I'm almost as excited as when I was a kid and my family was heading to Disney World. It's been 2 years since I attended a meeting-too long.
A few things are making this conference different than any other I've attended before:
- It's in the city I live so I don't have to travel.
- I'm not presenting and my boss isn't paying so this is for the pure pleasure of science.
- I will not know a single other soul there-unless I happen to see someone from PSU and even then it won't be someone I know well-making this a fantastic opportunity to workout those 'networking' skillz.
- It's completely unrelated to what my postdoc lab studies (although some of the talks are peripherally related to what I specifically am doing).
I attended this organizations meeting twice in grad school, as it was of broader interest to my graduate work. It's kind of like I studied sea monkeys* as a grad student and this meeting encompasses various Artemia and Crustacea, and now I'm in a field that studies the friggin' lakes and oceans that establish the context in which sea monkeys exist. And so I am often dazed and confused during talks I attend at BRI (sometimes because of the material, sometimes because of its presentation), and I am just looking forward to hearing about Artemia because I can follow, understand, and be stimulated.
And then there's always the free booze.
* Just so we're clear I did not nor do I currently study sea monkeys or anything remotely related to arthropods or oceans. Certainly it's not the best analogy I could come up with, and I'm fine with that.
