I know, right? Like there's always a party, and everyone's having fun, but no one cares at all that it's your birthday.

I love this kid so hard. Look at that gaze! He's got Bowie down cold.

I'm not a Halloween baby (short by 9 days) but yes. Yes indeed. I haven't had an actual birthday in years.

I believe every word you said, and I think she's going to do a wonderful job. I just wish I had your optimism about how accepted she'll be.

And watch her be considered "less than" because they couldn't get the man to do the job.

I agree, that can be dangerous. It's not my particular style of acting though. Mine is usually more of the "I have a right to be here, and my work is valuable" kind of acting.

Ah, but you see, I'm unlikely ever to actually 'make it'. I've been doing this for 3 years, and every class still feels like my first conference talk. My game face is a vital part of my repertoire.

I'm using it mostly as a professional development tool. I have friends who know what a little wreck I am, I just try to make the rest of the world think I know what I'm doing. Tis a useful skill as a teacher.

I'm gonna stick with 'fake it til you make it'

I was at the gas station this morning, trying to fill up on my morning Coke. Another woman who also teaches at my school came up, and we both tried fruitlessly to get our caffeine fix. The lady behind the counter who came to turn on the machine said from the looks on our faces, you'd have thought we were going to…

My hat/scarf/whatever box is a banker's box on the top shelf in my coat closet. There's just no better way to organize it. We tend to each keep out one hat and keep it with our coat (mine lives in the sleeve), but everything else is in the box.

I was more weirded out when she did the Delta Airlines thing. What does that say about me?

I am a special brand of crazy, I admit it.

As a professor of physics, I'm in the same boat as the math teacher. I love my research, but it means going to conferences (the one I attend every year is the largest annual gathering of physicists in the world), collaborating with people, and knowing everyone you can possibly know. I love helping people understand…

Wow, I'm honored. :)

You're doing everything right in my book

Aww, that's sad. Well, you're at least better-informed on the science front than most, which means I'll never have to yell at you ;)

Yeah, I get that too. I will admit to cringing, just a little, at the words.

I like that idea, the "outward facing identity". I feel like that a lot, like I'm putting on this new identity before I go into the classroom, or to a faculty meeting, or something similarly people-intensive.

Sometimes, it's a necessity. And I say this as a true blue best-part-of-my-day-is-shutting-the-office-door introvert. If you want to succeed at all in certain fields, you just have to be visible. Academia is like that. I'm not fond of that aspect of it.