That Actually Turned Out Pretty Great

I woke up this morning at 4:54 a.m., which is never good for me. I'm not a morning person. And on mornings when I do actually have to get up early (6:30 a.m. was what I was aiming for today), I have a terrible habit of waking up even earlier than I have to, because I'm nervous that I will oversleep my alarm. So I listened to a bit of my current obsession (Julieta Venegas, particularly the album Limon y Sal), got ready, and made my way to the Westin Hotel in downtown Ottawa, host to this year's conference of the Society for American Music.

My panel was during the second session. It turns out that I was the only person on my panel who was actually able to be there in person, the two other authors were sick and had sent electronic copies of their papers to be read. This actually worked out about as well as one could hope, but I wouldn't recommend this practice in the future for anyone. My paper on tribute band audiences seemed to be pretty well received. So that's always nice. It's also nice to be DONE with giving my paper. I was pretty zonked for the rest of the day, and by 3 o'clock, I was yawning about every 90 seconds--and it had nothing to do with the papers I was listening to, either! I had some coffee at the break and was able to rally and pay attention to the last panel of the day, which featured a paper on Norwegian jazz and exoticism in Icelandic music, particularly focusing on Sigur Ros. Both papers were great, actually. Really interesting stuff and well-presented.

I'm staying in Ottawa with Catharine's cousin, David Bignell. David is a great guy, a musician who plays in Ottawa's leading disco/funk band, The Hammerheads. I got home to his house, checked my email, and found that I had an email telling me that I received a writing fellowship next year from Penn. Which means that I can pay my bills next year without selling my body to science! And then David and I had burgers and beers for dinner while watching the Senators play.

And did I mention that they've been having record breaking heat in Ottawa? It's been like 15 degrees. Which sounds cold, until you realize that's Celsius.

So let's review: paper went well, great weather, heard some great papers, burgers and beers, and money for next year. I think that was a pretty successful day, even if it did start far too early.