"The man of action in the scholar's chair / Like Gunnar gentle and like Ari wise."

I'm really exhausted today though I didn't even teach.

I went to the VATE (Victorian Association for the Teaching of English) jubilee conference.  First time I've had to wear a fancy name tag with the word "delegate" on it.  I'm going tomorrow as well, because it's held over two days.  Thousands of English teachers were there, and there were about 100 different 'masterclasses' and workshops that you could choose from, as well as some very prominent guest speakers, including Felicity Cox, who I have a minor braincrush on. 

An old guy also gave a very moving keynote speech on Ian Ramsay Maxwell, his grandfather. He was one of the only two academics who spoke up against banning the 1950 proposal to ban the Communist Party in Australia.  Apparently he always said, "If you're under twenty five, and you don't believe in Communism, then you don't have a heart.  If you're over twenty five, and you do believe in Communism, then you don't have a head."  He was also an Old Norse enthusiast who corresponded with Tolkien, and, during one misadventure in Iceland, had to resort to using Old Norse to communicate with some Icelanders and ask them for lodging for the night.  Apparently it took some time for him to convince them that he was not a ghost.  I wished very strongly that I had gone to university when this guy had been a professor and was holding informal reading groups on Old Norse sagas.

I was happily enjoying my day of being a student again instead of a teacher when I realised that I still had Middle School Presentation Night to attend. So I spent my evening driving to Ringwood, meeting and greeting, sitting through two hours of awards, and driving home again.  The music items were actually pretty amazing.  But then they had to go and ruin it all by singing "Seasons of Love" really badly at the end, which made me all emo.

Now I really need to sleep, but I'm too tired to actually get up and pack for tomorrow and move all the mess on my bed, so I'm procrastinating.

To those of you who I still need to email back for something, I apologise for my tardiness, and I'll reply soon as I get a breather.  Promise.