Life Can Be Interesting

So weeding out the email accumulated while on vacation sans computer, I find a request for a phone conversation from a friend down south. No details, just a request for a phone call to discuss something. Piqued my curiosity.

So I send out a quick email explaining my absence during the past week and thus my failure to respond sooner, and include a promise to call the next day. (As you may have deduced, I'm keeping late hours)

Return email today informs me friend is now out of town, but will call me so the call's on his dime, not mine. OK. Still no word on what this might be about. I wait. No call during the day as indicated. Still curious.

Got the phone call tonight. A professional organization to which we both belong is having a conference in south Texas in August and it is "important" that I attend, he says. Well, says I, why might it be important? I hadn't planned to go, given the location and time of year, and the fact I'd have no institutional support to do so. Friend is aware of this, but really hopes I can attend anyway. It's important that I be there on one particular day. Could I maybe at least make it for that?

Why, I ask again? Friend doesn't want to tell me much, but says he will give me a little bit of information, if that's what it will take to convince I need to go.

Now I've been pretty active in this organization for much of my professional career, and even served as an officer for seven years. But I'd purposely stepped away from it this past year due to certain circumstances (of which Friend is fully aware). I'd made no committments to the group, had done my part by evaluating research papers submitted for possible presentation at the conference, and purposely kept a low profile this past year because I knew I would not have time to devote to the group.

Besides, I just returned from my vacation this year and didn't really want to take away more time to attend the conference in southern Texas in August.

Friend tells me I'm being "honored" at the conference. Honored? Why? He'd rather not say. He wasn't supposed to even tell me that much, just get me there. OK. Now I'm REALLY curious. But I also know Friend has been placed in an awkward position. (And I must confess, I've always wanted someone to throw me a surprise party. Finally had to throw myself one, but that's another story.)

OK, says I, I'll see if I can go. I make no promises, but I'll do my best. I did finally promise to give him a definite answer before August.

My wife (my biggest fan) says we should find a way to go. I've jokingly referred to her as "She who must be obeyed" (a line stolen from Rumpole of the Bailey). So we will likely be heading south in August so that I might be "honored" by the organization.

And I will confess. Given the recent doings career-wise, I'm feeling pretty good about the whole thing. Perhaps I'm not as, um, "bad" as certain individuals have portrayed me.