Sabbatical Kickoff!

Officially, my sabbatical starts on July 1, but in my book it started the day after commencement, when my on-campus professorial duties ended. Here's how the first five-ish weeks break down:

[May]

Day #1: Commenced planning an October conference with colleagues from Mt. Holyoke and UMass. Working title: "War, Dictatorship, and Memory: An International Symposium on Spain"

Days #2-#10: Post-op semester meetings, lunches, and drinks. Frantic manuscript revising. (Day #5: Massage)

Day #11: Book manuscript done, off to publisher, round two!

[June]

Days #12-15: Washington, DC. Vacation. Yesssssss.

Day #17: Installed a dehumidifier in my basement (as readers of Facebook well know)

Day #20: Finished reading two novels -- Girl With the Dragon Tattoo and Corazón tan blanco. Only one is relevant to research.

Day #24: Partial conference funding is attained! The show will go on.

Day #25: Visit to Wesleyan to reconnect with undergraduate thesis advisor. Discover that he has an iPhone, wears funky glasses, and does yoga. Otherwise, it could be 1998.

Day #26: Ted Leo and the Pharmacists in Connecticut. Sabbatical rocks!

Day #30: Begrudgingly say goodbye to friends who have decamped for an even smaller town with a liberal arts college. :(

Day #31: Tune in to thrilling World Cup USA v. Algeria game while getting rid of all of my remaining videocassettes.  Oblivious to tiny Canadian earthquake tremor while working at a coffeeshop in the afternoon.

Day #32: Write a reader's report, think about transnational cinema, join Twitter and leave Twitter. Resurrect blog. Turn on air conditioner, make myself a sandwich and get back to work.