So I totally just realized I never finished posting about our SAA adventures!
Saturday morning Anne and I were presenting at 10:30 am and got up around 8 am and made it to the hotel around 9:45 am. We left Judy at the hotel because she stayed out partying with the others and only got back at six in the morning - it would've been pretty mean to drag her out to the conference after a night like that.
We were pretty nervous but went and sat on the large patio outside the poster hall and quizzed each other on what we were going to say until it was time for our session and we hung up our posters.
My poster session was GREAT! I talked to so many people - I gave away what felt like dozens of business cards and received a dozen in return. I talked to a lot of people, and got some really wonderful advice and commentary. At one point I had TEN PEOPLE gathered around my poster, and I was rarely left alone for long (this is partially thanks to my wonderful friends Steven, Mike, Rich, Scott and Ginger - Anne was by her poster and Judy was in bed) but really I did have a lot of people talk to me.
At one point I was all fluttery because JAMES FEATHERS came by and talked to me. In case you don't know, James Feathers is a big deal and has written some serious papers, some of which we've read in Dr. Lipo's class. He asked some seriously tough questions, but as I explained my work he seemed interested and (dare I hope it?) pleased with my explanations. I'm VERY proud of Anne though - Dr. Feathers was so interested in her work he gave her his email address so that he could get a copy of her poster and discuss her work properly.
I also talked to Dr. Fraser D. Neiman who is the director of archaeology at Monticello who was VERY interested in my work. In fact he wants to use my techniques on his Caribbean plainware, and we've already corresponded about it. Is it rude to email him and ask how it's going? I'm dying to know!
The poster session was supposed to end at 12:30, but just as I was about to take my poster down a woman approached me and started asking me about my work and I was very happy to discuss it with her (I was having SO much fun, I didn't want to take my poster down), and then another woman came by and we ended up talking too, so it was nearly 1:30 by the time I finally finished up and took my poster down. Anne and I returned our posters to the car and then a whole party of us went to Sapphoro's for lunch. That time I got spicy chicken teriyaki and tempura mix (veggies and shrimp) and it was also very very delicious. Since we were all in such high spirits over the presentations we all got beers as well, except for Mike. Since he's half Japanese he went all ethnic on us and got hot sake and we made all sorts of stupid jokes about "how to drink" in other countries.
My sole drinking joke goes thusly:
An Englishman, a Welshman and an Irishman were drinking in a bar. Suddenly a fly lands in each of their beers. The Englishman pushes his beer away in disgust; the Welshman picks out the fly and keeps drinking. The Irishman grabs his fly by one leg and starts yelling, "SPIT IT OUT YOU BASTARD, SPIT IT OUT!!"
As you may have guessed, I don't have the best joke repertoire out there. But I like that one :)
After lunch we went to the CRM (cultural resource management) Expo and hobnobbed with the companies there. I've been corresponding with one and I'm going to apply and see if I get a summer job with them. That would be SO awesome.
We hit up a couple symposia before 5 and then we all separated to our hotels again. This time Matthew (a vegan) picked the restaurant and we headed out to this little Korean place we only found by the grace of my GPS unit (thanks again Dad, that was a great birthday present!) and we all trooped in - twelve of us in this tiny little hole in the wall! The food was pretty good for a vegan place. I had curried rice with tofu chunks (thank goodness I couldn't taste the tofu...I HATE tofu - the menu conveniently didn't mention that tofu was in there) and everyone tried all this exotic stuff.
There was some weird channel broadcasting on the tv and it was about food and the master or something like that and Matthew whispered to us it was some sort of Korean cult where all the followers keep vegan. I have no idea if he was serious or not, but we did make a lot of awful mobster and/or scientology jokes after that.
Then we drove to a BevMo and got booze - Anne and I got champagne to celebrate our poster session, and I also got a Golden Pheasant (shh, I love that beer!) and the others picked up more wine and beer before we all headed back to Anne, my and Judy's hotel room.
For awhile we watched Transformers, and then we switched to a Robin Hood movie and then I can't remember what after that. For awhile we just relaxed and talked but then Ginger and Judy wanted to go hula hooping and then that turned into everyone going out and walking to this park down by the river (and it was COLD) outside and hula-hooping there. I was too cold and grumpy to hula-hoop so I crouched on the ground with my back to the wind, watching the river rush past - it was really pretty.
We FINALLY went back to our nice warm hotel room and everyone left a little after one and I passed out.
Sunday we all got up late and went to hear the closing lectures at the conference. After lunch we were relaxing in the hotel room working on papers when Anne's friend Caleb called and asked if she wanted to hang out, and she did, so they left and Judy and I kept working. I admit it, I fell asleep and had a really nice nap.
At four o clock I got an email from Dr. Lipo saying for Jake, Judy, Anne and I to bring our posters for our 11 am class Monday morning so we could present to the class. So I immediately emailed back saying that as we had explained before we left for the conference that we were driving back Monday morning and would miss our 11 am class but Judy and I would certainly be there for the 7 pm class (Anne doesn't take that one).
At six o clock I checked my email again and there was another email from Dr. Lipo saying simply, "Leave early. Be in class."
There was no help for it, so I texted Anne and Judy and I started packing. Luckily we didn't have that much to pack, and then we walked over to the Mexican restaurant next door to have dinner. I had these AMAZING nachos (so ridiculously cheesy and yummy) and I forget what Judy ordered but we both had strawberry margaritas (I still prefer daiquiris) as well.
We were back in the hotel room when Anne came in and she was obviously totally unaware of the text so we had to break the news to her in person and her reaction was exactly the same as ours.
We were all packed up a little after eight and loaded up my car and settled our hotel bill before driving to the gas station across the street to fill up. I invested in two five-hour-energy shots as well as $7 of gummi sharks, jawbreakers, tic tacs and lollipops.
We got on the highway at 9:15 pm and arrived in Garden Grove (400 miles away) at 3:05 am. And I wasn't even speeding (I could've gotten there much faster if I had been, bud I didn't dare), I just hugged that speed limit for dear life, even in the grapevine, which is one of the most awful roads I have ever been on in my life, with the sole exception of those godawful cliff roads in Madeira that were one lane but two ways and nothing but solid granite cliff on one side and smooth drop to the ocean on the other.
After I dropped Judy and Anne off I made it home at about 3:30 am and it took two trips to haul everything upstairs. I did some rudimentary unpacking - I had to charge my phone and my computer and get the perishables we'd bought into the fridge and all that - before falling into bed at around 4. Unfortunately, between the sugar and the stress and the insane adrenaline high of driving 400 miles in six hours I just lay there, and saw I5 speeding past imprinted in moving pictures on my eyelids.
I did finally fall asleep and slept until 9 am, when I got up for class and somehow made it there through the haze and the sugar hangover. I was so out of it that during my presentation I was not only standing at an angle, but I was shaking and so discombobulated Dr. Lipo practically had to prompt every other sentence out of me. He wasn't too harsh on me and seemed genuinely pleased that I had driven us back like that. I think it was obvious that I was 100% out of it, and it was probably lucky that I had my pants on my bum and not on my head.
Somehow I got through the day - which I had to spend on campus - not falling asleep in my geographical statistics class (which is hard on the best days because it's from 2-4:20 which is when I naturally start sagging) and eating dinner at Panda Express (when I was longing for a home-cooked meal) and somehow focusing during my AGSA meeting. I took my second 5-hour-energy shot at 5pm and it worked for awhile, but I had class from 7 pm til 10 pm and we were learning GIS and I was so frustrated and tired and shaky I could barely do anything right. Brian was sitting next to me, and like an angel he patiently helped me and helped me until I got everything right. Even with Brian's help I was nearly crying from frustration, and when I got home that night I just got down on the floor and stayed there for a few minutes so I wouldn't have to do anything.
I was very, very glad to go to sleep that night...and very very glad I didn't have anything in particular to wake up for the next morning.
Well I'm glad I've finally gotten all my SAA adventures written down, but now I really do have to go to bed so that I can get everything squared away tomorrow before it's time for Britcoms and shrimp and salad.
Friday, April 29, 2011
Maybe you're crazy
What a week...and tomorrow is not going to be any easier.
I can't even begin to say what I've done this week, I've just been a total mess. Somehow I've managed to go to every class and turn in my assignments and keep my appointments, but it's been this ridiculous haze that I've been meandering through.
Today I just had 510 but I had to present my thesis proposal (and I was randomly assigned to go last...butterfly-inducing!) so I spent hours working on the damn powerpoint last night and today. I did have the Benfica game streaming on the internet for a couple hours this afternoon (thank goodness for the internet - it's the first Benfica game I've seen for years), but I was mostly fussing with the powerpoint by then, trying to decide what was too technical for my culturalist classmates to understand/find interesting/not fall asleep listening to.
Then the NFL draft was on at 5 - I don't really like the new format, they have one round on Thursday and then more on Friday and Saturday...why can't we do that on Friday, Saturday and Sunday? Thursday is so awkward.
