**Rack Up Those Frequent Flier Miles**

I just found out I get to return to Australia in November to deliver a paper to the University of Melbourne Law School. It would be one of those papers that would make my sister crazy as it will address normative issues of constitutional law, e.g. what should be as opposed to what is. But that is the liberty I get to embraced living in the ivory tower and not in the courtroom.

So, now I have to figure out what to do with a potentially free week after the conference. There are no classes the week of Thanksgiving, so I could continue traveling anywhere I wish before returning to the US of A. But without a traveling companion, it would not be fun. Need a traveling companion......

**Our summer guest**

As sometimes is the case, when one moves to a new place, others who are curious about the new digs pop in for a visit. This one, however, was not expected:

**Browsing the jobs**

It doesn't matter when I have started a position or how much I like it. I still watch the job ads. Maybe this explains why I ended up in Oregon and now NY. Both position were ads I happened upon while perusing the academic classifieds during lunch. I see today that Temple University and Southern Illinois U. have openings that would be career steps up for me. Temple is an awesome program and big, but living in the city would be hard on me. SIU is a very impressive program, but in Illinois, which is well, like when I was in Michigan. Flat.
Actually some of my old Michigan colleagues are pressing me to apply for the School's Director position - opening next year because my dear friend is retiring. Those were the best colleagues ever and the town was great for raising kids. But I don't think Michigan is my home. I also got wind that my advisor might be retiring in a year or two. Now there is a location to which I would not mind returning.... I am like a douglas fir. No depth to the roots.

**Chicago**

I am staring out the 23rd story window of my hotel room looking south down St. Clair Ave. The skyline at night is beautiful. One block over is Michigan Ave. aka the Magnificent Mile. In two minutes I could be at Neiman Marcus, Tiffanys, the Nike superstore, and the Apple store.

In a couple hours, I will start winding my way to the EL and O'Hare. Most of today, I am on a plane. I get a 6 hour layoever at home and then off to Utah. Chicago is an amazing city. I good friend of mine just landed a deans position here in the city. Very cool, but I am a country girl. I am ready to sit around waiting for Lone Star Geyser to erupt. I love how the thermal features at Yellowstone force to you to adhere to a different sense of time.