As it happens, I was, as usual, being overly dramatic. Yes, I screwed up big, but the problem appears to be fixed, although I await formal confirmation.

Here is what happened.

A few weeks ago I was notified that a paper abstract I had submitted to an important national conference (important in the sense of my career, not in the sense of curing cancer or ending the war in Iraq or even in making my laundry cleaner). I was pleasantly surprised, because I had put virtually no time and energy into the submission and wasn�t really expecting anything to come of it. Normally when a paper is accepted, you get a preliminary announcement of the acceptance and then a second notice with your schedule slot, at which time you need to confirm that you will in fact be attending the conference and presenting. Then a month or so before the conference, you need to make sure you�re registered and you�re good to go. If you don�t accept a presentation slot, there is often a penalty where you are not allowed to submit anything the following year.

On this occasion, however, there was no second notice. Buried in a sea of prose in the acceptance letter was a notice that the schedule would be posted online sometime in late July and that you should register for the conference by August 1 to confirm. I completely missed this statement and missed the deadline. So when I logged on to register today and check on the site of the conference, I discovered that my name had been removed from the conference schedule. I was stunned and horrified. [It�s not that it�s so bad not to give a paper, but this is a year when, since I�m on the job market, I could really use more exposure. Moreover, if I opted out of the conference, I would be forbidden from submitting the following year as well.] Then I figured out why it happened. Then I figured out it was my fault. I sent out a couple of pleading e-mails and then I called a friend who is also giving a paper at this same conference for advice on what I should do to fix things and whether, in fact, she thought it was fixable. It turned out that she hadn�t realized about the August 1 deadline either and had missed it too. We both called the conference office and they seemed to think that there would be no problem. I asked for a call confirming this, so hopefully all is well. But jeez. I�m getting very careless of late. I don�t like it. I�m better than this. I need to be more professional about this or it�s not going to get anywhere.

* * * * *

But all is well (I think) that end�s well. And now I can move on to happier things. Like taking AJ to the zoo tomorrow. And maybe the circus on Thursday. And the Botanical Garden on Friday. I don�t deserve all this rest and relaxation, but AJ does and that�s enough of a reason for now.

[previous entry today that may make this one make more sense. Then again, it may just make you want to beat your head against a wall.]

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