Frivols

I think that's a word anyway.

So I've been busy packing tonight, after I was finally able to drag myself away from school after conferences. Somehow, even though I didn't get to school till noon, staying there till 8:30 felt like a full day plus. But the conferences proceeded really well, or at least I think they did.

Now that my packing is done (I think anyway), I find I need to unwind my brain a bit. It churns furiously when I'm preparing to travel some place b/c I'm desperately trying to not forget anything. In the interest of saving some money and in proving to myself that I can still pack relatively lightly (and in the interest of using it again), I'm using the backpack I purchased for my trip to Europe. If I can make it through three countries and two weeks of travel with two bags, I can surely do it for 5 days--especially since I can mooch off my family's stuff, too. But still, I worry that I'm forgetting something important. Or more importantly, something expensive.

Also on my list of minor decisions to make by morning is whether or not to take the book I began last night. It's entitled The Secret History of the Pink Carnation. It has an intriguing plot, but it's so generically chic lit and cutesy that I feel like I do when all I eat is sugar--a little sick to my stomach and needing something more substantial. Of course, I still need to finish Bill Bryson. I've been plugging away at it; almost there now. But back to the Pink C--well, even though the author is a Yale grad and a Harvard PhD student, does that really make it worth reading? Do good vocab choices merit worth when the characters are almost ridiculously simplistic. i.e. Guy and girl run into each other, exchange heated conversations that in reality barely cover up their throbbing attraction to each other. They think they hate each other, but find themselves daydreaming endlessly of one another and wondering why it bothers them to imagine that the other seems to dislike them. Gross. I think I liked stories like that in middle school. Maybe high school too. But now I'd like a little more . . .adult action and less junior high stuff.

Well, I must be to bed.