Mt. Audubon (image credit), Colorado U.S.A.

I love it when history conferences come to the neighborhood, especially when they’re ones that I’m interested in attending.  I’ve traveled to other western cities to attend the WAWH before, so of course I’ll be at the Western Association of Women Historians in Denver next May 12-14!  The most important date for you to keep in mind is September 18, 2015, which is the deadline for the call for papers. 

From the CFP:

The Western Association of Women Historians (WAWH) invites proposals for panels, single papers, roundtables, posters, and workshops in ALL fields, regions, and periods of history. The program committee especially invites proposals with gender, generational, geographic, racial, and institutional diversity in regard to panel content and/or panel composition. This year we are particularly interested in panels that offer historical perspectives on hot-button issues such as economic inequality, conflicts over race and immigration, and environmental degradation. We also welcome panels on public history, academic publishing, and alternative career paths for historians, as well as panels on issues relevant to women and adjuncts in academia today. Finally, we would especially like to encourage Canadian and Mexican historians to apply, as we hope in coming years to become more representative of Western North America as a whole.

You’ve got another ten days or so, friends, so get cracking!  I need to get in touch with Theresa Kaminski and see if she’s interested in pulling together that panel on writing for a non-specialist audience.

Man, oh man, coming down from sabbatical is a b!tch.  Or maybe I should say “coming back up from a sabbatical at sea level is a b!tch” instead!  I went for a hike yesterday, and I couldn’t believe that for the first time in my life, I felt the high altitude.  (We were hiking Mt. Audubon, which begins around 10,500 feet and tops out over 13,000 feet, so that’s altitude sickness territory for sure.)

This was almost the first time ever in fourteen years in Colorado that I was affected by the altitude–well, the first time that I wasn’t 1) pregnant and 2) coasting on a breakfast of black coffee and chocolate-covered mini-donuts, so I of course assumed in that case that the altitude was the least of my problems.  We didn’t make it to the top yesterday–mostly owing to gale-force winds on the exposed mountain and the fact that one member of our expedition suffered terribly from a heel blister, but I was perfectly happy to turn back when we did, considering that I felt simultaneously nauseous, hungry, and a little drunk.

It’s kind of like being seasick, only with oxygen deprivation, so that’s fun.  There’s a lot less puking though, in my experience, so I’ll take altitude over seasickness any day of the week, because in my experience the cure for altitude sickness is so much more in your control than if you’re a prisoner passenger on someone else’s boat:  just walk, run, or drive downhill!  (Another pro tip from Historiann!  Here’s another:  a big, hot breakfast is your best protection against altitude sickness.)

As we say around the ranch:  you’re welcome.