hope those of you in Dallas are able to ignore the weather as I was able to on Monday, and wish me luck in getting home safely and in a timely manner sometime soon!

Oh yes, and of course, wish me luck on my presentation. 😉 This is kind of a big-deal conference (more so than others I’ve attended in the past), so I need (and want) to make a good impression.