Okay, so airline pretzels, turbulence, and chemotherapy don’t mix as well as I’d like, but other than a little queasiness, the flight to Houston was fine. Was on-time for the first time all week too! (Being married to a frequent flier means I have all sorts of information at my fingertips. Of course, when I called him after landing, Charlie swore I was still in the air, according to the WWW site he was tracking me on. So he may not know everything.)
The first day of SIGCSE has gone quite well so far. Nice keynote, good sessions, a great chance to catch up with lots of people. I may know 200 to 300 people here.
But the surprising thing is that of all the people I’ve talked to so far, if they didn’t know I was sick, no one suspects anything is wrong with me.
I don’t think it’s that I want pity. But still, I was a bit surprised no one mentioned my hat and asked what happened to my hair. When I asked someone last night why he thought I was in a hat, he said it looked stylish. I think that may be what bothers me about the reaction (or lack thereof) I’ve received here. When you think of me, “stylish” and “fashionable” are not the first words I expect anyone to come up with.
Of course, the good news is that I must be doing pretty durn good. I mean, everyone sees me as plain old Laurie.
And that’s pretty durn nice.
Laurie White's Blog 
Fran Hunt said
Somehow, “plain” and “old” aren’t the first things I think of when I think of Laurie!
You’re looking great – it’s wonderful to see you.
esmail said
Laurie White, you rock!
(so nice to see you at SIGCSE)
Ann Shen said
Plain and old are definitely not words that describe Laurie White…and no one who saw you at SIGCSE would dare say that you are. 🙂