Planning an Early Night

before my flight out tomorrow, so just dropping by to say Au Revoir and I should be back in early July. 

As far as the Congress paper goes, I got a reply back saying she was 'only the moderator, had no control over anything, and had no idea if it would be possible to stay in the room over our allotted time.' and as far as that last went, obviously no intention of trying to find out either. 

So I told her that there was no way I could reduce my paper any more if they still wanted it to make sense and that obviously somehow I was going to have to find the time to write something else and that, with the limited time available, if I managed that it would be a miracle. 

Several hours later, after I had indeed  managed to write something else, I got another e-mail saying that you have to be flexible in the conference game, that two of the participants had trimmed their papers down to 15 minutes each and she had heard nothing at all from the third who might therefore be a no show on the day. In that event, obviously I could give my whole 20 minute paper as long as I remembered 20 minutes was the Absolute Maximum because the discussion is the whole point of the exercise. To which I replied that I had been flexible, I had written something completely new, it was 14 minutes long and that was what I was bringing to present. 

(I rather meanly, because I can be quite a nasty person, hope that the other person doesn't show. Because then she has 44 minutes of people presenting papers and then is stuck with keeping a discussion going for anther 46 minutes, and honestly - good luck with that one Katie! )

I have to say that this has taken some of the enjoyable edge off the prospect of going but I'm not going to let it get to me. I have got annoyed, I have dealt with it and I have Moved On. I'm determined to have a great few days in Vancouver, followed by an even greater week with my son, his wife and my grandchildren. 

I'm going to play nice and have a ball.