conference and associated silliness

It takes 11 hours to drive from Kent to Amherst in a 15-passenger van. There were 8 of us driving out, and of course one overslept on the morning we were leaving, so we left 45 minutes late. The drive to Amherst went well, and we got there at about 7:00, checked ourselves into two different hotels and went off for dinner, at which point I discovered that Dr. Koby (who teaches German translation) has a marvelous sense of humor and has the same talent I do for coming up with puns on the spur of the moment. (He also started singing the Man of La Mancha at me, and I had it stuck in my head for the next two days.)

( Friday )

( Saturday )

( Sunday )

Anyway, we finally got everybody from KSU collected in the same place at about noon, and took off for Kent again. We only encountered one accident on the way back, and it didn't actually stop traffic. It's still a long trip, though. I keep forgetting how much of Pennsylvania there is when you're driving across it the long way. I got back into my apartment again at 11:58 last night and promptly fell over, and here I am again. I'm glad I went to the conference, and I'm REALLY glad the ATA conference in October is in Toronto and won't take 11 hours to drive to.

minutiae

The devil's in the details...

I spent an hour this afternoon trying to find a book the library swears it has two copies of, but I'll be damned if I can find it, and I want the head of the reference librarian I talked to. When I told her I was having trouble finding this book, she said "You must be looking in the wrong place. Keep looking." Mind you, she didn't tell me where to look instead. Not helpful. Especially since the reference desk is on the first floor and the book I can't find is supposed to be on the fifth floor. I went up and down between them about three times just to make sure I was looking in the right place. The book I want has a call number that ends in O7 A3, and the stacks go straight from O64N to O7 A32. There's no A3 in the middle there, and I swear there should be. I have no idea where else it would be. It's not like I'm doing this for fun; I need this book. I'm going to try a different reference librarian tomorrow. I didn't intend this to take an hour, but it did, and I lost track of time and had to run like mad so as not to be late for my class.

My resume now has a third line to be added: Member, American Translation Studies Association. It's getting to the point where I either have to remove my summer jobs during college or go into a second page. I also have to find something to use as a sample translation before the ATA conference. I don't think I have anything suitable yet. What I need is something semi-technical that I've done a good translation of.

Tomorrow I get to lock myself up in the computer lab when I'm not in the library trying to find that book. At least I have new music to keep me company, thanks to Newbury Comics' used CDs.