Greetings from Croatia!

This year has been good for conferences – first CAMWS in Grand Rapids and now the XIIth International Colloquium on Roman Provincial Art in Pula, Croatia.  In retrospect, it’s amazing that I presented a paper in Pula.  I didn’t know about the colloquium until the day before the deadline and begged for another 24 hours to submit an abstract.  By the time I found out it had been accepted (through the program posted on the internet) I had missed the registration deadline.  I never received any information about the conference except for hotel information.  Somehow I made my way from Baton Rouge to Atlanta to New York to Venice, and then to Trieste by train and by bus to Pula, arriving 28 hours after I’d started my journey.  When I showed up with my 26 minute paper, I found out it as supposed to be 20 minutes – but this was an hour before I presented and it was too late to change anything.  It wasn’t until the last day of the conference that I discovered that the email address they had for me was wrong!  But my paper was well-received, and should be published in the Proceedings – a real publication for me!

Headquarters, Italian Community in Pula

In most other respects, the conference was extraordinarily well-organized.  It was held at the Headquarters of the Italian Community in Pula in a state of the art meeting room with simultaneous translation of papers into Croatian, German, English, French and Italian through headsets.  Coffee breaks were held on the expansive terrace and lunch was held in the lapidarium of the Archaeological Museum of Istria, where we stood on Roman mosaics and used tombstones as tables!

New friends at the Archaeological Museum of Istria

Several excursions were arranged, including cocktails at the archaeological site of Nesactium, lit by titi torches, with entertainment provided by a Roman music enthusiast:

We traveled to Brijuni National Park by boat, and visited local museums at Buzet  and Labin.  After the conference, there was an optional excursion to Nin, Zadar , and Split to see Diocletian’s Palace.  An anonymous benefactor made this excursion possible (Thanks, Dad!).  

Pula amphitheater at sunset

ABCDE

Bonnie Branson Illustration

May is Skin Cancer Awareness Month.  How do I know and why should you care?  Because I am a survivor of dermatofibrosarcoma protuberans (DFSP), the “most benign of all the skin cancers,” according to my dermatologist as he gave me the news. 

ABCDE refers to the warning signs of skin cancer, particularly melanoma:

(Read more about skin cancer here)

Unfortunately I had none of these warning signs.  I had a thickening of a patch of skin on my left hip.  It felt like scar tissue although I’d never had an injury there.  My dermatologist thought it was nothing to be concerned about.  “Watch it.  If it grows, we’ll biopsy it.” 

A year later, this mysterious patch had doubled in size, so it was now about an inch in diameter, but still skin colored.  The biopsy came back positive for DFSP, a relatively rare form of skin cancer which my nearly-retired dermatologist had only seen a 12 times in his career.  The only cure involves cutting out the cancer, but taking a wide enough margin that all the “runners” are also excised.  I ended up with a surgical wound 13 x 15 x 7 cm (5 x 7 x 3 in).  That’s length, width, and depth – I often joke that the doctor exacted his pound of flesh.

Remarkably, this was done as outpatient surgery and I was bedridden for three weeks (with surgery after 12 days to close the incision properly). I’ll spare you the gory details of vacuum pacs and skin grafts and dressing changes.  The original surgery was January 4, 2002, and I wasn’t out of bandages until mid March of that year.  My lasting legacy is medically termed a “contour deformity” but I lovingly refer to it as my “alligator bite.” It makes for a much more interesting story. 

And the moral of this story is, if you ever have anything on your skin that you know doesn’t belong there, get it checked out as soon as possible.  Prevention and early detection are the key to avoiding a potentially disfiguring and even deadly disease.  I was lucky - and don't think I don't count my blessings every day!

In training!

Remember the 600-yard dash, AKA the 600-yard run-walk?  It was part of the Presidential Fitness Test (now the President's Challenge) that my generation had to participate in every school year, along with assorted other tasks like sit-ups and pull-ups.

Well, today my 11 year old self would be so proud!  I just jogged around the lake, 1.6 miles total, pausing momentarily to pick a sprig of elderflowers.  That's 2816 yards.  Take that, Mr. Chambers!

Dirndl by Schneiderei Kathrin, Irdning

Why a sprig of elderflowers?  On 600 yard run day, my mom would always spritz my wrist with perfume.  She said, "When you think you can't go any farther, just sniff your wrist for inspiration."  My mother had top-quality perfumes (Joy, Lalique) and sharing them was a gift from her heart.  The sweet-smelling elderflower I picked today was my inspiration, reminding me of Europe where elderflower grows rampant and is used to make syrup for refreshing drinks.

And that's why I'm in training:  It's been a long, sedentary winter, and soon I'll be back in Austria.  I have to be in shape to climb every mountain (cue Julie Andrews) and fit into my custom-made dirndl!

From the tax desk

Seven months ago, I knew absolutely nothing about income tax.  The annual trip to the tax office was like a game of roulette:  would I owe?  would I get a refund? how much was this tax preparation going to cost me?

