So i managed to find a time to get all involved in the internet again and i’m about to go away and be really busy for a while. I will be attending the Health Physics Society annual meeting in the magical land of Pittsburgh. I leave tomorrow at 7:30 am… which means i have to be up at 4:30 and it’s 11:30 now… opps. I’m pretty excited about this trip. The first reason is that I’ll be presenting my research and that’s always a great opportunity, especially at a national meeting. Another reason is that one of my good friends, margaret, who left for the summer to do an internship at Oak Ridge Nationals Labs will be there. We’re sharing a hotel room so it should be fun times. Finally, this probably sounds rediculous, but i have always actually wanted to go to Pittsburgh. It’s a long story that i can make fairly brief. My dad used to travel there on business a lot when i was a little kid, and once he brought me a red teddy bear sweatshirt that i really loved so that made Pittsburgh stand out to me as what was quite obviously the most awesome of my dad’s regular business locations. So i decided that i really reallywanted to go to “Pippsburgh” with him. i begged and i begged and i begged, but dad never did take me to pittsburgh. It’s been a little bit of a family joke ever since. I told my dad about this conference and he actually got a little miffed that i was going without him. Seriously, dad, you’ve had over TWENTY YEARS.
After the meeting is over, I’m going to straight to seattle to meet up with my brother(who will be traveling there on business) and my sister-in-law(who is going to have fun). He invited meknowing that Seattle todenver can be a pretty reasonable air fare. But since the HPS is paying me a pretty generous travel stipend, i figured i could tack this on, still stay under my stipend and only have to pay for the $80 plane ticket home from Seattle. It seemed like a good idea at the time. I’m kicking myself a little because i reallydon’t have much money right now. But overall i’m quite excited. It will be my first time to Seattle. The tops of my list are ride a ferry, see the science fiction museum, and visit KEXP(my favorite radio station that i stream online all the time). i don’t know if KEXP will work out because i’ve been too busy fighting with electronic equipment in my lab to remember to e-mail them about a studio tour, but we’ll see if can get access to a computer at least twice this week. So basically i’ll be gone until July 21st…. in case anyone ever decides to read this.
