Drunken science

Autumn plods on! It’s been getting chilly and rainy lately, but I’m still going out jogging, watching what I eat, and trying to be healthy and productive. As simple as it sounds, it’s harder than it seems.

Last weekend, I had a major day of overindulgence, haha. It’s not that I don’t have a beer or a night of drinking every once in a while, but this one was epic. It was Saturday, the day of the Science Center ASTC conference. This is a conference for people who work at Science Centers, basically, and I had volunteered to work that night. At first, it felt like kind of a bum assignment – two hours on a Saturday night when I could be out with my friends.

However, as the day drew near, interesting things happened. Lee mentioned that after the event I might get to ‘party hard’ with the rest of the guests. This was the first hint that something would be different. The second was when they held a NASA Press Conference at work that Friday. We have a giant model of the new Webb Space Telescope outside the center and people had come to view and talk about it. That meant that NASA and N. Grumman people would be roaming around that weekend as well. I even found myself escorting a scientist and a congresswoman up to a colloquium on Friday night because none of the other supervisers were around. Totally cool! Of course, I hung around and watched the colloquium instead of staying on the floor with guests, but basically no one was in the museum anyway.

So that was awesome, and then Saturday came along. I ate an early lunch at Chipotle (normally I’d be at work, but we opened late because of the city marathon), then went into work. During my lunch hour, I took a break for coffee and a pumpkin donut in Fed Hill. Then, finally, the event! Paul and I sat around and had free dinner with some of the other workers, then we got to shoot noodles out of the pitching machine as the incoming guests. Most of them loved it! (though there was one very fussy German guy who complained) Later we took out the Van DeGraff and the experiment where you burn people’s money. I thought it would be fun to show other educators because its easy to do (and the bill survives most of the time), but then some Science Center big wig offered up a hundred dollar bill. Paul and I dipped it in the rubbing alcohol, lit it up, and… ta da! It survived.

The awesome part, though, was that after two hours we were set free to enjoy free beer with the rest of the guests. I hung out with David and Paul, and then bumped into Becka from UMBC (who apparently lives in Kansas now). It was a blast. Talking and dancing in full view of the city skyline, I even found myself checking out some of the female guests. Finally, though, the night came to an end and I had to get home. With the busses stopped and the night run late, I ended up walking. It wasn’t bad, especially in the nice weather, but a drunk walk through the city isn’t the best way home.