The Vikings picked at #12 and I was absolutely appalled that they picked Christian Ponder, FSU quarterback. APPALLED. He has some serious injury question marks and he played in the ACC for crying out loud!
But we've chosen him and I am going to support him...and I'm SO glad we didn't pick up Newton or Locker - they're both horrid.
But I went to class in a VERY bad mood. It took all four presentations before mine for me to calm down, paired with frequent mental reminders of "We didn't pick Newton. We didn't pick Locker. We didn't pick Newton. We didn't pick Locker."
I think my presentation went well - I found myself slightly discombobulated because I've been mildly coughy lately (I think it's just seasonal allergies) and my voice was cracky and creaky. But I got through it and when it was over Dr. Quintiliani said how mine in particular was a great example of how you do a thesis proposal where you've already done preliminary work as I have. So that was nice and I think I did well.
Of course, during the Q&A session that followed when Moises asked me to define seriation I was totally thrown for a loop - we had just defined seriation in class a couple days ago and there I was struggling to make a clear definition of it! I crudely defined it as a way of organizing things by their attributes, and outlined an example of painted pottery. I redeemed myself slightly by mentioning it was James Ford who started seriation in the United States and how he thought of it - by seeing different colors and types of pottery in cut banks of southwestern pueblos when there examining the local tribes.
Dr. Quintiliani asked me some tough questions about the "noise" in my data, and I hope I answered creditably. I haven't quite worked out how I'm going to do all that yet, but I'm pretty sure it's going to take a lot yanking my hair and yelling at my computer before I figure out exactly what I can simmer down into a coherent and broadly useful protocol - the whole POINT of my doing this is to pave the way for others and make this technique useful.
One of the girls - I forget her name - asked me if the theory behind my work was the same as Judy's (Judy reserved a large portion of her presentation for theory, but I cut it from mine as I only had 10 minutes to go through my entire project and what I hope to improve about it) and that was another poser. I certainly believe in evolutionary theory (in more than just archaeology), but the entire reason I focus on stylistic attributes is because functional attributes have performance values for the vessel and how and what it's used for, which is subject to frequent and unseasonable change what with changes in life and situation and trade/interaction. Therefore while the attributes of the temper I study must change over time to be any good to me, it isn't to change in an evolutionary manner - that is, in a functionally positive way. It can (and I hope and pray it does) evolve neutrally, like genetic drift, but the minute any attribute I study gains a performance value I can't use it anymore.
I tried to explain the difference between functional and stylistic traits by suggesting that some people may grind their shell with mortars and pestles and others may do so with manos and metates, and those would produce very different attributes (I assume) especially along the lines of form factor, compactness, roundness and aspect ratio, which are the ones I study. Functional traits would be area (the bigger the pieces, the thicker the vessel wall that can be supported) and perimeter (same principle due to surface area) and all that. I explained I would never actually grind shell different ways and examine them to try and assign ways of preparation to archaeological materials (talk about junk science), but I could find ranges and "modes" of attributes and group them with my statistical analyses, whether it's a similarity matrix or a principal component analysis.
Hmm...so this post is a lot more complicated than I intended it to be. Oh well. I should really get to bed, I have a lot of things to do tomorrow. Yay Thursday...
I can't even begin to say what I've done this week, I've just been a total mess. Somehow I've managed to go to every class and turn in my assignments and keep my appointments, but it's been this ridiculous haze that I've been meandering through.
Today I just had 510 but I had to present my thesis proposal (and I was randomly assigned to go last...butterfly-inducing!) so I spent hours working on the damn powerpoint last night and today. I did have the Benfica game streaming on the internet for a couple hours this afternoon (thank goodness for the internet - it's the first Benfica game I've seen for years), but I was mostly fussing with the powerpoint by then, trying to decide what was too technical for my culturalist classmates to understand/find interesting/not fall asleep listening to.
Then the NFL draft was on at 5 - I don't really like the new format, they have one round on Thursday and then more on Friday and Saturday...why can't we do that on Friday, Saturday and Sunday? Thursday is so awkward.
The Vikings picked at #12 and I was absolutely appalled that they picked Christian Ponder, FSU quarterback. APPALLED. He has some serious injury question marks and he played in the ACC for crying out loud!
But we've chosen him and I am going to support him...and I'm SO glad we didn't pick up Newton or Locker - they're both horrid.
But I went to class in a VERY bad mood. It took all four presentations before mine for me to calm down, paired with frequent mental reminders of "We didn't pick Newton. We didn't pick Locker. We didn't pick Newton. We didn't pick Locker."
I think my presentation went well - I found myself slightly discombobulated because I've been mildly coughy lately (I think it's just seasonal allergies) and my voice was cracky and creaky. But I got through it and when it was over Dr. Quintiliani said how mine in particular was a great example of how you do a thesis proposal where you've already done preliminary work as I have. So that was nice and I think I did well.
Of course, during the Q&A session that followed when Moises asked me to define seriation I was totally thrown for a loop - we had just defined seriation in class a couple days ago and there I was struggling to make a clear definition of it! I crudely defined it as a way of organizing things by their attributes, and outlined an example of painted pottery. I redeemed myself slightly by mentioning it was James Ford who started seriation in the United States and how he thought of it - by seeing different colors and types of pottery in cut banks of southwestern pueblos when there examining the local tribes.
Dr. Quintiliani asked me some tough questions about the "noise" in my data, and I hope I answered creditably. I haven't quite worked out how I'm going to do all that yet, but I'm pretty sure it's going to take a lot yanking my hair and yelling at my computer before I figure out exactly what I can simmer down into a coherent and broadly useful protocol - the whole POINT of my doing this is to pave the way for others and make this technique useful.
One of the girls - I forget her name - asked me if the theory behind my work was the same as Judy's (Judy reserved a large portion of her presentation for theory, but I cut it from mine as I only had 10 minutes to go through my entire project and what I hope to improve about it) and that was another poser. I certainly believe in evolutionary theory (in more than just archaeology), but the entire reason I focus on stylistic attributes is because functional attributes have performance values for the vessel and how and what it's used for, which is subject to frequent and unseasonable change what with changes in life and situation and trade/interaction. Therefore while the attributes of the temper I study must change over time to be any good to me, it isn't to change in an evolutionary manner - that is, in a functionally positive way. It can (and I hope and pray it does) evolve neutrally, like genetic drift, but the minute any attribute I study gains a performance value I can't use it anymore.
I tried to explain the difference between functional and stylistic traits by suggesting that some people may grind their shell with mortars and pestles and others may do so with manos and metates, and those would produce very different attributes (I assume) especially along the lines of form factor, compactness, roundness and aspect ratio, which are the ones I study. Functional traits would be area (the bigger the pieces, the thicker the vessel wall that can be supported) and perimeter (same principle due to surface area) and all that. I explained I would never actually grind shell different ways and examine them to try and assign ways of preparation to archaeological materials (talk about junk science), but I could find ranges and "modes" of attributes and group them with my statistical analyses, whether it's a similarity matrix or a principal component analysis.
Hmm...so this post is a lot more complicated than I intended it to be. Oh well. I should really get to bed, I have a lot of things to do tomorrow. Yay Thursday...
Friday, April 22, 2011
You are feeling very sleepy...
This week has stunk bigtime. I'm sick, I'm tired, I'm swamped with work and I managed to tweak my ankle so it hurts and my knee is tired from taking baby steps to put less pressure on my ankle.
I have a lot of work to do this weekend. I need to sit down and make a list. I also am going grocery shopping on Saturday, instead of Sunday because of Easter...and it just occurred to me that my favorite farmers' market will probably be closed too, what a pain! I was hoping for more annonnas, and I don't know any Saturday farmers' markets closer than Hollywood. I also wanted more fresh garlic, it's SO much better fresh than from the supermarket.
I'm sitting with my feet up right now, my street-facing window open and everything for dinner waiting in the kitchen. I'm just letting the shrimp defrost. I made the salad early and ate it, and I think I might make a different salad later if I'm hungry after dinner. Or I might just have ice cream...or some of my hoarded South African chocolate.
I've been spending so much money on things lately - replacement sandals, replacement jeans, I need to replace my frying pan (it's seriously been dying a slow death for months now) - that I don't know if I'll go to the South African shop in May...but then I remember they'll have discounted Easter candy and I know I probably will. I'll just buy less than usual since I'm actually going to ZA and will be able to get everything from the source.
I cannot WAIT for tomato sauce flavored chips.
I think tonight is going to be an easy night. This week has been tough and I need to take the night off before I settle down to work tomorrow.
I have a lot of work to do this weekend. I need to sit down and make a list. I also am going grocery shopping on Saturday, instead of Sunday because of Easter...and it just occurred to me that my favorite farmers' market will probably be closed too, what a pain! I was hoping for more annonnas, and I don't know any Saturday farmers' markets closer than Hollywood. I also wanted more fresh garlic, it's SO much better fresh than from the supermarket.
