Rob and I went to a conference in Philadephia, PA! The city of brotherly love! Someone on the shuttle from the airport to the hotel (on U Penn's campus!) said, "I just want to warn you, there is no southern hospitality here. So you shouldn't be surprised by that.". Why would I be? It's in the northeast, after all. But they did seem to have some "northeastern hospitality", and I found the people there to be MUCH more manageable than the ones in Boston or Washington DC. So that was good. And UPenn's campus is amazing. I guess I was somewhat starstruck by all the history there, but Rob and I loved walking around the place.
And that's where the happy feelings end.
On Sunday, we got to Philly and had to go immediately to the conference. WHO STARTS A CONFERENCE ON FATHER'S DAY? Probably the same group of people who all got together and booked the SfN conference for my birthday (at least it's in NOLA), Rob's departmental research retreat for Valentine's Day Weekend 2013, and the Schizophrenia meeting (that should be fun!) in Orlando for the week leading up to our anniversary in 2013. Hey guys! Rob's birthday is still open! Anyone want to schedule a research retreat? Conference?
Anyway, the start to the conference was largely good, except for some problems with maps and getting lost. On Monday, I decided to skip one of the talks and go to the hotel gym. Our room was on the 5th floor, very close to the stairs and not so close to the elevator. So naturally I took the stairs, headed to the 3rd floor. Long story short: I was stuck in the stairwell. Evidently people at this establishment don't take the stairs, so they are for emergencies only. Which means this: ONCE YOU GET INTO THE STAIRWELL, YOU CANNOT GET OUT. I had to take the emergency exit on the ground floor, which set off an alarm. In response to the hotel alarm going off (it was localized to that area, not the whole hotel, thankfully), I TOOK OFF RUNNING. Good Job. And you should complete the picture in your mind by understanding that I had not planned my workout clothes very well, so I was wearing hot pink shorts, and a T-shirt that was hot pink and pale pink. No, none of these pink colors matched or coordinated with each other. I'm sure I'm on camera somewhere. Then I went to the front desk, told them what had happened, and was chastised for even taking the stairs in the first place. "They are for emergencies only," is what I was told, and even when I told them that they should post some kind of sign about being stuck in the stairwell, I was further chastised for taking the stairs....TO THE GYM. Shake. My. Head.
Then, at lunch, a group of us decided to go to a restaurant called "Greek Lady". I was super pumped because I love Greek food. But it wasn't that good. We seriously have better Greek food in Birmingham, AL. I ordered hummus, and it came in a shape. Like it had been scooped with an ice cream scoop. It had almost no flavor, it was obviously JUST CHICKPEAS. So, in addition to my rule to never eat from a truck, I'm going to add another one: Hummus shouldn't come in a shape.
Monday evening I presented a poster about the course I designed and taught this semester. I had lots of interested people and some even tried to hire me. But as delightful as "northeastern hospitality" is, I don't imagine I will be moving there anytime soon. Then we went for dinner at an AWESOME restaurant called "White Dog Cafe", where Rob had the best catfish he has ever had. In Philly. Now that's depressing. It was an amazing meal.
At some point on Monday, I started to sound a little sultry and subsequently lost my voice. It was completely gone by Monday night. Tragic for me. Probably great for everyone else. Rob and I overslept Tuesday and missed the first session of the meeting. Winning.
Tuesday was less exciting, and the closing dinner for the conference was in the Penn Museum. It was delicious! And there are mummies in the museum! Real not-live mummies! Rob and I got lost in the museum, because we tried to go to other floors to look at other things. Evidently we were not allowed because we almost got locked in, and had to take the academic elevators and some crazy route to get out of the museum.
Wednesday morning Rob woke up puking. He thinks he ate some bad vegetables at the dinner on Tuesday night. We flew home Wednesday, too, so he had a great day flying from Philly to Tampa, landing there in a thunderstorm, and then from Tampa to Birmingham.
We picked Emerald up from Joy's house last night, where she had been since Saturday. SO happy to see her! She actually hyperventilated a little when she saw Rob...I got no such star treatment. Oh well. Joy is supposed to do a guest post about Em's visit with them soon, so you'll get to read all about it.
Happy Thursday,
Your favorite sultry-voiced blogger.
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