astra_nomer (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
astra_nomer) wrote2005-04-12 10:01 am
astra_nomer) wrote2005-04-12 10:01 am
Too much excitement
First day of the conference is done. Hopefully the rest of it will be manageable.
So, I got up yesterday morning at 3am EDT to catch my 4am SuperShuttle to the airport to catch my 7am flight.
United put me on a Sooper Seekrit Stealth flight. None of the screens listed the flight at all, so I looked up the gate number on the boarding pass and hoped for the best. I guess they made up a new flight to accomodate the dozen or so flights that were cancelled Sunday. It seemed a lot of people had been stranded at the airport overnight, having been re-routed en route to other cities. The one advantage to flying a legacy airline is that they can handle the disruption of a major snowstorm. The plane was huge -- a 777 -- my seat was 39H, just to give you an idea. Individual screens at each seat for watching movies, or in my case, watching the little progress map with the red line showing where you've come. Did you know that there's a Lake Shelbyville in Illinois? Couldn't tell how close it was to Springfield...
I arrived at my destination airport at around 9:15am MDT (add two hours to get my 'internal clock'), bought a shuttle ticket, and arrived at the hotel at 11am. Decided that since my talk slot had been at 10am, I'd talk to the A/V folks and see when they'd reschedule me. The 11:45 speaker wasn't going to make it, so they suggested they go then. Ummm, okay.
So I gave my talk less than an hour after arriving at the hotel. All in all, I think it went pretty well, especially since I never actually practiced it, just stared at the slides on the flight over. I'm getting pretty good at acting poised and confident, even if I don't necessarily feel that way. I got a number of questions and several people came up to me afterward to compliment me on my talk.
Anyway, once that was done, I could relax, check-in, and enjoy the rest of the conference, right? Wrong.
The lunch break was at noon, so I went to finally check in to my room. They ask for my credit card, and I discover that I don't have my wallet! I run back toward the main conference room to see if I dropped it there. En route, I get accosted by a conference staff person: "You just gave a talk, right? Come with me." She grabs my arm. "There's a press panel now and there are too many boys!" So with less than 1 minute warning, I get to be the token woman on the panel. Desperately, I tell her I lost my wallet, and to her credit, starts getting people to call around for me during the press Q&A.
Maybe if I'd had more advance warning, I'd have felt more comfortable being on the panel. Maybe I'd have sounded more intelligent. As it was, the questions asked were largely outside of my field -- the press was more interested in how to find life on other planets, not on how planets form or anything. I also just felt very junior and inexperienced up there next to those 7 other guys.
I got to eat lunch with the rest of the panelists, and the conference staff put me on the "master list" so I could check in without having to leave a credit card imprint. Finally make it to my hotel room at 1:30pm, but only briefly because it's time fo the next session to start.
By 3:30pm, there's still no word on my wallet. I give up on trying to concentrate and go to my room to take a nap. I come back down at 4:30pm to poster sesh.
Around 5:30pm, DH gets through to me -- my wallet has been found! The airport lost-and-found has it. I think I'll just go and pick it up Thursday morning when I go back, since it's a 1.5 hr round trip. Until then, I should be able to get by on borrowed cash.
I go to dinner, but by 8pm (10pm EDT) I decided I'm too tired to function and I go to bed. Let's hope the rest of this conference stays uneventful.
So, I got up yesterday morning at 3am EDT to catch my 4am SuperShuttle to the airport to catch my 7am flight.
United put me on a Sooper Seekrit Stealth flight. None of the screens listed the flight at all, so I looked up the gate number on the boarding pass and hoped for the best. I guess they made up a new flight to accomodate the dozen or so flights that were cancelled Sunday. It seemed a lot of people had been stranded at the airport overnight, having been re-routed en route to other cities. The one advantage to flying a legacy airline is that they can handle the disruption of a major snowstorm. The plane was huge -- a 777 -- my seat was 39H, just to give you an idea. Individual screens at each seat for watching movies, or in my case, watching the little progress map with the red line showing where you've come. Did you know that there's a Lake Shelbyville in Illinois? Couldn't tell how close it was to Springfield...
I arrived at my destination airport at around 9:15am MDT (add two hours to get my 'internal clock'), bought a shuttle ticket, and arrived at the hotel at 11am. Decided that since my talk slot had been at 10am, I'd talk to the A/V folks and see when they'd reschedule me. The 11:45 speaker wasn't going to make it, so they suggested they go then. Ummm, okay.
So I gave my talk less than an hour after arriving at the hotel. All in all, I think it went pretty well, especially since I never actually practiced it, just stared at the slides on the flight over. I'm getting pretty good at acting poised and confident, even if I don't necessarily feel that way. I got a number of questions and several people came up to me afterward to compliment me on my talk.
Anyway, once that was done, I could relax, check-in, and enjoy the rest of the conference, right? Wrong.
The lunch break was at noon, so I went to finally check in to my room. They ask for my credit card, and I discover that I don't have my wallet! I run back toward the main conference room to see if I dropped it there. En route, I get accosted by a conference staff person: "You just gave a talk, right? Come with me." She grabs my arm. "There's a press panel now and there are too many boys!" So with less than 1 minute warning, I get to be the token woman on the panel. Desperately, I tell her I lost my wallet, and to her credit, starts getting people to call around for me during the press Q&A.
Maybe if I'd had more advance warning, I'd have felt more comfortable being on the panel. Maybe I'd have sounded more intelligent. As it was, the questions asked were largely outside of my field -- the press was more interested in how to find life on other planets, not on how planets form or anything. I also just felt very junior and inexperienced up there next to those 7 other guys.
I got to eat lunch with the rest of the panelists, and the conference staff put me on the "master list" so I could check in without having to leave a credit card imprint. Finally make it to my hotel room at 1:30pm, but only briefly because it's time fo the next session to start.
By 3:30pm, there's still no word on my wallet. I give up on trying to concentrate and go to my room to take a nap. I come back down at 4:30pm to poster sesh.
Around 5:30pm, DH gets through to me -- my wallet has been found! The airport lost-and-found has it. I think I'll just go and pick it up Thursday morning when I go back, since it's a 1.5 hr round trip. Until then, I should be able to get by on borrowed cash.
I go to dinner, but by 8pm (10pm EDT) I decided I'm too tired to function and I go to bed. Let's hope the rest of this conference stays uneventful.