But in order to be gainfully employed after January 21, I took the H&R Block income tax course, a grueling 9-week program, 9 hours a week for a total of 84 hours, followed by 33 hours of skills training and tax updates.  Three months and 115 (!) tax returns later, I’ve learned a lot about taxes, our government, and human nature.

I frequently have to explain to clients why they are not getting a huge refund, or worse, why they have a balance due.  Most of it depends on how you fill out your W-4 forms when you start a new job.  Unless you are married with children, you should always claim “Single”and “0” (on your state forms too!).  We all like a little extra money in our pocket come payday, but here’s the thing: the government wants its cut when you get paid and how you fill out those confusing W-4s pretty much determines whether you’re going to owe or get a refund at the end of the tax year.  Taking out too much (withholding at a higher, single rate) practically ensures a refund.  Withholding more than you owe also may cover other tax liability from other income (investments, self-employment, early retirement distributions).  If you’re working two jobs, you should have extra money withheld from each paycheck.  By withholding too little, you’re going to owe.  If you end up owing more than $1000 in tax at the end of the year, you’ll probably end up with a penalty.

Yep, your government is sneaky that way.  And get this:  The deadline to file is April 18, because April 15 was Emancipation Day in Washington DC this year.  But if you file after April 18 and you owe, your government can charge you interest back to April 15.  As I said, sneaky!

Now about human nature… I didn’t find it surprising that people don’t understand their taxes or retirement any better than I did seven months ago.  What did surprise me is the number of people who know exactly how to defraud the government.  Not that it is in their best interest, financially or legally, but someone has told them “this is how you get over” and, by gosh, they are going to try it.  Probably the most heartbreaking case this tax season was a 21 year old kid who worked in fast food all year.  He came in trying to claim his little sister as a dependent.  As soon as I started asking questions, mom came around the corner and took over the tax interview.  Turns out they were trying to claim two head of household exemptions for one family, when the parents were married (!!) and paid all expenses for four children.  When the kid realized that his parents had made him file a fraudulent tax return last year, that he could be audited by the IRS and forced to pay back his ill-gotten gain, he started crying.  We filed his taxes legally and encouraged mom and dad to come back in and let us do their taxes the way they should be done (honestly, they probably would have come out ahead!).  But they had been told that this was the way to “stick it to the man” and we never saw them again. 

Personally, I wouldn’t want to mess with the IRS.  After all, Al Capone was never convicted of murder – the feds got him on tax evasion!

Day 34 of my Facebook fast

It's true! I gave up Facebook for Lent! It's been a lot easier than expected. And a lot more difficult because it's easy to find other procrastination sites on the web. Including webcomic xkcd

The author of the xkcd is insightful and brilliant. He's also human and gets sucked in to online distractions like the rest of us. Here's his solution to regaining lost productivity (Bonus: your house might even get tidied!) Make sure you read the comments, offering different ways of achieving the same goal.

52 hours in Grand Rapids

There's something very comforting about the annual meeting of the Classical Association of the Middle West and South (CAMWS).  After last semester where the message I kept receiving was "the study of Latin and Greek is useless, you've wasted your entire academic career," it was nice to learn that classics is not endangered everywhere.

I gave a paper on poetic language in Tacitus' Germania that was quite well received.  I was invited as a special guest at the vice presidents' dinner to plan strategies against administrations that ruthlessly attack classics.  And I made a lot of new contacts and reconnected with colleagues from every stage in my career: people from Iowa, the Vergilian Society, Missouri, and those lucky folks who managed to escape Louisiana years ago who went on to forge successful careers in classics.

As for Grand Rapids, the conference was held at the elegant Amway Grand Plaza.  I had a corner room on the 19th floor overlooking the river.  I had dinner at San Chez Bistro, a tapas bar where I ordered albondigas (meatballs of Moroccan lamb, beef and chorizo over roasted vegetables, served in a black skillet) and queso recubierto which functioned quite nicely as dessert:  breaded baked goat cheese with crispy fried beets and orange blossom honey.  I had lunch one day at Angel's Thai Cafe where I had chicken pad cashew reminiscent of Springfield cashew chicken with the addition of bamboo shoots and water chestnuts (my favorite!).  Too bad the hotel food was so abysmal - I, for one, do not consider a chunk of tofu marinated in balsamic vinegar and served warm over an uninspired mixture of vegetables gourmet fare.

The best thing about these conferences is that they always renew my interest in classics.  After years at an institution that neither valued nor fostered academic excellence, CAMWS in Grand Rapids (co-sponsored by Calvin College and Grand Valley State University) was truly inspirational!

Decorah Eagle Nestcam

One eaglet has already hatched (first seen at 8:48 am Saturday 2.4.2011). There are two eggs left. Watch as nature unfolds before your very eyes!


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Update: Eaglet #2 hatched Sunday - the two are now engaging in sibling rivalry, fighting over who gets the next morsel of rabbit/crow/fish/unidentified mammal. There were some tense moments Sunday afternoon when one eaglet ventured too close to the edge of the nest. The last egg should hatch in the next day or so. Stay tuned!!!

Update II:  Full house! er... nest!  Eaglet #3 hatched on April 6.  Now we get to watch them grow and fledge.  Fun for the whole family!