i've been dreaming about eight hours of sleep
so now it's jen that's being cool and letting me use her computer. and again i'm on a laptop. i have such issues trying to type on a laptop. and it probably doesnt help that i'm a little bit under the influence. but only a little. you can tell by the fact that i am still able to type correctly.
so let's go back to monday.
so i went to bed around 1:30am and had to get up at 5:30am so that i could leave carrie's house around 6:15am. carrie's dad dropped me off at the metro station on his way to work. so i got to the metro around 6:45am and then i got to ride the metro for like an hour. and i'm feverishly going over my presentation on the way. i really dont mind the metro...(that was random). so then i make it to the NIH and find my way to the correct building, go through security, blah blah blah...register for the conference and all. there were like three benches in the whole area where the conference was taking place so i ended up standing next to the wall where another girl was lamenting the lack of benches. or she said they should give us access to the picnic benches outside...but of course then we would have had to walk all the way around the building and come back in through security. so we were bonding because she had never given an oral presentation before. but she had at least practiced hers in front of people. but i had done a poster presentation before and she had not so i guess we were even. so then her professor shows up and says that this is a nice conference to get your start at. she said that the people were a really gentle crowd and that made me feel better. so then i went and sat with the girl while they did the whole opening announcements thing. and then they talked about the new wave of data and all the extra things that were going to be available in the coming months. and it was positively amazing. this data set is so multidisciplinary. they have everything from community variables to psychological stuff to medical stuff (STDs, etc.) to genetics. they have transcripts from the high schools from most of the participants. they have peer networks mapped out. it's positively astounding. so then there were four presentations that were about the new data and all this awesome stuff that they could do with it. there was this interesting presentation about HPV (an STD) and risk and protective factors. the initial analysis found that it was negatively related to oral sex but positively related to orgasm and they thought that was rather random so more research will be conducted. so then we had a break and then it was time for my session. i was feeling better and rather happy that i was going to be able to go second...i dont like going first and i dont like going last, so since there were only three presentations, that was perfect. the girl that was supposed to go before me was also from dr. jordan's lab at umbc. so i knew her. but they couldnt get her presentation to load on the MAC laptop. so it looked like i was going to have to go first. but the other guy that was presenting heard me whisper that i didnt want to go first, so he went. then i went. and it wasnt that bad at all. the people liked the part where i talked about the study where the researchers had the students identify themselves with one of the characters in The Breakfast Club. and then after our session was over i decided to skip out so that i would have some time at home.
after the conference i went home. and i hung out with benjamin, he was really confused about why my car wasnt in the driveway and the fact that i came home on an airplane and where was the airplane and why was there a different car in the driveway and he just went on and on. so i stayed at home, looked through old yearbooks, burned the rest of my MP3s on CD (they were being stupid when i tried before i went to florida). my stepmom gave me a necklace and an anklet that she bought for me at a jewelry party. it's all cute and sparkly and it has a little flip flop on the chain. then i watched an episode of i love the 80s strikes back on my computer.
i spent the night at my mom's house. and i got up early in the morning and went to breakfast at IHOP with kim and jason because they are leaving for Spain tomorrow afternoon. then i went back to my mom's house (and when i say this i mean the house where she is living at the moment, she's currently taking care of an older extended family member of ours who requires live-in care) and we went out and ran errands. we went to her apartment to look for frames for a thing that i made her and while we were there the lights suddenly went out. but the refrigerator was still on so we figured it was a fuse. so we changed the fuses but we couldnt get the lights to come back on. then we went back to my house for a minute and then stopped at rita's because i was going into withdrawal. so we went to home depot and bought new fuses. then the plan was to stop at michael's in the same shopping center but come to find out it was closed. so we went to eat at bill bateman's and i got a crab pretzel. my god that thing is sooo good. it's a giant soft pretzel with crab dip on the top. it's enough for a meal, it's so big. i couldnt even finish it. so then we went to another michael's and i bought some stuff on clearance.
then jen came and picked me up from my mom's house and we went back to her place. we played yahctzee until her roomate got home. then we went to the cancun cantina. and jen made me do this one line dance. it was fun. and i drank a drink called "wet panties." it was pretty funny when jen went up to the bartender and was like, "are you the one that makes the wet panties?" it was good and i dont know what was in it. so i had two of those and then jen had the bartender make a "sicilian's kiss" which was just straight alcohol. i almost couldnt take it.
