Home sweet home.
Nov. 20th, 2005 10:47 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
starzkiI'm back from my conference. I sure did learn a lot.
What I learned:
1a) I should not be trusted to make all the practical (hotel and flight) preparations on my own. Luckily, I caught my fuck-up before it was too late, but it was a tense two hours on the phone setting things right and praying the woman who had trusted me to make her hotel reservations wouldn't hate me forever.
1b) (Related to above) Crying on the phone is effective. Salespeople become really nice to you to try to get you to stop crying and the people I talked to really bent over backwards to help me fix my idiotic fuck-up that was entirely my fault and was the result of just sheer stupidity on my part.
2) My black, kick-ass, knee-high boots should not be the only footwear I bring. Although they are comfortable, look good with everything (pants, short skirts, jeans, or long skirts), have a perfect sized heel (not to high or too low), and fit perfectly, they are not meant to be worn 18 hours a day. Next time I need to bring some walking-around sneakers. By the end of the conference, I'd sit down to listen to the speaker and just totally take off the right boot (no zipper, so it requires excessive pulling and grunting) because it was driving me crazy.
3a) One grad student + another grad student = one functioning brain. Seriously, between me and the woman who was my roommate, we had one working brain. And I can really only take credit for about 20% of it. There were times when we would have either starved to death, gotten irrevocably lost, or would have been stranded if the other one of us hadn't been there. My talent is in having the courage to ask complete strangers stupid questions. Hers was in being prepared with information, maps, and diagrams.
3b) (related to above) It appears that all grad students and academics (at least in my field) are this way. After my Extremely Huge Fuck-Up, I thought I'd get to the conference and have to make excuses about absent-minded I am. It turns out that I'm actually slightly better prepared and on top of things than most of the people I saw.
4) I discovered last year that two cups of coffee will turn a 20-minute presentation into a 10-minute presentation. This year, I found that one cup of coffee will turn a 20-minute presentation into a 15-minute presentation. That was actually helpful because it turned out that my co-presenters were blow-hards with bad data. I came out looking like a rose: great data, concise presentation, and we didn't go over our time limit. You're welcome, audience.
5a) Grad students + Open bar = High comedy & High tragedy. It also resulted in me having to escort my friend (the person I'm closest to in the department) back to her hotel room as she became increasingly obnoxiously drunk. She went from loud and opinionated (which she always is) to loud, opinionated, and of the opinion that it was time to tell everyone what she really thought of them. That would probably lead to uncomfortable conversations in the morning, so I took her home.
5b) (Related to above) Escorting the obnoxious one home resulted in the rest of the group not telling me where they were going the rest of the night for fear I would invite my friend. Oh well.
6) Bad presentations with bad data make me want to stab the person sitting next to me with a pen. Bad presentations with good data are insufferable. Good presentations with bad data are entertaining but silly. Good presentations with good data are totally worth the price of admission.
7) I like hats with stars on them.
8) I genuinely like all of my cohorts in my department. Yes, I will avoid certain topics with some of them, but in general, I can expect a fun, engaging conversation from each of them.
9) I should not expect to find a boy at a conference. I normally don't, but there was an extremely attractive young man next to a poster at the poster presentation, so I decided to introduce myself. His study was somewhat related to my own (!) and I could ask him relevant questions. Really, all I wanted was for him to keep looking at me with those green eyes. Finally, I steered the conversation a little more personal and it turns out he's an undergrad. A junior in undergrad. Me: "I gotta go..." Dammit!
10) Two classmates fighting like high schoolers is both really sad and really entertaining.
11) Taking public transportation that is renowned for being safe and clean is about as exciting as crossing my living room. At least in my city, there is a sense of pride and accomplishment that I got from moving from Point A to Point B alive, unmugged, and unharmed. There, I'd get to where I was going and, "Meh."
12) Three beers over the course of five hours can and will result in a debilitating hangover. I thought I was being all responsible, but I guess I didn't hydrate well enough. I woke up Saturday morning nauseous and confused ("But I only had three!..."). And the goddamed hangover was a persistent little fucker. I wasn't well until this morning.
Now I am home. The puppy is at the grandma's so I don't have to worry about getting him there again over Thanksgiving. However, I walk into a room and expect him to be on the sofa or on his pillow and he's not and that makes me suicidally lonely. :( I miss my puppy.
