ASOR update

I took the train down to moss_raven's last night. I ended up going to bed pretty late, because I decided to stay up and record mp3s of trop for her. And since I got in late anyways. And since we were making smoothies. (That's not the order those events happened in, in case you couldn't tell...)

So "late"= 1:45 am. We were plpanning on going to the gym at 6:00am, and the first alarm went off at 5:15. But I was already up! "Why?" you might ask. Because Mia, moss_raven's adorable cat, decided it would be a fun idea to wake me up so I would pet her. And it worked. And we went to the gym and minyan and there was free breakfast, but when I got to the ASOR conference I had trouble staying awake for all fo the papers today.

There were a lot of Safi people, and a lot of Dor people as well. So it was really nice to see them all. And I got asked by a few people if I was doing a dissertation (and this Presbyterian minister asked if I was a teacher!). So I guess the whole "looking professional" thing worked. Except that I went to the DCJCC cafe for lunch, and on the way back it poured, so by the time I made it inside, I looked like a drenched cat. Or a drenched hobbit, as the case might be.

I hadn't seen Ben in the morning, and I left him a message, but then I ran into him in the afternoon between sessions. He was on his way off to meet people (like important people) but hopefully I'll either see him tomorrow, or we're going to have coffee/breakfast/something* on Sunday morning.

And I got to meet Katy Galor, who was really nice and gave me her e-mail and she's going to get me this paper that isn't out in print yet (and it'll be like 80$ when it gets published, so I'm really lucky.) And she said I can e-mail her if I have questions, or even fi I don't have questions.

And I briefly met Ronny Reich after hearing him talk tonight. Unfortunately he can't e-mail me a copy of his dissertation, because the publisher won't let him. Even though the original is out of print. There are 2 copies in existence- 1 in the Rockefeller Museum and the other at Hebrew U. There isn't even one at the University of Haifa, which is where he works. And this is all still the Hebrew one, he says he's still looking for a translator for the English edition. He must have written this 30 years ago!!!!!! And why can't he translate it himself? His English is fine. Worse comes to worse he could have an editor look over it. Gah. I want my Ronny Reich dissertation!!!

And he may or may not still be excavating in Jerusalem this summer. I would love to dig there. Though odds are I'll end up at Safi, hopefully in area F with Jeff. (Jeff is here!!!)

And I'm behind on thesisizing. I feel like I'm running out of time and that I should have more done. (Meanwhile, Ben introduces me to all these archaeological friends of his, and tells them about my research, and they're like "you must be pretty far along [in your research]" and I'm like "um...yeah...sure.")

And Ben has a paper on Sunday at 4pm. So I'm going to show support. I asked if he wanted me to ask him an easy question so he can look good answering it, be he said no. So maybe I'll ask him a really tough one if I can think of it. I'm not even sure what he's talking about. Probably something having to do with Dhiban/the Moabites.

And no MicahGS yet, for those of you who know him. I left him a message. Hopefully I'll get to see him.

*That dichotomy between coffee and breakfast might be false. For example, if you were to look at me 2 hours ago, you'd have seen me in the Barnes & Noble cafe, having dinner. And by "dinner" I mean a caramel frappuchino.

Assurfest!!!

So between me and boroparkpyro we've decided that the ASOR* conference is really the ASSUR** conference. I'm calling it assurfest. Not to be confused with busserfest*** or bakarfest****

I'm not sure anyone else at ASOR will get it, so I guess I won't tell them that they're really in a bastion of kefira.

*American Schools of Oriental Research
**Assur= yeshivish pronunciation of the Hebrew word אסור, which means "forbidden."
***Penn Shabbat meal where pretty much ever dish has meat in it, except for the challah because some rabbi ruled that challah can't have meat in it and still be used for the motzi.
****A meal where 90% of the dishes are beef, using as many parts of the cow as possible. This has only been done once, by Mark Dredze, my sophomore year. Oh, what a glorious meal it was..