J&T Take San Francisco

Julie and I spent Memorial Day weekend in San Francisco, where I attended the American Literature Association Conference. The conference itself was great--I got to hear some fantastic papers, connect with old friends and colleagues, and get excited about research before picking back up with it after a year of concentrating almost solely on teaching. A professor of mine from grad school gave a paper, and it was inspiring just to hear her "teach" again. She's one of the people whose teaching manner I most would like to emulate--brilliant, funny, relevant, fascinating, warm, critically sharp. She and I and one of my friends from grad school (and the friend's husband, a young music professor now) went to coffee and sat in the coffee shop for so long that I missed another panel I'd have liked to have seen, but it seemed like sitting there talking about teaching was an education in itself.

Apart from the conference, Julie and I bopped around San Francisco, seeing all the touristy spots (Fisherman's Wharf, Ghirardelli Square, Coit Tower, Lombard St., Chinatown, the Embacardero open-air market), activities which as Julie pointed out, we should not be ashamed of because after all, we are tourists. The weather was breezy, brilliantly sunny, dazzlingly gorgeous--as it also is here in Portland, where I am for a few more days to visit my much beloved friend Katie. I will post photos when I get back to Washington this weekend. Till then, peace out everybody! (See, I've been in San Francisco!)