I'm sitting with my feet up right now, my street-facing window open and everything for dinner waiting in the kitchen. I'm just letting the shrimp defrost. I made the salad early and ate it, and I think I might make a different salad later if I'm hungry after dinner. Or I might just have ice cream...or some of my hoarded South African chocolate.
I've been spending so much money on things lately - replacement sandals, replacement jeans, I need to replace my frying pan (it's seriously been dying a slow death for months now) - that I don't know if I'll go to the South African shop in May...but then I remember they'll have discounted Easter candy and I know I probably will. I'll just buy less than usual since I'm actually going to ZA and will be able to get everything from the source.
I cannot WAIT for tomato sauce flavored chips.
I think tonight is going to be an easy night. This week has been tough and I need to take the night off before I settle down to work tomorrow.
Sunday, April 17, 2011
A Sunday Far, Far Away
This weekend has been SO busy!
Saturday I went out to campus to work on my NAGPRA report that's due Monday, and headed up to lab to drop some stuff off before going home and finally making those curtains I've been intending to do since last August (although I only bought the fabric a week ago).
And here are pictures:
Aren't they absolutely adorable? The fabric was on sale (hooray!) and I used a coupon on the bonding stuff I used to hem stuff. You know the stuff - it's this thin web you press between the fabric you want to bond and iron over it. I'm really glad they're up - now the workmen who have been fixing up the complex can't look in my windows. The blinds left some serious gaps, and I have some weird neighbors. Not to mention, one day a magazine salesman somehow got in and was knocking on everyone's door at 8 pm on a Wednesday night, which SERIOUSLY pissed me off. There is a reason I moved to a gated complex! I want to feel safe in my own damn apartment, you know?
I went out with Dan last night on a photography expedition around downtown LA which was lots of fun, partially because he drove, partially because there is some absolutely gorgeous architecture down there!
I haven't edited the pictures yet, but I should get to it eventually.
Today was sooo much work!
After my morning ritual of forcing myself out of my warm, comfy bed, eating, and reading the comics I went grocery shopping. They had absolutely amazing strawberries at Sam's Club today, and they're technically healthy food so I didn't feel bad about buying them. And then when I went to Ralph's they had a 50% off sale on their poultry so I got a (very small) chicken for $3.50, which is destined for dinner and sandwiches.
When I got back home I had to individually wrap all the chicken thighs from Sam's Club with clingfilm and shove them in the freezer before I could start the roaster chicken, but I got it all in the freezer and/or oven eventually and started on my homework.
Somehow I managed to get two labs for 561 (I'm still going to go over the one to double-check it), my NAGPRA report, and an essay for 451 (going to check that over again too) finished over the course of the afternoon. I have more work I want to do, but I might put it off until Tuesday. I'm tired.
My intention for this evening is to sit with my feet up and mend the black skirt I ripped months ago and never got around to fixing. I also want to fry a bunch of bacon to put in my week's sandwiches, but I'm much too comfortable to do that right this second. There's so much good tv on Sunday, mostly Holmes Inspection and Holmes on Homes. I realize, now that I'm older, all that HGTV and Food Network I've watched all my life, and watching and helping Mom and Dad in the kitchen and around the house and garden has taught me a lot that most people my age (and lots of other people) don't know.
Still, I definitely want Dad to help me pick my first house/condo/grown-up apartment.
It still surprises me when people I know don't know how to sew (even though my sewing is very simple plain-sewing, I've forgotten all my embroidery stitches), and are intimidated by cooking. I mean, sure souffles are tricky, but roasting a chicken is one of the easiest things you can do. Soups are simple, and seafood just takes practice, as does most red meat.
Of course there are lots of things I want to know/be good at that I'm not. Like carpentry and laying tiles and pouring cement and all those fixer-upper things. My grandfather always told me to never ever buy an old house, but I think a not-quite-old house that I could fix up and change to suit myself would be fun, given enough money to play with and spare time to make it "easy". And a husband to do all the heavy lifting, I think that's definitely a requirement.
Okay, it's definitely time to get some "fun" reading in. It's so lovely to read something that I want to read, not just have to read...especially when it has nothing to do with work!
Saturday I went out to campus to work on my NAGPRA report that's due Monday, and headed up to lab to drop some stuff off before going home and finally making those curtains I've been intending to do since last August (although I only bought the fabric a week ago).
And here are pictures:
Aren't they absolutely adorable? The fabric was on sale (hooray!) and I used a coupon on the bonding stuff I used to hem stuff. You know the stuff - it's this thin web you press between the fabric you want to bond and iron over it. I'm really glad they're up - now the workmen who have been fixing up the complex can't look in my windows. The blinds left some serious gaps, and I have some weird neighbors. Not to mention, one day a magazine salesman somehow got in and was knocking on everyone's door at 8 pm on a Wednesday night, which SERIOUSLY pissed me off. There is a reason I moved to a gated complex! I want to feel safe in my own damn apartment, you know?
I went out with Dan last night on a photography expedition around downtown LA which was lots of fun, partially because he drove, partially because there is some absolutely gorgeous architecture down there!
I haven't edited the pictures yet, but I should get to it eventually.
Today was sooo much work!
After my morning ritual of forcing myself out of my warm, comfy bed, eating, and reading the comics I went grocery shopping. They had absolutely amazing strawberries at Sam's Club today, and they're technically healthy food so I didn't feel bad about buying them. And then when I went to Ralph's they had a 50% off sale on their poultry so I got a (very small) chicken for $3.50, which is destined for dinner and sandwiches.
When I got back home I had to individually wrap all the chicken thighs from Sam's Club with clingfilm and shove them in the freezer before I could start the roaster chicken, but I got it all in the freezer and/or oven eventually and started on my homework.
Somehow I managed to get two labs for 561 (I'm still going to go over the one to double-check it), my NAGPRA report, and an essay for 451 (going to check that over again too) finished over the course of the afternoon. I have more work I want to do, but I might put it off until Tuesday. I'm tired.
My intention for this evening is to sit with my feet up and mend the black skirt I ripped months ago and never got around to fixing. I also want to fry a bunch of bacon to put in my week's sandwiches, but I'm much too comfortable to do that right this second. There's so much good tv on Sunday, mostly Holmes Inspection and Holmes on Homes. I realize, now that I'm older, all that HGTV and Food Network I've watched all my life, and watching and helping Mom and Dad in the kitchen and around the house and garden has taught me a lot that most people my age (and lots of other people) don't know.
Still, I definitely want Dad to help me pick my first house/condo/grown-up apartment.
It still surprises me when people I know don't know how to sew (even though my sewing is very simple plain-sewing, I've forgotten all my embroidery stitches), and are intimidated by cooking. I mean, sure souffles are tricky, but roasting a chicken is one of the easiest things you can do. Soups are simple, and seafood just takes practice, as does most red meat.
Of course there are lots of things I want to know/be good at that I'm not. Like carpentry and laying tiles and pouring cement and all those fixer-upper things. My grandfather always told me to never ever buy an old house, but I think a not-quite-old house that I could fix up and change to suit myself would be fun, given enough money to play with and spare time to make it "easy". And a husband to do all the heavy lifting, I think that's definitely a requirement.
Okay, it's definitely time to get some "fun" reading in. It's so lovely to read something that I want to read, not just have to read...especially when it has nothing to do with work!
Thursday, April 14, 2011
What's my age again?
Nobody likes you when you're twenty-three.
I've been working on this proposal all day and I have an 18 page first draft. I think I'm going to turn it in as it is now, and see what Dr. Quintiliani has to say about it. I'm just tired, and I think adding more now might make it worse.
I also found, to my horror, that some of the collections in the NAGPRA rooms aren't matching my inventories, so I get to go in there on Saturday and sort it out. I hate working on Saturdays but I really have no choice, as I'm doing the Margaret Mead Film Festival all day Friday. Also, I have a bunch of writing to do on Sunday, so Saturday is going to be NAGPRA day. I am taking off Saturday night though, I won't work Saturday nights!!! I can and have worked on Friday nights, but Saturday nights are sacred.
I'm not looking forward to tomorrow. I'm going to run over to Big Lots early in the morning to look for a yoga mat (I simply can't make it to the gym in a timely and efficient manner by walking and I can't park there without a parking pass) so I can work out at home and get rid of this ridiculous belly pooch.
Then I'm going to be doing film festival stuff from around 11 am until about 8 pm, at which time I get to go home and make myself a nice dinner. And then I'll probably sit and drool in front of the tv because thinking will be way too much like hard work at that point.
Still, it'll be nice to see the films, and it's good to try and bring anthropology and empathy to the masses.
I'm too tired to write. But, in good news for the day, my annonna is ripe, so guess what I'm going to eat when I get home from class tonight???
I've been working on this proposal all day and I have an 18 page first draft. I think I'm going to turn it in as it is now, and see what Dr. Quintiliani has to say about it. I'm just tired, and I think adding more now might make it worse.
