we're off!

24 hours from now, we'll be in the air on the way to O'Hare, hence onward to Pittsburgh. And hence (on Thursday) to Binghamton for the Philosophy, Interpretation, and Culture Conference, to give the paper on Hunter Thompson and the ideology of journalism, hence back (on Saturday evening) to Pittsburgh. Incredible.

I'm excited as hell. Partly, this is a trip to restore a past I had to give up a couple years ago. I lived in and loved Pittsburgh for eight years, but those memories have been tainted by the end of my marriage. I have many lovely memories of Pittsburgh, and I want them back.

I read the paper through one last time this afternoon, after lunch. What I finally ended up with is, um, well, it's a vicious, brutal screed on the corrupting influence of professionalism in journalism and academia. I almost can't believe I'm going to present this at an academic conference, but, as Lauren suggested when I read it out to her, this has become my schtick. I suppose so.

It's incongruous, isn't it? I teach Professional Ethics for a living. And I'm at least marginally part of the academic profession that I'm saying such ugly things about in this paper. Aah, what the hell. This is a Postmodern Age, an Age of Irony. Plus, as the US Food and Drug Administration tells us, we should have 10-18 milligrams of irony daily. HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA! WOO-HOO! IT'S A JOKE! DON'T YOU GET IT??

Ahem.

I've been playing the various guitars for a couple hours since then, because I won't have a chance to while we're away. I'm still half contemplating bringing a guitar with us, but most of what I've read online about it amounts to the warning that you should expect to be delayed, interrogated, searched, scrutinized, searched again, and maybe not get to bring the instrument onboard anyway. But I also read a lot of crap about the kind of work it takes to be a professional musician. I am sure I don't aspire to be a professional musician, where "professional musician" means someone who plays a guitar for a living. I have similar feelings for professionalism among musicians as among academics and journalists.

So, all there is left to do is pack, assemble a soundtrack for the trip, play guitars a little while longer, talk myself into or out of bringing one with us, and play Scrabble.