---
title: Guilt-Free
date: '2005-12-28T01:24:01-05:00'
permalink: /guilt-free/
tags:
    - academia
    - conferences
---

There is something quite lovely about reading everybody’s [early](http://chutry.wordherders.net/archives/005285.html) [MLA](http://acephalous.typepad.com/acephalous/mla_2005/index.html) [posts](http://wrt-brooke.syr.edu/cgbvb/archives/2005/12/mla_hooray.html) and knowing that, not only am I totally *not* going there this year (for only the second time since 1996), I’m not even on the same continent. Why is it that avoiding what ought by all rights to be an intellectually stimulating gathering of colleagues produces such… relief?