The Trek to Asilomar
So last Tuesday I trekked to the Asilomar conference center in Monterey CA. We had a 6 AM flight, so my ride picked me up at my apartment a little after 2 AM so we could make the 2 hour drive and be there on time for the flight.
The first leg of the flight, I slept the entire way, apparently the beverage cart went past, but I was oblivious. The second flight I was stuck sitting between my boss and the other prof we were flying with, so I felt that I had to be productive.
We got to Sunny (HA!) CA around lunch time. We flew into San Jose, and then had to drive about 2 more hours to get down to Monterey. The good news (for my inner naturalist), was that the lupines were blooming, so I got at least a little wildflower fix. By the time we arrived in Monterey, it was pouring (as in buckets, sheets, cats and dogs kind) of rain. We got checked into the conference, and found our rooms, and had a few hours to kill before dinner.
Aside from the fact that the heat had been turned off in my room (and it was below 55F in there when I walked in) my room was awesome. There was a huge window, and when I looked out, I had an amazing view of the pacific ocean. Had it not been raining, I would have been out for a walk immediately, but, since it was pouring, I got settled into my room. Housing is limited at Asilomar, so you end up with a random roommate - I ended up getting lucky on this one. I shared a room with a grad student from New Zealand, who was originally from Sweden, and we didn't hang out much, but she was a nice enough person.
That evening at dinner, I was immediately overwhelmed - rubbing elbows with the big wigs. Dinner is done somewhat cafeteria style. As eight people walk in you sit down with them. It was a cool opportunity to talk science with folks. There was a mixer that night, but I didn't go, between being exhausted from travel, and flying with an ear infection, I wanted nothing more than to go to sleep. So I did.
Weds I got up early, and since the rain had stopped, I took a walk on the beach before breakfast. For those who don't know, Asilomar is a conference grounds, an a CA state park. It's situated directly next to pebble beach, and the trails are all boardwalks. So, if you follow the boardwalk, you end up walking along the coast between pebble beach and the ocean. Fortunately we only had rain on Tuesday - the rest of the week it was right around 60 and pretty peaceful.
The meeting was arranged that everyone had breakfast, and then there was a plenary session - 5 or so 40 min talks, from the high muckity-mucks. After that was lunch, and there was a break. From 3-6 there were concurrent sessions, where you could go listen to stuff more directly related to your areas of interest. Then dinner, and then from 7:30-10:30 was the poster session.
My poster session was on Weds evening, so the good news was I got to get it out of the way, but on the down side, I created more controversy than I had originally anticipated, so that made for an interesting week. The most shocking accusation I got was that I was a creationist. WTF?! I've got evidence for microevolution ALL OVER MY POSTER and what do I get? An accusation that I am a creationist. This upset me.
It got better - the folks from the feuding side of the story after reviewing my data decided that they should suggest to me that it would be unwise to publish this paper. So, now, there is the Fusarium mafia apparently. Don't publish that... or else.
There was much drama spread out over the rest of the conference unfortunately, since that never really did simmer down, and instead of talking to my boss, questions came to me.
So, Thursday I was at the conference all day, the plenary sessions were not interesting to me, but the afternoon stuff was alright. I went to the posters, and it was a day.
Friday, I went to the sessions in the morning, and Cass, the girl from Hawaii and I, and her sig other snuck off and went to the Monterey aquarium. It was awesome, as always, and a much needed break from conference stress. I went to dinner and the poster session that evening, which was more of the same for me... and then met up with some friends that had driven down from Davis. We hung out in one of the lounges on site that had a fireplace and drank some wine and stayed up way to late. It was good to see them though.
Saturday morning SUCKED. The plenary session was good, but, during the coffee break, I got chewed out by my boss. In public. People stopped an looked. He was griping that I had procrastinated on getting some stats run. My response was a calm, in what time was I supposed to get that accomplished? It sucked. The session I had been excited about that afternoon was not at all what I had expected, so I went for a walk on the beach (and got to see otters playing in the surf!)
Sunday, we were in meetings until 11:30 or so.. and then we did a marathon run back to San Jose (and there were lots more lupines blooming than just on Tuesday! ... and Poppies too... but I only care about lupines) We made our flight BARELY (got to gate as they were boarding) and flew back through Houston. Unfortunately, we had a 2 hour layover, than ended up being more like 3 since there were mechanical problems with the plane. So we got back to KC at around 2 AM.... and I was in my apartment, and in bed at 4:30 AM. Suffice it to say, I didn't come to work until lunch today.
