is the word 'diary' better than the word 'blog'? probably not.
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Porn Neighbor in Prehistoric Cave Hotel with Free Wireless.
Porn Neighbor in Prehistoric Cave Hotel with Free Wireless.
The conference went well. I gave my paper. They liked it. They pressed me on some issues, but in helpful ways. I did drink bourbon with Max and John, and John prompted Max to tell me the 'Why don't you eat a hot dog bun?!' story, a laff-riot instant classic in any repertoire of bad stressed-out relationship behavior.
And I spent 2.5 days talking in-depth about the philosophy of Emmanuel Levinas with other people who were happy to spend 2.5 days talking in-depth about the philosophy of Emmanuel Levinas. How often does that happen? (Answer: every 18 months or so, at this meeting.)
The hotel, a Best Western, had the strangest interior walls I've ever seen. Not only in the hallways, but inside the rooms as well, the walls were stone-like, with large (foot-long) half-moon-ish protrusions everywhere. One of my fellow conference-people noted that they were ear-shaped and that it was true at Best Western that the walls have ears. To me the walls seemed more cave-like, and a bit creepy. Not that the walls having ears isn't creepy.
Speaking of which, on Friday night the guy in the room next to mine was watching porn for hours and hours really loudly. At first I tried earplugs to drown it out. Then I turned on the air conditioner. Those two things combined didn't work, so I tried kicking his door with my loudest shoes for awhile. He could not pull himself away from the narrative of the film in progress. By the time he was done with his "viewing," I was too tired to sleep. It was one of those "if I get to sleep now I'll have 4 hours of sleep�" countdown nights. And yet, smehow I wasn't exhausted the next day and managed to give my paper, participate in three other discussions, go to the conference lunch meeting, and dinner, and drink bourbon in the hotel bar later that night.
A lot of water fell from the sky this weekend. Saturday morning when I was waiting in the lobby for some other conference people, I overheard these conversations between the woman registering guests for the Bird Show being held at the hotel (no joke) and various of her guests:
Her: Welcome to the soggy morning! Guest: I should have taken a boat!
Her: Good morning! Guest: I swam here!
Her: Wet enough? Guest: It's good to have an indoor event when it's raining!
It's always sad when some smartass person is listening in on other people's really banal conversations and reporting them as if she were somehow superior.
Today when I was teaching, a student asked a question about how or why Hobbes could think some of the things he thought, and so I was trying to add to the historical context I had already given, and I said something like, "Remember that Hobbes was not a man of independent means. He was dependent on the patronage of rich people. He made his living teaching the children of rich people, and in exchange for that he earned for himself some time for working on his own philosophy."
Shit. I'm Thomas Hobbes.
Time is moving very slowly here. It's not that I'm unhappy, or even bored. It's just that time is moving very slowly. I have barely been here two weeks, and it seems a lot longer. It seems like AGES since I've seen Evany, and like FIVE AGES since I've seen Mr. Perrone, or Caroleen, or the rest of the San Francisco crew. It would help to have someone around who knew my jokes, etc. Or perhaps it would help to have a social life. I suppose now that I've got a phone and am settling in I can start hanging out with John more often (one of the Levinasians lives around the corner), and I can call Eric to see whether he's in Northampton, etc.
Last weekend it all of a sudden got COLDER here. Out of nowhere. I drove to Albany without bringing or packing a jacket, prepared mostly for hot sticky weather, and what I got was cold rainy weather. So I had the wrong shoes, the wrong clothes, and no jacket. I am SO Northern California. In fact I'm not quite sure what to do about shoes right now. It's not exactly time for big boots yet, but nor is it time for most of the other shoes I have. Does this mean I have to buy more shoes? Ha.
11:42 p.m. - September 20, 2004
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