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.
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