non-academic thoughts/notes/happenings from the conference trip
- Woke up at the crack of dawn only to wait an hour for my turn in the bathroom because the labmate I am sharing the room with primps more than I do.
- Met some interesting people on smoke breaks between sessions. Smoke breaks are the only times I am not accompanied by one or more of the boys. I have chatted with older, courteous European men and young, beautiful, polite Asian men.
- As soon as someone glimpses our conference badges we hear: "Oh, so you must be Bossman's students..." and we get sidelined into conversations. Bossman seems to be quite a big name with this group.
- I love coffee and (real southern) sweet iced tea but damn, haven't our hosts discovered the merits of water, juices, or diet coke. The only beverages we found being served yesterday were coffee, sweet tea and unsweetened tea. By the middle of the afternoon, I had to hunt down a Diet Coke.
- I hope the food choices improve. Our conference fees covered all of our meals. So we eat all of our meals with the other attendees, buffet style. Almost everything is fried or cooked in some sort of oil or grease. I am hoping to see some fresh fruit today.
- There is a piano stationed in the hallway of the conference center. The boys are dying to play it. Bossman gave them permission to play. They haven't yet, they are shy. I wonder how many more times they will walk by it before sitting down. Keep in mind, the two that want to play have no reason to be shy. One records his own compositions and the other was a music major before switching to physics in his undergraduate days. They can play, so now the question is how long will they hold out...
- Bossman is doing his own schmoozing so we rarely see him. We are getting a much needed break from him which is nice. However, we aren't getting to make as many connections as we could if he introduced us around.
- At dinner, we inadvertently sat at the same table as the people who are in charge of the grants that fund our research. We were warned to be weary of one woman in particular because she has been cornering graduate students and grilling them with questions. We didn't get grilled but we ate a very silent dinner as she and her "friends" discussed the merits of the Val Kilmer movie 'The Saint'.
- We have driven back and forth from the conference center 4-6 times since Saturday night. It is only two miles from the hotel, situated in a very small town and we take the same route each time. I ask you, why do I still have to holler directions from the back of the van? They should all know where we are going by now. It is a damn shame that I'm not old enough to drive the rental van.
- On the way back to the hotel from dinner, we were a little punchy and very tired (the four of us are staying at a hotel about two miles from the conference center, bossman is staying at the conference center with the other big wigs). Somehow the topic of toilet seats got worked into our conversation and how I had asked Primping Boy to try to remember to put the eat down when he was done using the bathroom. This of course, brought on an onslaught of stupid comments directed at me:
One of them: "Why do we have to put the seat down? Why don't you raise the seat when you are finished?"
Me: "Don't you know how to aim well enough without needing to raise the seat?"
Them: "It has nothing to do with aiming, it is all about flow rate and the splash factor, so in essence we are being courteous by raising the seat."
Needless to say, I learned far more about the boys' flow rates and the splash factor than I ever wanted to know. I also learned that if I am rooming with one of them, I will always need to be check the position of the seat.
- I have listened to the boys have a 30 minute discussion on the merits of using Biore' strips.
- After the two above conversations, I decided I needed some time away from the boys. I let them practice their talks tonight without me while I reveled in the silence of the hotel room.
- I have been dealing with intense shoulder pain since Saturday. It hasn't been this bad since surgery almost three years ago. It started on the left side of my neck, traveled down to my left shoulder and halfway down my back. Today the pain covers both sides. This is new and cannot be a good thing. I finally consented to take some Advil tonight...
That's it. It's bedtime, I have to be up in a few hours if I want to beat Mr. Primp to the bathroom in the morning.
P.S. Ladies in my life, I miss you all dearly.
- Met some interesting people on smoke breaks between sessions. Smoke breaks are the only times I am not accompanied by one or more of the boys. I have chatted with older, courteous European men and young, beautiful, polite Asian men.
- As soon as someone glimpses our conference badges we hear: "Oh, so you must be Bossman's students..." and we get sidelined into conversations. Bossman seems to be quite a big name with this group.
