Deeply nestled into multiple feet of snow, with more on the way, I’m longing for spring and so looking forward to presenting a paper at the Hypatia and APA Committee on the Status of Women conference being hosted by Villanova University in May. The joint conference is itself a great idea, Philadelphia is a wonderful city, and my last Hypatia conference (the 25th anniversary one in Seattle) was nothing short of stellar, so there is plenty to be happy about right there.

But wait, there is more! I’m adding some extra specialness by taking the train from Boston to Philly. I rode Amtrak from Iowa to Boston with my family as a kid, went back and forth between Portland and Seattle multiple times on Amtrak, made it from Denver to Iowa in a blizzard on a train, and have had some unforgettable trips on trains in Europe and Morocco. Despite the major unpleasantness of that seemingly endless trip out of Denver, I really enjoy the experience of being on a train. Of course, train travel also emits much less carbon than going by car or plane, so that is one more thing to paste a smile on my face (although it doesn’t make my toes any warmer)!