What I learned:
1a) I should not be trusted to make all the practical (hotel and flight) preparations on my own. Luckily, I caught my fuck-up before it was too late, but it was a tense two hours on the phone setting things right and praying the woman who had trusted me to make her hotel reservations wouldn't hate me forever.
1b) (Related to above) Crying on the phone is effective. Salespeople become really nice to you to try to get you to stop crying and the people I talked to really bent over backwards to help me fix my idiotic fuck-up that was entirely my fault and was the result of just sheer stupidity on my part.
2) My black, kick-ass, knee-high boots should not be the only footwear I bring. Although they are comfortable, look good with everything (pants, short skirts, jeans, or long skirts), have a perfect sized heel (not to high or too low), and fit perfectly, they are not meant to be worn 18 hours a day. Next time I need to bring some walking-around sneakers. By the end of the conference, I'd sit down to listen to the speaker and just totally take off the right boot (no zipper, so it requires excessive pulling and grunting) because it was driving me crazy.
3a) One grad student + another grad student = one functioning brain. Seriously, between me and the woman who was my roommate, we had one working brain. And I can really only take credit for about 20% of it. There were times when we would have either starved to death, gotten irrevocably lost, or would have been stranded if the other one of us hadn't been there. My talent is in having the courage to ask complete strangers stupid questions. Hers was in being prepared with information, maps, and diagrams.
3b) (related to above) It appears that all grad students and academics (at least in my field) are this way. After my Extremely Huge Fuck-Up, I thought I'd get to the conference and have to make excuses about absent-minded I am. It turns out that I'm actually slightly better prepared and on top of things than most of the people I saw.
4) I discovered last year that two cups of coffee will turn a 20-minute presentation into a 10-minute presentation. This year, I found that one cup of coffee will turn a 20-minute presentation into a 15-minute presentation. That was actually helpful because it turned out that my co-presenters were blow-hards with bad data. I came out looking like a rose: great data, concise presentation, and we didn't go over our time limit. You're welcome, audience.
5a) Grad students + Open bar = High comedy & High tragedy. It also resulted in me having to escort my friend (the person I'm closest to in the department) back to her hotel room as she became increasingly obnoxiously drunk. She went from loud and opinionated (which she always is) to loud, opinionated, and of the opinion that it was time to tell everyone what she really thought of them. That would probably lead to uncomfortable conversations in the morning, so I took her home.
5b) (Related to above) Escorting the obnoxious one home resulted in the rest of the group not telling me where they were going the rest of the night for fear I would invite my friend. Oh well.
6) Bad presentations with bad data make me want to stab the person sitting next to me with a pen. Bad presentations with good data are insufferable. Good presentations with bad data are entertaining but silly. Good presentations with good data are totally worth the price of admission.
7) I like hats with stars on them.
8) I genuinely like all of my cohorts in my department. Yes, I will avoid certain topics with some of them, but in general, I can expect a fun, engaging conversation from each of them.
9) I should not expect to find a boy at a conference. I normally don't, but there was an extremely attractive young man next to a poster at the poster presentation, so I decided to introduce myself. His study was somewhat related to my own (!) and I could ask him relevant questions. Really, all I wanted was for him to keep looking at me with those green eyes. Finally, I steered the conversation a little more personal and it turns out he's an undergrad. A junior in undergrad. Me: "I gotta go..." Dammit!
10) Two classmates fighting like high schoolers is both really sad and really entertaining.
11) Taking public transportation that is renowned for being safe and clean is about as exciting as crossing my living room. At least in my city, there is a sense of pride and accomplishment that I got from moving from Point A to Point B alive, unmugged, and unharmed. There, I'd get to where I was going and, "Meh."
12) Three beers over the course of five hours can and will result in a debilitating hangover. I thought I was being all responsible, but I guess I didn't hydrate well enough. I woke up Saturday morning nauseous and confused ("But I only had three!..."). And the goddamed hangover was a persistent little fucker. I wasn't well until this morning.
Now I am home. The puppy is at the grandma's so I don't have to worry about getting him there again over Thanksgiving. However, I walk into a room and expect him to be on the sofa or on his pillow and he's not and that makes me suicidally lonely. :( I miss my puppy.
