Nashville

Last weekend, Emily and I packed up and headed to Nashville, Tennessee for the 8th Annual Modern Critical Approaches to Children's Literature Conference. Although stressful, it was fun. I heard all kinds of fascinating papers on different children's literature, and I offered a fascinating paper of my own, entitled "A Redeemable Satan: Biblical Imagery in Dr. Seuss's How the Grinch Stole Christmas." Like I said, fascinating. :) There were several other students from ISU there along with Emily and I. This is a picture of my cohort at Thursday's cocktail hour. Emily, Stacy, and I are the three first-year PhD students in Children's Lit, so we take most of our classes together. I swear that we don't usually try to dress alike, though. One of our professors, Dr. Jan Susina, also presented at the conference.

I have to be honest, however. As much professional fun as I had, it was seeing Mom and Dad for dinner on Friday that really made the trip. They drove the 4 hours from Atlanta just to have dinner with me! We haven't seen each other since Christmas. :( The four of us (including Emily) had a great dinner at a local spot, South Street. Or South Side Grill, or South Street Place, or something...

But I missed JD too much! He managed to have some fun without me at home. He played tennis with a friend, won a church basketball game where he scored 15 points, which he explains as "the highlight was really that I was 3 for 3 behind the arc," whatever that means. It sounds good, and I wish I could have been there! He and the guys also had a poker night on Friday complete with pizza and a basketball game and, I hear, Gizmo performing a number of acrobatic feats. Poor kitty.