Fancy me.

It always surprises me how much prep work there is to do before a research trip. Maybe the next trip I take I won't be as surprised because I will have learned my lesson: do everything a week in advance of departure so you're not running around (electronically running around) when you should be chilling before a trans-Atlantic flight!

Anyways, things will be fine, and I'm mostly organized. I now have appointments at the British Red Cross archives and the Imperial War Museum (Department of Documents), and am also set to visit the British Library (and the BL Newspaper Library) and the National Archives. Phew! I've also found some more interesting material on the National Archives website, so I'm definitely looking forward to getting a look at this stuff.

This afternoon I went and got my hair cut. This was a necessary thing since my hair has just not been working for me since late January. (How I know it hasn't been working for me is that I have been wearing it up more often than I should be.) The bad news is that my hairdresser is moving to London in March, but the good news is that I have good hair again. And today she straightened it instead of curling it as usual. The reason? It's winter, and I wear a toque outside, so any fancy styling would just get smooshed. (That's not a word, Blogger tells me, but you know what I mean.) It turns out I like the straight look. It's pretty nifty. And to prove to myself later on that I like it, I took a pic of myself before I headed off to sit at High Table at Massey:
Cool, eh?

Anyways, so, yeah: High Table. Tonight was my turn---as a new Junior Fellow---to sit up there amongst the fancy people and be introduced to the community. It was fun, but mostly because the food was fine and the conversation fairly interesting. (Good dinner companions are obviously key.) After dinner I got to talk with a few of the Masseyites I hadn't seen in a long time. It was nice to see them again, and I feel good about the place again. Maybe I will apply to be a fellow next year. Hmm. It's an odd place, but it has its charms.

I'm going to head to bed soon because I've got an early day tomorrow. I'm helping out at the conference and have to be there by 9am! Should be fun, and maybe I'll get to show off my straight hair . . . .