(For less backstory skip to THE WEEKEND below)
Around 2017, I was in a stretch of traveling a lot for work, I’d been talking at conferences & universities.
My most recent relationship had sort of fizzled out, in part because I was traveling so much. When I got invited to Chicago I was glad because my friend and her husband had just moved there and it’d be nice to see some friends. I decided I’d forgo the hotel room & stay in their new guest room. (I’d come to kick myself for that decision.)
This trip was to talk to about 100 graduate students. I arrived in the morning and a student, Emma met me and gave me a quick tour. She also mentioned that there’d been a scheduling conflict and only people in her cohort would be joining, not the entire program. That meant I’d be talking to ~20 instead of ~100. I didn’t mind, it was honestly a bit of a relief, I could be much more casual & interact more with the group.