Home again

Finally am home safe and sound, after much adieu...I have been lazy with blogging all of the adventures, but a) I didn't have access to a computer frequently b) I was once again stuck in the Chicago O'Hare ("O'hairball" as my traveling companions and I have come to call it), airport for about 4 hours, and c) I got super sick upon getting home. This may sound gross, but all of you Seinfeld fans will appreciate it - I broke my vomit streak :-(. No idea what it was...but it involved a fever and my whole body aching non-stop. Ick...feeling a bit better now. ANYHOO...

So, to summarize, here are the highlights of my trip to Atlanta:

1) T.'s "Pullleaassurrree (see earlier post)" to the customs agent.
2) Shopping - Atlanta does have great shopping...pottery barn, crate and barrel, macy's, Tiffany's, and many many more all in just one mall!
3) Our waiter at Ruby Tuesday's ....who's name I can't remember. Sweet as can be...called us "maam" excessively, and when we asked about the underground he said "Y'all don't want to go there, there's just a lot of boots" It took us about 5 minutes to realize he's said "Booths" - as in flea market.
4) How helpful and friendly everyone in Atlanta was. I don't think we came across one person who was unfriendly.
5) A different form of asking for money on the street - we had two people offer us directions (as we were clearly totally clueless about where to go) to a good restaurant. Both then requested money after giving us directions. Another person offered to take our picture for us, and then again requested money. Interesting..
6) I met one of my hero's - Murray Sidman, the man who developed the area of stimulus equivalence in behavior analytic research (an area I did research in while at UVic). I saw him speak, then got to talk to him and he signed my book. M. said she got pictures of me talking to him too! His presentation was so good - mostly because he described the basic paradigm of stimulus equivalence so simply. He didn't use one word of jargon (and there is a lot of jargon available!!), and made it so clear and simple. Brilliant!
7) I saw a number of the biggest names in our field dancing. The famous EO man can MOVE, another famous person in our field was dancing the night away with a number of ladies ("Let's get it oooowwnn" was one song that we will forever associate with his dancing with numerous women), and lead a conga line. Of course M. and I danced the night away - but - in the MIDDLE of the dance floor (so as not to be visible to those sitting around the dance floor and making fun of nerds like us!).
8) My poster presentation, and our workshop both went well. I had a lot of people come and talk to me during the poster session, a couple of big-ish names, and had lots of good feedback.
9) I went to a great symposium on stimulus equivalence. I sat down, by myself. Then, two seats to my left sat Philip Chase (a big name in SE research), to his right sat MURRAY SIDMAN (BIG name), in front of me Lanny Fields, next to him Henry Mackay - I was flanked by the big names in SE research! I was ready to explode! Then, half way through one presentation (of course, when all was quiet) I dropped ALL my papers, books, pens etc on the floor. Yep - WINNER - that's me!
10) As it turns out, a Mint julep is NOT like a Mojhito...not at all minty and refreshing. Yes, actually, it just tastes like nasty wild turkey bourbon. Mmmm...I had this at Merry Mac's Tea room. Which, mint juleps' aside, was a fabulous experience. True southern food, southern waitress, and excellent service and food. SO good!
11) At the end of my trip, after 36hours of traveling when I felt totally done in,I found a little card in my bag. A dear dear friend had slipped it in. For us, this trip was a giant 5 day sleep over, which I cherished, as we don't get to spend much face to face time together anymore. The little note was saying essentially just that, it was shmeepy which we don't do in person, but it meant so much to me, and lifted my travel-weary spirits. It really is a travesty that we never got to be roomates!!

So much more...but for now I'll leave it there. Check out passtheveggies.blogspot.com for more chronicles of our trip!

Bye for now!