I also found, to my horror, that some of the collections in the NAGPRA rooms aren't matching my inventories, so I get to go in there on Saturday and sort it out. I hate working on Saturdays but I really have no choice, as I'm doing the Margaret Mead Film Festival all day Friday. Also, I have a bunch of writing to do on Sunday, so Saturday is going to be NAGPRA day. I am taking off Saturday night though, I won't work Saturday nights!!! I can and have worked on Friday nights, but Saturday nights are sacred.
I'm not looking forward to tomorrow. I'm going to run over to Big Lots early in the morning to look for a yoga mat (I simply can't make it to the gym in a timely and efficient manner by walking and I can't park there without a parking pass) so I can work out at home and get rid of this ridiculous belly pooch.
Then I'm going to be doing film festival stuff from around 11 am until about 8 pm, at which time I get to go home and make myself a nice dinner. And then I'll probably sit and drool in front of the tv because thinking will be way too much like hard work at that point.
Still, it'll be nice to see the films, and it's good to try and bring anthropology and empathy to the masses.
I'm too tired to write. But, in good news for the day, my annonna is ripe, so guess what I'm going to eat when I get home from class tonight???
Wednesday, April 13, 2011
Pineapple juice
So today was supposed to be that wonderful day where I got EVERYTHING done. Hah. Yeah. That TOTALLY happened. [/sarcasm]
For a starter, I overslept. Not that it mattered in a missing-class or missing-appointment way, because I had none today, but it's the principle of the thing. I wanted to get up early and get a lot done.
When I did finally get up and organize myself I made out my to-do list (I love those) and started on the most important, my groundstone lab that is due tomorrow. But, I got distracted and decided to install my brand-new (thank you loan money) Microsoft Office 2010. Of course, installing anything MS is never easy and it took me HOURS until I finally, in a state of grim, brooding determination, went into my control panel and deleted every single thing that had "microsoft" in the description, when suddenly, the install worked. Imagine that.
During that frustrating period there were lots of times when I was sitting, watching the install, and I decided to put that time to some use by emailing all the people I met at the SAA's week before last, which I did on my little netbook. I hadn't logged into my school account for a few days so I was slightly chagrined to see someone I had given my card to emailed me on Saturday asking for my presentation, but it's only Tuesday...I'm still going to check it more often. It's just such a pain to log out from my personal hotmail and then log into my school one.
And don't suggest doing that merging/mail forwarding thing. I would manage to mess it up and send business emails from my personal address and personal emails from my business address, and I just think that is a bad, bad idea!
Dr. Neiman from Monticello emailed me back almost immediately asking for some details about my work - someone in his department wants to try my techniques - so I also wrote him back. I hope my comments were helpful, his criticism at the SAA's was really useful to me.
Anyway, once the installation was set up I was exhausted so I decided to have a quick 20 minute nap...and woke up two hours later. I just don't get it. Some days I hear my alarm just fine and some days I might as well not have set it. Hearing loss doesn't come and go, does it?
My immediate reaction was to turn on the news (I love my news...don't laugh) and start dinner (all that sleeping made me hungry). I had a really good dinner: roast chicken, baked potato, peas, corn and homemade Harvard beetroot, plus that last glass of wine from the bottle I opened Friday and was too tired to drink Monday. Not bad for a Tuesday!
You're totally jealous now, aren't you?
In other food-related news, my mouth HURTS like no other and is all red and "burned" at the sides because I spent most of the day consuming fresh pineapple (yes, I know that was stupid, and no I couldn't help it...it was too delicious).
I mean really, who can resist pineapple like THAT??
So after dinner I continued to work on that groundstone lab and as of now (midnight) I have something to turn in...I'm not super proud of it, which stinks, I hate turning in work I'm not proud of but this lab just got away from me. I am so so SO glad Dr. Lipo lets us rewrite things after he's graded them and turn them in again. Otherwise there would be some serious tears of frustration in this apartment tonight. I'm still going to go over it in the morning and see if fresh eyes make it better.
I am very tired and I need to go to bed now if I'm going to get up in time to edit this lab, so stories of the rest of SAA's will have to wait unfortunately. Goodnight!
For a starter, I overslept. Not that it mattered in a missing-class or missing-appointment way, because I had none today, but it's the principle of the thing. I wanted to get up early and get a lot done.
When I did finally get up and organize myself I made out my to-do list (I love those) and started on the most important, my groundstone lab that is due tomorrow. But, I got distracted and decided to install my brand-new (thank you loan money) Microsoft Office 2010. Of course, installing anything MS is never easy and it took me HOURS until I finally, in a state of grim, brooding determination, went into my control panel and deleted every single thing that had "microsoft" in the description, when suddenly, the install worked. Imagine that.
During that frustrating period there were lots of times when I was sitting, watching the install, and I decided to put that time to some use by emailing all the people I met at the SAA's week before last, which I did on my little netbook. I hadn't logged into my school account for a few days so I was slightly chagrined to see someone I had given my card to emailed me on Saturday asking for my presentation, but it's only Tuesday...I'm still going to check it more often. It's just such a pain to log out from my personal hotmail and then log into my school one.
And don't suggest doing that merging/mail forwarding thing. I would manage to mess it up and send business emails from my personal address and personal emails from my business address, and I just think that is a bad, bad idea!
Dr. Neiman from Monticello emailed me back almost immediately asking for some details about my work - someone in his department wants to try my techniques - so I also wrote him back. I hope my comments were helpful, his criticism at the SAA's was really useful to me.
Anyway, once the installation was set up I was exhausted so I decided to have a quick 20 minute nap...and woke up two hours later. I just don't get it. Some days I hear my alarm just fine and some days I might as well not have set it. Hearing loss doesn't come and go, does it?
My immediate reaction was to turn on the news (I love my news...don't laugh) and start dinner (all that sleeping made me hungry). I had a really good dinner: roast chicken, baked potato, peas, corn and homemade Harvard beetroot, plus that last glass of wine from the bottle I opened Friday and was too tired to drink Monday. Not bad for a Tuesday!
You're totally jealous now, aren't you?
In other food-related news, my mouth HURTS like no other and is all red and "burned" at the sides because I spent most of the day consuming fresh pineapple (yes, I know that was stupid, and no I couldn't help it...it was too delicious).
I mean really, who can resist pineapple like THAT??
So after dinner I continued to work on that groundstone lab and as of now (midnight) I have something to turn in...I'm not super proud of it, which stinks, I hate turning in work I'm not proud of but this lab just got away from me. I am so so SO glad Dr. Lipo lets us rewrite things after he's graded them and turn them in again. Otherwise there would be some serious tears of frustration in this apartment tonight. I'm still going to go over it in the morning and see if fresh eyes make it better.
I am very tired and I need to go to bed now if I'm going to get up in time to edit this lab, so stories of the rest of SAA's will have to wait unfortunately. Goodnight!
Sunday, April 10, 2011
The rest of today, and SAA's part two.
Okay, so the Harvard beets are slowly simmering and I'll be dancing up and down every minute or so to check on them. Unfortunately, baking them for an hour and a half didn't cook them properly, so I'm praying the simmering takes care of the last little bit of rawness.
After my last post I ate lunch and started off for lab. Halfway there I realized I left the shells I collected yesterday behind so, fuming and swearing, I retraced my steps, grabbed the shells, and headed off to the lab again.
I got there a little after two and finally finished making my last shell-tempered ceramic tile (background: for a lab in my artifact analysis class we're all making a set of ceramic tiles with different amounts and kinds of temper so we can see what's what. I tried to get it all done on Friday, but no one could figure out how to do the plant temper, so we're doing that on Monday. But, on Friday we ran out of shells to grind for shell temper, so Saturday I spent an hour at the beach collecting shells - that counts as taking initiative right? - and brought them in for my last shell-tempered tile today), at which point I started sketching and taking notes on the ground stone tools provided for the ground stone tool lab that is due this Wednesday. For the same class.
I left sometime after five (thanks to my coworker Jake giving me a hand with some of the trickier stuff) and called Mom and Dad for a quick chat before beginning dinner.
After dinner I chopped up my strawberries and they are now residing in my beautiful Michaelangelo crystal bowls (man I miss having money to throw around on things like that) in my fridge.
Then I started on the damn beets, and while they were baking, I tided up a little, since my place has gotten SO messy in the past couple weeks...I've been too tired and too stressed to clean, so it's nice to tidy up a little, although I have a long way to go before my place is actually clean. You can bet it's going to be at least a couple more weeks before I vacuum...I HATE vacuuming!
Anyway.
SAA's: Thursday -
Thursday morning Judy and I got up really early (read: 7:30 am) considering we got to bed after 1 am on Wednesday night. We drove to the convention center and I helped her set her poster up, and hung around for half an hour or so until a steady stream of people were talking to her, which is when I started looking at all of the other posters. I did strike up a conversation with the guy next to Judy, and found out he was a UF alum, which was pretty awesome. It turned out he was a big fan of Hector Neff, who's on staff at CSULB so I promised to introduce them if I could. I also saw one of the guys who I worked with at UF and I chatted to him for a few minutes but he was oddly stiff - it was only later that I realized he might have forgotten my name.
