On the Road Again

I'm writing this from my New Jersey office, which is to say that I am visiting the 'rents. But it's a very short visit. In fact, I'm mostly just using them for their garage. I'm stashing my car there for a few days while I go galavanting around to various math conferences, with a little vacation thrown in for good measure.

Tomorrow I'll be taking a train up to New York City. (Though it looks like riding NJ Transit is a bit risky these days.) A few days of vacation come first. Figure I'll catch a few shows, eat some good food (I might just have to stop by Katz's Deli at some point), and find some other ways to amuse myself. (Would you belive that with all the time I've spent in NYC over the years, I've never visited the Marshall Chess Club? Might have to fix that.) Of course, I'll need to find a place to watch the Ronda Rousey fight on Saturday night. Anyone know a good sports bar in Midtown?

Then it's back to business. First up is the MOVES Conference on recreational math. I'll be giving a talk about logic puzzles. Should be fun! Later in the week I'll take Amtrak down to Washington DC for Mathfest. I'll be giving another talk about logic puzzles. It's a different talk, I promise! I'm also doing a thing on the Monty Hall problem at their &kdquo;Mathematical Carnival.” I don't really know what that is either. I know it involved making a poster, which was interesting, since the last time I made a poster for anything was the middle school science fair. Turns out poster-making technology has improved since then.

So it's going to be a busy ten days. In fact, it's been a grueling couple of weeks. Writing two talks from scratch is no small task, and my poster-making efforts were slowed down by the fact that I didn't know what I was doing. Then the galley proofs for the book I've been editing forever came in, and they required immediate, well, editing. And indexing. Tedious, but rewarding when it's all done.

Folks who think that academics only work during the school year are wrong. Right now I can't wait for the school year to begin. I need a vacation from my vacation!