last week's conference; a retrospective.

some outcomes are inevitable. the conference is over, and subsequently,

1. my coffee intake has doubled (or so),
   
2. i've ceased exercising altogether,
   
3. i'm used to waking up early, having had done so willingly and over the course of one week.

then again, this was no ordinary conference. it was in memory of the advisor -- my late advisor -- so i suppose i should say anything that could possibly trivialise it.

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it was well-attended;
i met new people and saw old friends and colleagues.

it was announced very early by the conference organizers who are the advisor's students, past and present. all of us were in attendance.

whether i would have or not, this made it very difficult for me to disappear into the shadows of east hall. admittedly, i tried. i only succeeded -- albeit partially -- during one afternoon, when there were no talks and the conference participants made their own way into ann arbor.

as a result, there was very little time (or rather, space in my preoccupied mind) to sort out thesis corrections and edits.

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there were many occasions where people greeted me by name, and i had never met them. admittedly again, this really unnerved me.

i suppose that it taught me character and good graces. everyone asked me my status as a student and subsequently if i had a job in the fall. though i remain excited about that future, saying so -- repeatedly -- is less exciting.

i imagined making a t-shirt, where the front would read "yes, i defended 2 weeks ago" and where the back would read "i will be a postdoc at ______."

i know thatit's not fair to mistreat people if they simply don't know what i know. i guess i just bore easily.

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i abandoned all intentions of discussing mathematics with anyone except

• those whom i promised, months ago, a few mathematical conversations;
  
• friends who were inconvenienced by my wrongful decisions;
  
• mathematicians whose work i've cited in my thesis.

it's unwise to be snobbish at my age, i know;
then again, if you had the thesis corrections i did,
the lack of time that i have,
trust me: you would do the same.