I spent an hour or so checking out symposia (the 15-minute talks people prepare about their work, instead of doing poster sessions) about various things, but I was glad when 12:30 rolled around and I found Judy outside on the balcony. She was with Rich - not a CSULB student - he's actually CSUN if I remember correctly - but he works in IIRMES, so we consider him one of us. The three of us headed downstairs to look for lunch, and found a sweet little deli nearby, and got awesome sandwiches. I forget what they got but I got hot corned beef with Swiss cheese (it was HUGE, I nearly couldn't finish it) and we all sat outside at the little tables provided, enjoying the sunshine and the warm weather. Jake and Dr. Lipo walked up and chatted for a few minutes: Dr. Lipo left, and Jake went to get a sandwich and joined us.
After lunch we all went back to the conference, met Anne, and wandered around the various symposia til about 5:30, when Judy, Anne and I left for California Pizza Kitchen, since we'd arranged for everyone in our department (and all our friends) to meet us there for dinner at 6 pm. One nice thing that happened was I ran into Jeff - the guy who was next to Judy in the poster session - when I knew where Dr. Neff was (he was talking to Scott, another guy who goes to a different university but does his work in IIRMES), and I managed to introduce the two. Jeff was really happy to meet Dr. Neff and Dr. Neff was interested in Jeff's work, so that was nice. I'm glad I got to introduce them.
People showed up really slowly, and we finally decided to order at 7:15 when the last of our party showed up (we were supposed to leave in time to hear Dr. Neff's talk at 7:45 but that didn't happen). The entire party was: me, Judy, Anne, Jake (my coworker), Ginger (a friend of ours from a field school), Paul (in my cohort), Paul's wife whose name I can't remember...oops, Evan (a guy in our class), Steven (in our artifact analysis class), Mike (a friend of Steven's from field school), Carey (a friend of Steven's from field school), Richie (a friend of Mike's), Rich, two of Rich's friends, and Steven's girlfriend Brittany. I feel like I'm missing someone...oh well.
During dinner, Steven told us about how Brittany's grandfather (who they were staying with during the conference because his place was 20 minutes out of town, and free) saw a ghost cop car while out jogging one day and invited us all to go ghost-hunting sometime. We all thought it was hilarious and agreed to go Friday night.
After dinner, some of us went to a nearby Irish pub and some of the others went to other previous engagements.
I didn't drink much - just two beers over about four or five hours - because I was the designated driver, but the others all imbibed and it was very funny to watch. Anne matched Evan drink for drink although he was drinking whiskey and she was drinking beer: the next day she was hungover and he was fine. Boys!
Friday morning we FINALLY slept late and I finally caught up after three days of little to no sleep and was much happier in consequence.
We parked near the convention center and grabbed lunch at a nearby restaurant called Sapphoro where Mike and Evan met us. It's this great Japanese steakhouse that has $9 bento boxes during lunch hours: each bento box has an Asian salad, rice, two slices of California roll, and two entrees of your choice. On Friday I had shrimp tempura and tuna sashimi and it was SO good.
After that we all wandered around the convention for awhile, listening to the symposia that were the most interesting. Mike and I were in one waiting for a lecture on dating ancient coins (that got canceled!!! we were SO mad about that!) when I saw my old mentor, Dr. Steven Brandt, come in. When that lecture ended he left and I followed him and caught him in the hallway where we chatted for a few minutes about Ethiopia and his work and my work. It was really nice to see him again, especially now that I'm a big important MA student...lol
The symposia all ended at 5 pm on Friday and Saturday (you can tell archaeologists organized this - we're notorious boozers) so after it was over we all went back to our hotels for awhile to regroup. For dinner on Friday a bunch of us met up at this little Indian restaurant I found on Yelp called Mati's and it was SO good. Ginger and Matthew (a friend of hers from the same field school that Anne goes to) are a vegetarian and a vegan respectively so they both got the vegan options and I got lamb curry and chicken tikka masala which were SO good - and the naan was pretty good too.
After dinner Matthew left to see some other friends, and the rest of us (me, Judy, Anne, Ginger, Mike, Carey, Evan, and Richie) piled into two cars to go to Steven's girlfriend's grandfather's house to go ghost hunting.
We arrived at the house and everyone (except for myself and Carey, who were designated drivers) cracked open the beer we had in our trunks (seriously...archaeologists drink. And Girl Scouts are prepared...haha) while we discussed the best plan of action. Finally we decided that we would split into two cars (Steven's and the grandfather's...I can't remember his name, sadly) and go to the spot where the grandfather spotted the ghost car.
The background behind the ghost car is that for some time now people would be driving along a particular stretch of road and see a 1950s cop car's lights light up behind them and when they pulled over the cop would just vanish into thin air. Some people would see an empty cop car pulled over on a grassy verge before it, too would just vanish. Brittany's grandfather saw it parked when he was out jogging late one night (he's seventy and jogs six miles a day - makes me feel ashamed of my lack of fitness) and thought nothing of it - except that it was empty - until he told Brittany about it and she somehow knew the legend and found the website proclaiming all the tales about it.
So we drive up (crammed like sardines into these cars) to the grassy verge and all get out and examine it and flash our flashlights and are basically giggling like morons. We decide there is nothing there, and it was slightly anticlimactic until Brittany's grandfather says, "Well, the KKK used hang out just a little ways down the road, and there are supposed to be tons of ghosts there, did you want to see that?" Of course we did, so we piled back into the cars and drove off. We parked on a shoulder and started walking along the road, joking stupid jokes and talking at the tops of our lungs, except for those times we all burst out laughing over something particularly asinine.
Finally we get to the stretch of road where the trees arch overhead and it's said the KKK used to prowl, and now we get more whispery and giggly when all of a sudden someone spots a white cross on the side of the road. There was an instant rush to investigate, and everyone is surprised (I won't say disappointed) to find that it's part of this giant scavenger hunt where you find clues on the internet, find the white cross hidden in out of the way places, and use the clues on the cross to find your next objective. At least I THINK that's how it goes. Everyone whipped out their iPhones and immediately started searching it, but I don't have an iPhone (nor do I really want one), so I spent more time helping Mike figure out how to do the video record function on his SLR (of which I was and am totally jealous).
We moved on and someone noticed there were marks on the road. We all trained our flashlights and found one of those "figures" they chalk around dead people in the old-time crime scene investigations had been spraypainted on the road. Some members of the group started lying down on the road in the figures, but most of us moved on and kept flashing our lights on the road, hoping to discover more. We saw a few more dead-body figures, a lot of stupid l33t lingo, and then we hit a more ominous sign: a spray-painted message in the road reading, "PREPARE TO DIE".
Around this point, Steven and Carey decide to start walking back for the cars so they can drive them up to where we were so we didn't have to walk a mile or so back to the cars after we got bored of ghost hunting.
There were a few more messages in the road, but we didn't pay much attention to them, but further along a phone number was spray-painted on the road with the last digit missing. Ginger volunteered to try it and started dialing the number with different last numbers starting at 0 and working her way up. We were walking further along the road (Ginger had stopped dialing but I didn't know this) and suddenly we heard a phone start ringing!!
We all immediately freaked out (all our phones were on vibrate) and everyone was swinging their flashlights every which way, trying to figure out where the sound was coming from. I was convinced some prankster had planted a cell phone, and all the others were gathered around some sort of hollow log that apparently contained a dead bat, and Brittany was yelling, "Don't touch it!" when a red light to my left catches my eye.
I have to pause here to explain that many of the ghosts we were SUPPOSED to see "came back" as mysterious lights that didn't belong to houses or cars that no one could explain.
So naturally, my attention was diverted from the mysterious ghost phone and the dead bat (not that I'm particularly interested in dead bats at any time), and when my vision focused on the light I realized it was a cigarette butt (you may thank my scintillating powers of observation to the many years I have dedicated to going to live shows and hanging out with bands, most of whom are heavy smokers) and without pausing to think I yell, "Hey! There's a cigarette there!"
There's a rush and the next thing I know we're surrounding two laughing locals who were sitting and talking at the end of their driveway, hidden by some bushes, who were planning to leap out and scare us when the guy's phone rang. We all congratulated him on his very successful scaring of us (we were totally thrown into chaos by the phone, as you may imagine) and he and his friend proceeded to share their ghost stories with us, which I don't remember really well, so I'll try to remember to add them here after Mike posts his video of the incident. Yes, Mike was taping for 16 minutes and somehow, by the grace of all that is good and funny he actually got the "ghost phone" and subsequent reaction on there.
Anyway, Mike insisted he saw lights further down the road so since we were bored of the ghost stories, and since I don't believe in ghosts (even though I want to) I walked with him and we continued arguing over the fact until the others turned up with the cars and we all got in and drove back to Brittany's grandfather's place. Once there we listened to the video for Carey and Steven's benefit, but everyone was laughing so hard we missed most of it. I cannot WAIT for Mike to post it!
