Gypsy journalism at the October conferences.(THE LAST LAUGH)

Only two months are popular times of the year to hold academic conferences--unless they're in a tropical climate--October and March.

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

So of course my two favorite conferences now occur on Columbus Day weekend, the second Monday in October. Since I hadn't been at Marilyn Grady's conference for several years in favor of the NACWAA athletics administrators, I chose the 22nd annual Women in Higher Education Leadership conference at the University of Nebraska.

Sweetening the deal was that just a few days earlier, Iowa State University was sponsoring a conference on getting more women to enter and stay in the STEM fields on campus. We could go on a 1,000-mile road trip!

On the road again

Almost 17 years of attending conferences for WIHE has made packing a no-brainer: one pair of underwear and sox for each day and one semi-dressy outfit for the evening gala, plus a couple of comfortable working outfits. Those and my portable angel and VISA cards would get me through.

The red convertible was ready to roll with a much emptier trunk and much fuller gas tank than usual on a Thursday morning. It was only 52 degrees and cloudy, so I resisted the temptation to start out with the top down.