- I love coffee and (real southern) sweet iced tea but damn, haven't our hosts discovered the merits of water, juices, or diet coke. The only beverages we found being served yesterday were coffee, sweet tea and unsweetened tea. By the middle of the afternoon, I had to hunt down a Diet Coke.
- I hope the food choices improve. Our conference fees covered all of our meals. So we eat all of our meals with the other attendees, buffet style. Almost everything is fried or cooked in some sort of oil or grease. I am hoping to see some fresh fruit today.
- There is a piano stationed in the hallway of the conference center. The boys are dying to play it. Bossman gave them permission to play. They haven't yet, they are shy. I wonder how many more times they will walk by it before sitting down. Keep in mind, the two that want to play have no reason to be shy. One records his own compositions and the other was a music major before switching to physics in his undergraduate days. They can play, so now the question is how long will they hold out...
- Bossman is doing his own schmoozing so we rarely see him. We are getting a much needed break from him which is nice. However, we aren't getting to make as many connections as we could if he introduced us around.
- At dinner, we inadvertently sat at the same table as the people who are in charge of the grants that fund our research. We were warned to be weary of one woman in particular because she has been cornering graduate students and grilling them with questions. We didn't get grilled but we ate a very silent dinner as she and her "friends" discussed the merits of the Val Kilmer movie 'The Saint'.
- We have driven back and forth from the conference center 4-6 times since Saturday night. It is only two miles from the hotel, situated in a very small town and we take the same route each time. I ask you, why do I still have to holler directions from the back of the van? They should all know where we are going by now. It is a damn shame that I'm not old enough to drive the rental van.
- On the way back to the hotel from dinner, we were a little punchy and very tired (the four of us are staying at a hotel about two miles from the conference center, bossman is staying at the conference center with the other big wigs). Somehow the topic of toilet seats got worked into our conversation and how I had asked Primping Boy to try to remember to put the eat down when he was done using the bathroom. This of course, brought on an onslaught of stupid comments directed at me:
One of them: "Why do we have to put the seat down? Why don't you raise the seat when you are finished?"
Me: "Don't you know how to aim well enough without needing to raise the seat?"
Them: "It has nothing to do with aiming, it is all about flow rate and the splash factor, so in essence we are being courteous by raising the seat."
Needless to say, I learned far more about the boys' flow rates and the splash factor than I ever wanted to know. I also learned that if I am rooming with one of them, I will always need to be check the position of the seat.
- I have listened to the boys have a 30 minute discussion on the merits of using Biore' strips.
- After the two above conversations, I decided I needed some time away from the boys. I let them practice their talks tonight without me while I reveled in the silence of the hotel room.
- I have been dealing with intense shoulder pain since Saturday. It hasn't been this bad since surgery almost three years ago. It started on the left side of my neck, traveled down to my left shoulder and halfway down my back. Today the pain covers both sides. This is new and cannot be a good thing. I finally consented to take some Advil tonight...
That's it. It's bedtime, I have to be up in a few hours if I want to beat Mr. Primp to the bathroom in the morning.
P.S. Ladies in my life, I miss you all dearly.
3 Comments:
I get so tired of the toilet seat debate! Boys are so gross. You're so lucky you don't have to marry one. Just tell Primp boy that if he leaves the seat up and you get up in the middle of the night to pee and fall in, the next time you flush the toilet his head will be in it!
materialsgirl,
You are hysterical... and that is a great suggestion, I will most certainly tell him that if I fall in, he'll be getting a swirly. Thanks for the giggle over the fun imagine of giving tiny, primp boy a swirly. I am off to go search for a diet coke.
here is the end of the debat - also having lived with several boys...
The seat should never be left up. The reason for this is that the Lid to the toilet should also be kept down. Therefore when we ladies get up we also should be putting the lid down, and when the boys get up they will also put the seat and lid down. Both sexes doing the same amount of work.
So when is that new blog coming up?
~missing your life through my pc.
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