After that we left Steven, Brittany and her grandfather at their place (Steven had homework...we did too, but we weren't going to do it until Sunday...haha) and went back to Sacramento, to this one club called Dive Bar where Rich and Scott were and told us to hit up. We all envisioned a ratty little down-home bar and were all attracted to the image, so you can imagine our disgust when we found a pseudo-swank bar full (and I mean packed body to body in some places) of girls whose skirts were so short they might as well have not worn any, and guys who looked like extras for a Sylvester Stallone movie.
The one interesting part about the bar was that over the bar itself was a large fish tank, full of tropical fish. When I was fighting my way back through the crowd to the entrance where everybody else was after going to the bathroom, I realized why they called it the Dive Bar: in the tank was a mermaid! Really, it was a very well-endowed human girl in a mermaid tail and LOTS of makeup swimming back and forth and smiling and waving. I had three immediate thoughts upon seeing her: 1) How the heck does she get into that tail? (it was skin-tight...like...she probably had to be surgically removed from it) 2) Damn, she can hold her breath for a long time! and 3) They had better pay her more than minimum wage to do that!
We didn't stay there long as no one liked the tight quarters and the near impossibility of getting drinks (the place was packed, I'm surprised the fire marshal didn't throw people out), and Rich insisted there was a great party "nearby" so we all followed him for ELEVEN BLOCKS to some lame hotel party where we didn't know any of the people. At this point I started seeing red because I had a presentation to do at 10:30 am it was now past midnight and I was legitimately a mile away from my car and I didn't want to be "the bad guy" for dragging people away from a fun night out.
Fortunately, Anne was in the same poster session and she quickly marshalled us into groups: one group was going to go back downtown to party, one group was going to walk to their car a few blocks in another direction, and the third group (Anne, myself, Ginger, Mike and Richie) were going back to the garage where I left my car so I could drive the others back to their cars so they could keep on partying. Thank goodness for Anne and Ginger! Anne knew exactly where we were and where I left my car (I wasn't drinking much, I just had one beer, but I was completely lost and disoriented - I really have no idea how I got my orienteering badge), and Ginger was dancing around and keeping everyone in high spirits.
On the way to my car we had one final adventure: we heard this wonderful saxophone music echoing down the empty streets (it was shocking how empty most of the city was) and we followed it til we found a man playing his saxophone in the entrance to a parking garage. Ginger stopped to thank him for his wonderful music which turned into a half hour conversation, during which I mused on the potential rudeness of breaking in to ask if he could play "Feeling Good" while we walked on, but finally everyone said goodbye and we FINALLY got back to my car, I dropped everyone off at their cars, and Anne and I made it back to the hotel where I took a shower before bed and she decided to take one in the morning before we left for our poster session.
And since it is 11:40 in the here and now and I have class in the morning, I think it's time for me to end. I'll post about the rest of the SAA's later.
After my last post I ate lunch and started off for lab. Halfway there I realized I left the shells I collected yesterday behind so, fuming and swearing, I retraced my steps, grabbed the shells, and headed off to the lab again.
I got there a little after two and finally finished making my last shell-tempered ceramic tile (background: for a lab in my artifact analysis class we're all making a set of ceramic tiles with different amounts and kinds of temper so we can see what's what. I tried to get it all done on Friday, but no one could figure out how to do the plant temper, so we're doing that on Monday. But, on Friday we ran out of shells to grind for shell temper, so Saturday I spent an hour at the beach collecting shells - that counts as taking initiative right? - and brought them in for my last shell-tempered tile today), at which point I started sketching and taking notes on the ground stone tools provided for the ground stone tool lab that is due this Wednesday. For the same class.
I left sometime after five (thanks to my coworker Jake giving me a hand with some of the trickier stuff) and called Mom and Dad for a quick chat before beginning dinner.
After dinner I chopped up my strawberries and they are now residing in my beautiful Michaelangelo crystal bowls (man I miss having money to throw around on things like that) in my fridge.
Then I started on the damn beets, and while they were baking, I tided up a little, since my place has gotten SO messy in the past couple weeks...I've been too tired and too stressed to clean, so it's nice to tidy up a little, although I have a long way to go before my place is actually clean. You can bet it's going to be at least a couple more weeks before I vacuum...I HATE vacuuming!
Anyway.
SAA's: Thursday -
Thursday morning Judy and I got up really early (read: 7:30 am) considering we got to bed after 1 am on Wednesday night. We drove to the convention center and I helped her set her poster up, and hung around for half an hour or so until a steady stream of people were talking to her, which is when I started looking at all of the other posters. I did strike up a conversation with the guy next to Judy, and found out he was a UF alum, which was pretty awesome. It turned out he was a big fan of Hector Neff, who's on staff at CSULB so I promised to introduce them if I could. I also saw one of the guys who I worked with at UF and I chatted to him for a few minutes but he was oddly stiff - it was only later that I realized he might have forgotten my name.
I spent an hour or so checking out symposia (the 15-minute talks people prepare about their work, instead of doing poster sessions) about various things, but I was glad when 12:30 rolled around and I found Judy outside on the balcony. She was with Rich - not a CSULB student - he's actually CSUN if I remember correctly - but he works in IIRMES, so we consider him one of us. The three of us headed downstairs to look for lunch, and found a sweet little deli nearby, and got awesome sandwiches. I forget what they got but I got hot corned beef with Swiss cheese (it was HUGE, I nearly couldn't finish it) and we all sat outside at the little tables provided, enjoying the sunshine and the warm weather. Jake and Dr. Lipo walked up and chatted for a few minutes: Dr. Lipo left, and Jake went to get a sandwich and joined us.
After lunch we all went back to the conference, met Anne, and wandered around the various symposia til about 5:30, when Judy, Anne and I left for California Pizza Kitchen, since we'd arranged for everyone in our department (and all our friends) to meet us there for dinner at 6 pm. One nice thing that happened was I ran into Jeff - the guy who was next to Judy in the poster session - when I knew where Dr. Neff was (he was talking to Scott, another guy who goes to a different university but does his work in IIRMES), and I managed to introduce the two. Jeff was really happy to meet Dr. Neff and Dr. Neff was interested in Jeff's work, so that was nice. I'm glad I got to introduce them.
People showed up really slowly, and we finally decided to order at 7:15 when the last of our party showed up (we were supposed to leave in time to hear Dr. Neff's talk at 7:45 but that didn't happen). The entire party was: me, Judy, Anne, Jake (my coworker), Ginger (a friend of ours from a field school), Paul (in my cohort), Paul's wife whose name I can't remember...oops, Evan (a guy in our class), Steven (in our artifact analysis class), Mike (a friend of Steven's from field school), Carey (a friend of Steven's from field school), Richie (a friend of Mike's), Rich, two of Rich's friends, and Steven's girlfriend Brittany. I feel like I'm missing someone...oh well.
During dinner, Steven told us about how Brittany's grandfather (who they were staying with during the conference because his place was 20 minutes out of town, and free) saw a ghost cop car while out jogging one day and invited us all to go ghost-hunting sometime. We all thought it was hilarious and agreed to go Friday night.
After dinner, some of us went to a nearby Irish pub and some of the others went to other previous engagements.
I didn't drink much - just two beers over about four or five hours - because I was the designated driver, but the others all imbibed and it was very funny to watch. Anne matched Evan drink for drink although he was drinking whiskey and she was drinking beer: the next day she was hungover and he was fine. Boys!
Friday morning we FINALLY slept late and I finally caught up after three days of little to no sleep and was much happier in consequence.
We parked near the convention center and grabbed lunch at a nearby restaurant called Sapphoro where Mike and Evan met us. It's this great Japanese steakhouse that has $9 bento boxes during lunch hours: each bento box has an Asian salad, rice, two slices of California roll, and two entrees of your choice. On Friday I had shrimp tempura and tuna sashimi and it was SO good.
After that we all wandered around the convention for awhile, listening to the symposia that were the most interesting. Mike and I were in one waiting for a lecture on dating ancient coins (that got canceled!!! we were SO mad about that!) when I saw my old mentor, Dr. Steven Brandt, come in. When that lecture ended he left and I followed him and caught him in the hallway where we chatted for a few minutes about Ethiopia and his work and my work. It was really nice to see him again, especially now that I'm a big important MA student...lol
The symposia all ended at 5 pm on Friday and Saturday (you can tell archaeologists organized this - we're notorious boozers) so after it was over we all went back to our hotels for awhile to regroup. For dinner on Friday a bunch of us met up at this little Indian restaurant I found on Yelp called Mati's and it was SO good. Ginger and Matthew (a friend of hers from the same field school that Anne goes to) are a vegetarian and a vegan respectively so they both got the vegan options and I got lamb curry and chicken tikka masala which were SO good - and the naan was pretty good too.
After dinner Matthew left to see some other friends, and the rest of us (me, Judy, Anne, Ginger, Mike, Carey, Evan, and Richie) piled into two cars to go to Steven's girlfriend's grandfather's house to go ghost hunting.
