Travels

I’ve officially made it home after a very long week. Tues-Sat I was in Manhattan for a conference. I managed to successfully navigate NJ transit and the subway with 50+lbs of luggage and an awkwardly shaped poster tube. I have to say that navigating through the subway with commuter traffic Wednesday morning was… Interesting. I don’t think I pissed anyone off [too much] with my obnoxious load of bags, and I also don’t think I hit anyone with said bags which is an accomplishment. A guy actually helped me up some stairs by grabbing hold of my bag — most likely so he could get to his train quicker, but it was still a nice [and surprising] gesture to happen in the subway.

The conference was ridiculously boring. I think there were maybe 2 or 3 talks (out of 3 days, 7 hours a piece) that actually piqued my interest at all. I’d say there were at least a third of talks that I really didn’t even know what they were talking about. I met up with an old high school friend who was also at the conference, so at least I knew someone and she introduced me to some other students. My mentor expressed her annoyance that I would be gone until Thursday because I didn’t "tell" her. I’m pretty sure I did — you know, back when I booked the flight 2 months ago. She was mostly annoyed because we couldn’t have a lab meeting on Tuesday this week. You know what, lady? I fucking scheduled my flight so I’d be there for lab meeting on Fridays, when we usually have them. Sorry you decided to "go out of town" (as per text message sent this morning) for this weekend. She also sent me an email informing me we’ll be meeting together 2 hours every day until I get my manuscripts out. That’s fine. Maybe she’s figured out that she really sucks at giving directions and saying things like "this needs work" by no means is a clear direction.

The highlight of the conference (other than meeting some people that I constantly cite in my work) was getting to see my brother. I met him at the Empire State building for lunch. Since he is An Important Person with a special badge, he got me a temporary badge and whisked me up to the top of the building in minutes — as to what would’ve taken hours otherwise. Although I spent most of my childhood being able to see the NYC skyline from my window, I’ve never been to the Empire State building. Luckily, it was an absolutely beautiful day and we could see for miles. In true Robert fashion, he filled me in on the history of broadcasting from the Empire state (apparently FM radio was born there) and told me all about the different kinds of antennas on the building. After he took me up to another observation deck, he showed me around a bunch of defunct broadcasting studios that they’re in the midst of getting rid of. He showed me some really old equipment (that still worked!), which he gleefully pointed out that things still light up when you push buttons — even though no one really knows what they do. He also admitted to coming in there and just pushing the buttons to see the stuff light up when he was particularly stressed one day. He also showed me where they’d moved some of the broadcasting studios. It was pretty cool.

After the conference, I traveled back to Philly for my sister’s baby shower. My sister is an extremely adorable pregnant person. The baby shower was great, albeit with some memorable moments. My mom set up the whole shower in my sister’s backyard and it looked beautiful — and it seemed like the weather was going to cooperate. That is, until she started opening presents. Then it started thundering and 50+ women grabbed everything and ran into the house. It certainly made clean up easier, but it stressed my poor sister out — who promptly went up stairs to cry for a few minutes. Eventually everything worked out and it was a good time. She made out like a bandit… The amount of presents was astounding. That baby’ll be set for an entire year! (With the exception of diapers, of course) She’s due in 5 weeks, I can’t believe I’ll be an aunt so soon! That also means I need to figure out how and when I’ll be back to meet my niece/nephew!

Random pictures from the shower. My mom made little chocolate ducks as party favors. Oh yeah, and put everything else together (tables, chairs, linens, etc). Yeah, I’m kind of proud of her. The cake was just adorable and needed to be posted — my sister’s mother-in-law got it from a bakery up the street from my sister’s house.

So after that whirlwind, I’m home for a few days. It’s nice. I miss Greg and the animals way more than I anticipated and sort of wish I hadn’t made the trip so long. Oh well, it’ll be over before I know it and then it’ll be back to the oven that is the south.