Unthinkable

This weekend my family went to State College. I was introducing Ken Bruffee at the NCPTW conference and Corey was hanging out with his business partners at Freeze Thaw Cycles. I want to introduce the trip by pointing out that I was frazzled and excited. This was the English nerd's equivalent of introducing Bob Barker, perhaps, or maybe Orson Welles.

Friday night before the conference was pretty chill. We stayed with friends and played Scrabble. Obviously I was secure in my lead, well ahead of the competition. By 14 points. Corey was in last place. Then, on the very last round, he emptied his tray and got a triple word score by placing a B and an I next to a G. BIG. Fifteen points, victory by one point. Over me. Corey beat me at Scrabble. This did not sit well.

Upstairs I started to lay out my outfit for the morning, coldly ignoring my smug husband. I realized I had forgotten to bring underpants. No underpants to introduce Ken Bruffee. In a skirt. I began to freak out, lament, tear my hair. Corey just climbed into bed and said, matter of factly, "The only thing you lack more than vocabulary is underwear."

And he went to sleep.

I washed my undies in the sink with Dial hand soap and laid awake in horror at my double misfortune. Fate was not smiling on me that day.