and now i'm back at jen's and i'm going to go read harry potter and then sleep.
so let's go back to monday.
so i went to bed around 1:30am and had to get up at 5:30am so that i could leave carrie's house around 6:15am. carrie's dad dropped me off at the metro station on his way to work. so i got to the metro around 6:45am and then i got to ride the metro for like an hour. and i'm feverishly going over my presentation on the way. i really dont mind the metro...(that was random). so then i make it to the NIH and find my way to the correct building, go through security, blah blah blah...register for the conference and all. there were like three benches in the whole area where the conference was taking place so i ended up standing next to the wall where another girl was lamenting the lack of benches. or she said they should give us access to the picnic benches outside...but of course then we would have had to walk all the way around the building and come back in through security. so we were bonding because she had never given an oral presentation before. but she had at least practiced hers in front of people. but i had done a poster presentation before and she had not so i guess we were even. so then her professor shows up and says that this is a nice conference to get your start at. she said that the people were a really gentle crowd and that made me feel better. so then i went and sat with the girl while they did the whole opening announcements thing. and then they talked about the new wave of data and all the extra things that were going to be available in the coming months. and it was positively amazing. this data set is so multidisciplinary. they have everything from community variables to psychological stuff to medical stuff (STDs, etc.) to genetics. they have transcripts from the high schools from most of the participants. they have peer networks mapped out. it's positively astounding. so then there were four presentations that were about the new data and all this awesome stuff that they could do with it. there was this interesting presentation about HPV (an STD) and risk and protective factors. the initial analysis found that it was negatively related to oral sex but positively related to orgasm and they thought that was rather random so more research will be conducted. so then we had a break and then it was time for my session. i was feeling better and rather happy that i was going to be able to go second...i dont like going first and i dont like going last, so since there were only three presentations, that was perfect. the girl that was supposed to go before me was also from dr. jordan's lab at umbc. so i knew her. but they couldnt get her presentation to load on the MAC laptop. so it looked like i was going to have to go first. but the other guy that was presenting heard me whisper that i didnt want to go first, so he went. then i went. and it wasnt that bad at all. the people liked the part where i talked about the study where the researchers had the students identify themselves with one of the characters in The Breakfast Club. and then after our session was over i decided to skip out so that i would have some time at home.
after the conference i went home. and i hung out with benjamin, he was really confused about why my car wasnt in the driveway and the fact that i came home on an airplane and where was the airplane and why was there a different car in the driveway and he just went on and on. so i stayed at home, looked through old yearbooks, burned the rest of my MP3s on CD (they were being stupid when i tried before i went to florida). my stepmom gave me a necklace and an anklet that she bought for me at a jewelry party. it's all cute and sparkly and it has a little flip flop on the chain. then i watched an episode of i love the 80s strikes back on my computer.
i spent the night at my mom's house. and i got up early in the morning and went to breakfast at IHOP with kim and jason because they are leaving for Spain tomorrow afternoon. then i went back to my mom's house (and when i say this i mean the house where she is living at the moment, she's currently taking care of an older extended family member of ours who requires live-in care) and we went out and ran errands. we went to her apartment to look for frames for a thing that i made her and while we were there the lights suddenly went out. but the refrigerator was still on so we figured it was a fuse. so we changed the fuses but we couldnt get the lights to come back on. then we went back to my house for a minute and then stopped at rita's because i was going into withdrawal. so we went to home depot and bought new fuses. then the plan was to stop at michael's in the same shopping center but come to find out it was closed. so we went to eat at bill bateman's and i got a crab pretzel. my god that thing is sooo good. it's a giant soft pretzel with crab dip on the top. it's enough for a meal, it's so big. i couldnt even finish it. so then we went to another michael's and i bought some stuff on clearance.
then jen came and picked me up from my mom's house and we went back to her place. we played yahctzee until her roomate got home. then we went to the cancun cantina. and jen made me do this one line dance. it was fun. and i drank a drink called "wet panties." it was pretty funny when jen went up to the bartender and was like, "are you the one that makes the wet panties?" it was good and i dont know what was in it. so i had two of those and then jen had the bartender make a "sicilian's kiss" which was just straight alcohol. i almost couldnt take it.
and now i'm back at jen's and i'm going to go read harry potter and then sleep.