Saturday, January 12, 2008

I Should Have Made a Left at Albuquerque

Someone emailed today to ask why I had not written a blog this week. The end of the week and weekend I have been at the annual meeting of the Society of Historical Archaeology in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Today I presented a paper titled "The Few and the Saved: The Shawnee Tower and the Civilian Conservation Corps, Building and Preserving Fire Towers in the Wayne National Forest." This was part of a symposium on the loss of fire lookout towers throughout the United States. Knock on wood, this will be the last Ohio-based paper that I will be giving at a conference for a while. But at the same time, I have sat through three days of papers on archaeological and under-water survey projects in the Caribbean. I have also met many good contacts of people working in the West Indies.

I am only in the states for four days. The trip out here took four flights and 18 hours. The trip back is only four flights and 14 hours.

Like any trip to the states, I had a long list of things to buy while I was here. I spent $438 at Walmart and $164 at Lowes. Deneen was giving me a hard time about not getting the picture frames and the Swiffer mop that she wanted, but I am trying to bring back 92 other individual items. I had to take ten items worth about $150 back to Walmart because thy just would not fit into my luggage. Seems crazy. For the last four days I have been either sitting or shopping. I also brought back some dry cleaning.

I also had more Starbucks coffee than food. Its funny what you miss. Before I left, the boys were all talking about what I would buy to eat. Everyone thought ice cream. Martin wanted me to bring back a Chipotle burrito. Lucas thought this was ridiculous because all we eat is rice. I guess what I miss is really good coffee. I also had a huge $7 bag of peanut M&Ms in my shopping cart. But at the last minute I put this back, just too hard to get them back.

I am getting up at 3:30am to get to the airport in the morning and I am still trying to watch New England and Jacksonville play right now. This is the only NFL game I have been able to watch. I will be back in the sunshine, though, by the time most of you read this.

2 comments:

bryanhitch said...

Is it so hard to say my brother!

bryanhitch said...

The Packers looked good.