We arrived at the house and everyone (except for myself and Carey, who were designated drivers) cracked open the beer we had in our trunks (seriously...archaeologists drink. And Girl Scouts are prepared...haha) while we discussed the best plan of action. Finally we decided that we would split into two cars (Steven's and the grandfather's...I can't remember his name, sadly) and go to the spot where the grandfather spotted the ghost car.
The background behind the ghost car is that for some time now people would be driving along a particular stretch of road and see a 1950s cop car's lights light up behind them and when they pulled over the cop would just vanish into thin air. Some people would see an empty cop car pulled over on a grassy verge before it, too would just vanish. Brittany's grandfather saw it parked when he was out jogging late one night (he's seventy and jogs six miles a day - makes me feel ashamed of my lack of fitness) and thought nothing of it - except that it was empty - until he told Brittany about it and she somehow knew the legend and found the website proclaiming all the tales about it.
So we drive up (crammed like sardines into these cars) to the grassy verge and all get out and examine it and flash our flashlights and are basically giggling like morons. We decide there is nothing there, and it was slightly anticlimactic until Brittany's grandfather says, "Well, the KKK used hang out just a little ways down the road, and there are supposed to be tons of ghosts there, did you want to see that?" Of course we did, so we piled back into the cars and drove off. We parked on a shoulder and started walking along the road, joking stupid jokes and talking at the tops of our lungs, except for those times we all burst out laughing over something particularly asinine.
Finally we get to the stretch of road where the trees arch overhead and it's said the KKK used to prowl, and now we get more whispery and giggly when all of a sudden someone spots a white cross on the side of the road. There was an instant rush to investigate, and everyone is surprised (I won't say disappointed) to find that it's part of this giant scavenger hunt where you find clues on the internet, find the white cross hidden in out of the way places, and use the clues on the cross to find your next objective. At least I THINK that's how it goes. Everyone whipped out their iPhones and immediately started searching it, but I don't have an iPhone (nor do I really want one), so I spent more time helping Mike figure out how to do the video record function on his SLR (of which I was and am totally jealous).
We moved on and someone noticed there were marks on the road. We all trained our flashlights and found one of those "figures" they chalk around dead people in the old-time crime scene investigations had been spraypainted on the road. Some members of the group started lying down on the road in the figures, but most of us moved on and kept flashing our lights on the road, hoping to discover more. We saw a few more dead-body figures, a lot of stupid l33t lingo, and then we hit a more ominous sign: a spray-painted message in the road reading, "PREPARE TO DIE".
Around this point, Steven and Carey decide to start walking back for the cars so they can drive them up to where we were so we didn't have to walk a mile or so back to the cars after we got bored of ghost hunting.
There were a few more messages in the road, but we didn't pay much attention to them, but further along a phone number was spray-painted on the road with the last digit missing. Ginger volunteered to try it and started dialing the number with different last numbers starting at 0 and working her way up. We were walking further along the road (Ginger had stopped dialing but I didn't know this) and suddenly we heard a phone start ringing!!
We all immediately freaked out (all our phones were on vibrate) and everyone was swinging their flashlights every which way, trying to figure out where the sound was coming from. I was convinced some prankster had planted a cell phone, and all the others were gathered around some sort of hollow log that apparently contained a dead bat, and Brittany was yelling, "Don't touch it!" when a red light to my left catches my eye.
I have to pause here to explain that many of the ghosts we were SUPPOSED to see "came back" as mysterious lights that didn't belong to houses or cars that no one could explain.
So naturally, my attention was diverted from the mysterious ghost phone and the dead bat (not that I'm particularly interested in dead bats at any time), and when my vision focused on the light I realized it was a cigarette butt (you may thank my scintillating powers of observation to the many years I have dedicated to going to live shows and hanging out with bands, most of whom are heavy smokers) and without pausing to think I yell, "Hey! There's a cigarette there!"
There's a rush and the next thing I know we're surrounding two laughing locals who were sitting and talking at the end of their driveway, hidden by some bushes, who were planning to leap out and scare us when the guy's phone rang. We all congratulated him on his very successful scaring of us (we were totally thrown into chaos by the phone, as you may imagine) and he and his friend proceeded to share their ghost stories with us, which I don't remember really well, so I'll try to remember to add them here after Mike posts his video of the incident. Yes, Mike was taping for 16 minutes and somehow, by the grace of all that is good and funny he actually got the "ghost phone" and subsequent reaction on there.
Anyway, Mike insisted he saw lights further down the road so since we were bored of the ghost stories, and since I don't believe in ghosts (even though I want to) I walked with him and we continued arguing over the fact until the others turned up with the cars and we all got in and drove back to Brittany's grandfather's place. Once there we listened to the video for Carey and Steven's benefit, but everyone was laughing so hard we missed most of it. I cannot WAIT for Mike to post it!
After that we left Steven, Brittany and her grandfather at their place (Steven had homework...we did too, but we weren't going to do it until Sunday...haha) and went back to Sacramento, to this one club called Dive Bar where Rich and Scott were and told us to hit up. We all envisioned a ratty little down-home bar and were all attracted to the image, so you can imagine our disgust when we found a pseudo-swank bar full (and I mean packed body to body in some places) of girls whose skirts were so short they might as well have not worn any, and guys who looked like extras for a Sylvester Stallone movie.
The one interesting part about the bar was that over the bar itself was a large fish tank, full of tropical fish. When I was fighting my way back through the crowd to the entrance where everybody else was after going to the bathroom, I realized why they called it the Dive Bar: in the tank was a mermaid! Really, it was a very well-endowed human girl in a mermaid tail and LOTS of makeup swimming back and forth and smiling and waving. I had three immediate thoughts upon seeing her: 1) How the heck does she get into that tail? (it was skin-tight...like...she probably had to be surgically removed from it) 2) Damn, she can hold her breath for a long time! and 3) They had better pay her more than minimum wage to do that!
We didn't stay there long as no one liked the tight quarters and the near impossibility of getting drinks (the place was packed, I'm surprised the fire marshal didn't throw people out), and Rich insisted there was a great party "nearby" so we all followed him for ELEVEN BLOCKS to some lame hotel party where we didn't know any of the people. At this point I started seeing red because I had a presentation to do at 10:30 am it was now past midnight and I was legitimately a mile away from my car and I didn't want to be "the bad guy" for dragging people away from a fun night out.
Fortunately, Anne was in the same poster session and she quickly marshalled us into groups: one group was going to go back downtown to party, one group was going to walk to their car a few blocks in another direction, and the third group (Anne, myself, Ginger, Mike and Richie) were going back to the garage where I left my car so I could drive the others back to their cars so they could keep on partying. Thank goodness for Anne and Ginger! Anne knew exactly where we were and where I left my car (I wasn't drinking much, I just had one beer, but I was completely lost and disoriented - I really have no idea how I got my orienteering badge), and Ginger was dancing around and keeping everyone in high spirits.
On the way to my car we had one final adventure: we heard this wonderful saxophone music echoing down the empty streets (it was shocking how empty most of the city was) and we followed it til we found a man playing his saxophone in the entrance to a parking garage. Ginger stopped to thank him for his wonderful music which turned into a half hour conversation, during which I mused on the potential rudeness of breaking in to ask if he could play "Feeling Good" while we walked on, but finally everyone said goodbye and we FINALLY got back to my car, I dropped everyone off at their cars, and Anne and I made it back to the hotel where I took a shower before bed and she decided to take one in the morning before we left for our poster session.
And since it is 11:40 in the here and now and I have class in the morning, I think it's time for me to end. I'll post about the rest of the SAA's later.
Oops
Where did all the time go? More SAA stories later, I promise!
In the meantime I hit up the farmers' market today and what should I find but THIS:
Now THAT is an annonna! I'm calling Mom and Dad later to ask them how to care for it because my last one didn't ripen and this one was $6 so I don't want to lose it.
I also bought lots of strawberries, two bunches of beetroot, some asparagus and some fresh garlic, all for under $20. I love farmers' markets.
I am also investing heavily in my new diet and regime (actually getting up on time instead of laying abed for an hour, and going to the gym), eating healthily and losing some weight in time for bikini season.
So while grocery shopping today I got carrots, broccoli, pineapple, white corn on the cob, corn, peas, 100 calorie packs of Special K strawberry snack bars, and the 100 calorie fudgecicles. Let's hope I can keep the careful eating up!
I did spend $40 yesterday at the African Hut, but it was SO worth it. I got Australian Peppermint Crisps (since they were the only ones there) so I hope they're the same. I also got droewors, choc-kits, romany creams, and a half dozen candy bars, and I HEROICALLY resisted the delicious looking bangers and chicken samoosas in the freezer.
Okay, gotta eat lunch and head to lab. I canNOT wait for summer and my holiday!!
In the meantime I hit up the farmers' market today and what should I find but THIS:
Now THAT is an annonna! I'm calling Mom and Dad later to ask them how to care for it because my last one didn't ripen and this one was $6 so I don't want to lose it.
I also bought lots of strawberries, two bunches of beetroot, some asparagus and some fresh garlic, all for under $20. I love farmers' markets.
