The wake of the conference

When the trip to a conference involves missing your flight and then your hotel, you'll always have a little trepidation about the return. Thankfully, my flight back to Colorado was much less eventful. Sure, I forgot my headphones in the hotel lobby, and got epically drenched by a sunshower that followed me shadow-close for ten miuntes. The phone charge situation was also an exercise in realizing how phone-dependent city life can be1. But other than a numinous and frankly yearn-worthy encounter with a trans gal on my plane (who liked my "WE WILL NOT GO GENTLE" trans flag sticker), my ground transit and flight were uneventful. The conference itself was fantastic. I won't give the full tournament report, but suffice it to say that I enjoyed most of the panels I attended. It was nice being around academics in person, getting to overhear things and strike up conversations. Also, I loved the number of languages just casually present (even though they were mostly the languages I didn't…