Erin go Bragh!

So I'm going to Europe in--YIKES--three weeks! The first part (and the motivating factor) is a conference in Frankfurt Germany, where I'll get to discuss my work with other academics who study William Carlos Williams. Unlike many academic conferences where you just show up and read your paper to a captive audience (unless the conference is in a place like NYC in which case you read you paper to the other two people who are on your panel and the poor schmuck that is moderating--I've been both), this conference requires each participant to email their paper to the rest of the group about a week before so that we can all read each other's work before we get there. Guess what I'll be doing on the plane? But seriously, once we're there, we all get about 15 mintes to introduce our work and contextualize it, and then the group talks about it or asks questions for an hour, and then it's on the the next person. It should be really great--and hey--Germany!

But the second part of the trip is what I'm really excited about because after the conference, I'm off to Ireland for two weeks--Dublin, then a couple days in Galway City, and then up to Sligo for Yeats Summer School. I finalized my accomodations today (after dropping a chunk of change on travel guides at the bookstore today . . .)

But suddenly, it is occurring to me that
A) I'll be in Germany in three weeks (well, in exactly three weeks, I'll be somewhere over the atlantic ocean en route to germany, but . . .)
B) I need to get cracking and finish my chapter on Williams before I go so that I can start Yeats with a clean slate.
C) When I start Yeats, I'm starting the third of my three dissertation chapters--EEE!!!
D) When I get back from my 3 week trip--I will be eating Ramen Noodles for a good three months.

As an unrelated side-note, as I write this, a preview for "Willie Wonka" was just on. I had forgotten haw absolutely terrifying that movie was. Not only does Johnny Depp look downright FREAKY, but those OOmpah-Loompahs are scary! And I may have to start saying in my best London accent, "Daddy, EYE, Wahnt an Ooompah Loompah, and Eye wahnt it NOW!" (phonentically, of course!)