I am also investing heavily in my new diet and regime (actually getting up on time instead of laying abed for an hour, and going to the gym), eating healthily and losing some weight in time for bikini season.
So while grocery shopping today I got carrots, broccoli, pineapple, white corn on the cob, corn, peas, 100 calorie packs of Special K strawberry snack bars, and the 100 calorie fudgecicles. Let's hope I can keep the careful eating up!
I did spend $40 yesterday at the African Hut, but it was SO worth it. I got Australian Peppermint Crisps (since they were the only ones there) so I hope they're the same. I also got droewors, choc-kits, romany creams, and a half dozen candy bars, and I HEROICALLY resisted the delicious looking bangers and chicken samoosas in the freezer.
Okay, gotta eat lunch and head to lab. I canNOT wait for summer and my holiday!!
Monday, April 4, 2011
Society for American Archaeology Pt 1
My very first conference, and it was so much fun! I'm going to start at the "beginning" to make things easier.
Monday (3/28/11): Spent in lab, frantically working on statistics and poster.
Tuesday (3/29/11): Spent in lab, frantically working on statistics and poster. Around 6 pm I finally had a statistical breakthrough and got a fairly desirable p-value of 0.059. 7 pm saw my poster finished and I proudly emailed it off to the Geography lab before jauntily walking over to watch it print out. I got there and the tech said, "Oh, I'm sorry, I can't print your poster, the printer is out of paper and I don't know how to change the roll." I left, went back to the archaeology lab and printed my poster by myself on the non-glossy paper that made me slightly sad. My poster was not perfect. Somehow the edges of the text boxes weren't lined up, and there were color issues and some blurry spots...but I was SO excited. It was mine...it was done...it was MINE!
I got home, packed and went to bed.
Wednesday (3/30/11):
I woke up at 4 am, ate, and left at 5 am for Anne's place. I got there, picked her up and we drove to Judy's. Judy took about a billion years to get out of her house, but we were finally on the road at 5:30 am.
Our first pit stop was at 9 am for brunch and refueling. We stopped at a Carl's Jr and Anne and Judy had turkey burgers while I had a Western bacon cheeseburger...so yummy!
Our second pit stop was a bathroom break at a rest stop that had a lovely grassy picnic spot. When I was walking around trying to stretch my legs (driving 400+ miles with no cruise control is no joke!) two gorgeous little dogs started running around and investigating everything. It made me think of when I was a little kid and pretended my dolls were faeries and played games with them outside in the sun and the wind.
We arrived in Sacramento at 1pm and checked into our hotel before running errands all over town. Anne's boyfriend turned up - he had business up north and stopped over for a night on his way back down south - and the four of us drove around looking for swimsuits, groceries and beer.
Dinner was procured at the Mexican Grill and Cantina next door to our Days Inn (it was really good) where we had lots of fun photographing ourselves with a large cardboard cutout of the Dos Equis Most Interesting Man in the World.
After dinner Jake (Anne's boyfriend) went off to meet friends of his for drinks and the three of us went to the Sacramento Convention Center to sign in and then attend a reception at the Sheraton next door.
We got there a little early for the reception so we stayed in the bar lounge upstairs drinking beer and talking. Some of our friends turned up and we had a nice little group going by the time the reception opened and we went downstairs.
Judy and Anne started talking to two girls, a Rebecca from University College London (where I totally wanted to go, but I'm sure I can't afford it) and a Monica from University of Wisconsin. We talked about our work for awhile and then a lady from the SAA Board of Directors (I think her name was Pam, but I don't remember) came over and started talking to us about her work.
After she left, the treasurer of the SAA came and talked to us (I think his name was Tom) and told us a lot of interesting things about the society that we didn't know. For example, students consist of 25% of the society and there is a rule saying there must be two students on each board in the society (and there are lots of boards) and he encouraged us to join.
I'm thinking about it. It sounds like a lot of work and I don't have a whole lot of time. But it would be really great networking and experience and it would also look good on my resume. So...thinking about it.
While the treasurer was talking to us another man came over and he was the newly elected president of the SAA and he was SO nice! He asked all of us about our projects and told me I should really go to the meeting next year, which is in Memphis, Tennessee. I told him I would if someone gave me a scholarship (as a joke) and he actually really liked the idea. I'd LOVE it if my saying that got some sort of scholly implemented for poor(ish) people like me.
But it was lots of fun talking to all the important people. Later Steven (one of the undergrads who came to the conference just to check it out) suggested it was because we were dressed so nicely in business attire instead of sloppily like most everyone else. I like that idea. I prefer dressing nicely to slouching around in baggy jeans and t-shirts, especially in a professional/academic setting like a conference.
After we were ushered out of the ballroom (the hotel staff actually flicked the lights to make us leave so they could clean) a bunch of us stayed in the bar, talking. Steven ran into some old friends of his from a field school he did once, and we all stayed there talking past midnight until I started drooping from lack of sleep. We finally got back to the hotel and I passed out, knowing I had to get up early the next day to take Judy to her poster session.
That's enough for now, I'll continue later.
Monday (3/28/11): Spent in lab, frantically working on statistics and poster.
Tuesday (3/29/11): Spent in lab, frantically working on statistics and poster. Around 6 pm I finally had a statistical breakthrough and got a fairly desirable p-value of 0.059. 7 pm saw my poster finished and I proudly emailed it off to the Geography lab before jauntily walking over to watch it print out. I got there and the tech said, "Oh, I'm sorry, I can't print your poster, the printer is out of paper and I don't know how to change the roll." I left, went back to the archaeology lab and printed my poster by myself on the non-glossy paper that made me slightly sad. My poster was not perfect. Somehow the edges of the text boxes weren't lined up, and there were color issues and some blurry spots...but I was SO excited. It was mine...it was done...it was MINE!
I got home, packed and went to bed.
Wednesday (3/30/11):
I woke up at 4 am, ate, and left at 5 am for Anne's place. I got there, picked her up and we drove to Judy's. Judy took about a billion years to get out of her house, but we were finally on the road at 5:30 am.
Our first pit stop was at 9 am for brunch and refueling. We stopped at a Carl's Jr and Anne and Judy had turkey burgers while I had a Western bacon cheeseburger...so yummy!
Our second pit stop was a bathroom break at a rest stop that had a lovely grassy picnic spot. When I was walking around trying to stretch my legs (driving 400+ miles with no cruise control is no joke!) two gorgeous little dogs started running around and investigating everything. It made me think of when I was a little kid and pretended my dolls were faeries and played games with them outside in the sun and the wind.
We arrived in Sacramento at 1pm and checked into our hotel before running errands all over town. Anne's boyfriend turned up - he had business up north and stopped over for a night on his way back down south - and the four of us drove around looking for swimsuits, groceries and beer.
Dinner was procured at the Mexican Grill and Cantina next door to our Days Inn (it was really good) where we had lots of fun photographing ourselves with a large cardboard cutout of the Dos Equis Most Interesting Man in the World.
After dinner Jake (Anne's boyfriend) went off to meet friends of his for drinks and the three of us went to the Sacramento Convention Center to sign in and then attend a reception at the Sheraton next door.
We got there a little early for the reception so we stayed in the bar lounge upstairs drinking beer and talking. Some of our friends turned up and we had a nice little group going by the time the reception opened and we went downstairs.
Judy and Anne started talking to two girls, a Rebecca from University College London (where I totally wanted to go, but I'm sure I can't afford it) and a Monica from University of Wisconsin. We talked about our work for awhile and then a lady from the SAA Board of Directors (I think her name was Pam, but I don't remember) came over and started talking to us about her work.
After she left, the treasurer of the SAA came and talked to us (I think his name was Tom) and told us a lot of interesting things about the society that we didn't know. For example, students consist of 25% of the society and there is a rule saying there must be two students on each board in the society (and there are lots of boards) and he encouraged us to join.
I'm thinking about it. It sounds like a lot of work and I don't have a whole lot of time. But it would be really great networking and experience and it would also look good on my resume. So...thinking about it.
While the treasurer was talking to us another man came over and he was the newly elected president of the SAA and he was SO nice! He asked all of us about our projects and told me I should really go to the meeting next year, which is in Memphis, Tennessee. I told him I would if someone gave me a scholarship (as a joke) and he actually really liked the idea. I'd LOVE it if my saying that got some sort of scholly implemented for poor(ish) people like me.
But it was lots of fun talking to all the important people. Later Steven (one of the undergrads who came to the conference just to check it out) suggested it was because we were dressed so nicely in business attire instead of sloppily like most everyone else. I like that idea. I prefer dressing nicely to slouching around in baggy jeans and t-shirts, especially in a professional/academic setting like a conference.
After we were ushered out of the ballroom (the hotel staff actually flicked the lights to make us leave so they could clean) a bunch of us stayed in the bar, talking. Steven ran into some old friends of his from a field school he did once, and we all stayed there talking past midnight until I started drooping from lack of sleep. We finally got back to the hotel and I passed out, knowing I had to get up early the next day to take Judy to her poster session.
That's enough for now, I'll continue later.
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