Guess what?!?!

So I went out for dinner and drinks with my friend Amanda tonight, and a lot of our conversation revolved around our grad program and what we think we might want to do after grad school, and chances of getting into doctoral programs eventually, and things like that.

Well, I think my chances just got the tiniest bit better, because...

My paper was accepted for a conference!! I just checked my e-mail and there was a note from the conference organizer saying it had been accepted. I'm so excited about this.

Now there's a lot of stuff to figure out. The conference is at a terrible time (the first week of Rocky, so I'll have to make sure it's okay to miss work at the box office as well as my night class) and I have to get a plane ticket and a hotel reservation and possibly rent a car and figure out how I'm going to pay for all this. My department chair had mentioned that if the paper did get accepted I should come talk to him and inferred that the department may be able to give me some travel money, which would be awesome.

So yeah. Looks like I really will be going to Ohio in a couple of months!

I'm freaking out. I've never been to an academic conference other than TETA, and that was mostly high school teachers so it was a bit different. And I sure as hell have never presented a paper to anyone other than my peers. But I'm also really happy. The letter was addressed, "Dear Professor D_____" and that made my heart leap a little bit. Maybe I'm not chasing some impossible dream.