Scholastic Recognition (I wish)

It is the dream of every aspiring academic to go to a conference in their field and be recognized.

So, you can imagine my thrill when this actually happened to me! A little background: This weekend I went to the Rocky Mountain Communication Association conference in Greeley, CO to present a paper on Multicultural Picture Books. The conference was the morning after Brian's sister's rehearsal dinner, where there was much drinking and merriment, including the Oompa Loompa dance (danced by me and Shannon (Brian's 13 year old sister) to everything but the Oompa Loompa song). Anyway, needless to say, all the merriment transformed into a massive headache for my conference. But, I digress!

As I wandered around the conference, trying to figure out if I wanted to hear the presentation on "Rhetorical Criticism" or the one on "Gender use of expletives" - that one was hilarious by the way - certainly didn't expect to hear the work "Fuck" repeatedly at 8:30 in the morning. It sure livened it up! Ah! Digression again!

Okay, so I was wandering around when one woman looked at me with recognition, and said "Hey, I know you!" For a flashing moment, I thought "Wow! My research is so compelling; everyone is starting to know who I am - I will surely be offered a prestigious job in research soon!" As my eyes lit up, the woman said "Yeah! I can't believe it! You're Karaoke Girl!" As I laughed nervously, she yelled across the room, "Hey Sasha, I was right, it's Karaoke Girl!" As all of the academics looked over to see "Karaoke Girl," who would later be discussing white privilege issues in kids' books with them, I tried to look around too (pretending that I had no idea who Karaoke Girl was). Apparently, these two Communication Grad students had been frequenting Ogden St. South as had I and their group had decided I should be dubbed - "Karaoke Girl."

So, there you have it: my first recognition at a conference. We'll see which grows faster, word of my research or my "Karaoke Girl" title. Unfortunately, I think it will be the latter.