Albuquerque...and Valentine's Day

I spent a few days in Albuquerque, NM this past week for a conference. Overall, it was a nice trip. The conference was both educational and enjoyable, so that was an overall good experience. I gave a presentation, and that that went well too. (The presentation was over a paper that I had written a few years ago, but hadn't done anything with yet. It was nice to be able to share it and to get feedback on my work.) In addition to the academic work, I did have part of a day to do touristy stuff; I went to the American International Rattlesnake Museum, the San Felipe de Neri Church, and just wandered around the University of New Mexico campus for a while.

While the trip was generally enjoyable, there were two not-so-plesant things: Valentine's Day and the flights home. Valentine's Day wasn't necessarily bad, it was just a bit odd to spend it by myself. Since this was my first "married" Valentine's Day, spending it alone was strange. In contrast to the not-so-wonderful Valentine's Day, the flights home were absolutely dreadful. When I arrived at the airport on Saturday, I learned that all flights going from Albuquerque to Dallas for that day had been cancelled due to bad weather in Dallas and that the earliest flight that I could possibly get out on was a 7am flight the following morning. Needless to say, I wasn't happy. After several hours of being frustrated and checking with other airlines, I managed to get my flights switched: I would now be flying through Denver (which I had intentionally avoided when I booked my flights because of the general likihood of bad weather in Denver this time of year) and would be arriving home about 6 hours later than originally planned (but hey, at least I'm arriving on the same day). While the whole experience was frustrating, things didn't get much better when I got on the planes. Both flights were extremely bumpy, and I ended up feeling sick for much of the trip. Not plesant at all. But anyway, I did manage to get home safely and I felt much better when I ended the day curled up in my own bed after a nice bubble bath.