Kind of a Little Exciting

“I have a public appearance tomorrow,” I told the office manager.

“Oh, exciting!”

“Which these days means I’ll be sitting alone in my office until late.”

“Oh. Still kind of a little exciting?” she ventured.

This summarizes it perfectly. These public appearances are like Zoom meetings where nobody, at least, annoys me by expecting me to listen to them.

Tomorrow’s public appearance is really funny. A bunch of people at an organization invited me to speak. Another bunch of people within the same organization didn’t like the idea and didn’t show up. But then the faction that invited me was so impressed by the talk that the shirkers felt bad for missing out. Finally, the shirkers couldn’t take it anymore and asked me to give them the same talk.

I’m not proud. I’ll talk about mass migration several times in a row if people are paying. It’s like a circus act for many people: a college professor who isn’t pissing herself in delight over dragging in more scared, obedient servants. Have mass migration talk, will travel virtually for pay.