So the conference wrap up. I learned a lot. Enjoyed the conference itself, but didn't like the reception that I got - but my inner naturalist had a great time.
The first leg of the flight, I slept the entire way, apparently the beverage cart went past, but I was oblivious. The second flight I was stuck sitting between my boss and the other prof we were flying with, so I felt that I had to be productive.
We got to Sunny (HA!) CA around lunch time. We flew into San Jose, and then had to drive about 2 more hours to get down to Monterey. The good news (for my inner naturalist), was that the lupines were blooming, so I got at least a little wildflower fix. By the time we arrived in Monterey, it was pouring (as in buckets, sheets, cats and dogs kind) of rain. We got checked into the conference, and found our rooms, and had a few hours to kill before dinner.
Aside from the fact that the heat had been turned off in my room (and it was below 55F in there when I walked in) my room was awesome. There was a huge window, and when I looked out, I had an amazing view of the pacific ocean. Had it not been raining, I would have been out for a walk immediately, but, since it was pouring, I got settled into my room. Housing is limited at Asilomar, so you end up with a random roommate - I ended up getting lucky on this one. I shared a room with a grad student from New Zealand, who was originally from Sweden, and we didn't hang out much, but she was a nice enough person.
That evening at dinner, I was immediately overwhelmed - rubbing elbows with the big wigs. Dinner is done somewhat cafeteria style. As eight people walk in you sit down with them. It was a cool opportunity to talk science with folks. There was a mixer that night, but I didn't go, between being exhausted from travel, and flying with an ear infection, I wanted nothing more than to go to sleep. So I did.
Weds I got up early, and since the rain had stopped, I took a walk on the beach before breakfast. For those who don't know, Asilomar is a conference grounds, an a CA state park. It's situated directly next to pebble beach, and the trails are all boardwalks. So, if you follow the boardwalk, you end up walking along the coast between pebble beach and the ocean. Fortunately we only had rain on Tuesday - the rest of the week it was right around 60 and pretty peaceful.
The meeting was arranged that everyone had breakfast, and then there was a plenary session - 5 or so 40 min talks, from the high muckity-mucks. After that was lunch, and there was a break. From 3-6 there were concurrent sessions, where you could go listen to stuff more directly related to your areas of interest. Then dinner, and then from 7:30-10:30 was the poster session.
My poster session was on Weds evening, so the good news was I got to get it out of the way, but on the down side, I created more controversy than I had originally anticipated, so that made for an interesting week. The most shocking accusation I got was that I was a creationist. WTF?! I've got evidence for microevolution ALL OVER MY POSTER and what do I get? An accusation that I am a creationist. This upset me.
It got better - the folks from the feuding side of the story after reviewing my data decided that they should suggest to me that it would be unwise to publish this paper. So, now, there is the Fusarium mafia apparently. Don't publish that... or else.
There was much drama spread out over the rest of the conference unfortunately, since that never really did simmer down, and instead of talking to my boss, questions came to me.
So, Thursday I was at the conference all day, the plenary sessions were not interesting to me, but the afternoon stuff was alright. I went to the posters, and it was a day.
Friday, I went to the sessions in the morning, and Cass, the girl from Hawaii and I, and her sig other snuck off and went to the Monterey aquarium. It was awesome, as always, and a much needed break from conference stress. I went to dinner and the poster session that evening, which was more of the same for me... and then met up with some friends that had driven down from Davis. We hung out in one of the lounges on site that had a fireplace and drank some wine and stayed up way to late. It was good to see them though.
Saturday morning SUCKED. The plenary session was good, but, during the coffee break, I got chewed out by my boss. In public. People stopped an looked. He was griping that I had procrastinated on getting some stats run. My response was a calm, in what time was I supposed to get that accomplished? It sucked. The session I had been excited about that afternoon was not at all what I had expected, so I went for a walk on the beach (and got to see otters playing in the surf!)
Sunday, we were in meetings until 11:30 or so.. and then we did a marathon run back to San Jose (and there were lots more lupines blooming than just on Tuesday! ... and Poppies too... but I only care about lupines) We made our flight BARELY (got to gate as they were boarding) and flew back through Houston. Unfortunately, we had a 2 hour layover, than ended up being more like 3 since there were mechanical problems with the plane. So we got back to KC at around 2 AM.... and I was in my apartment, and in bed at 4:30 AM. Suffice it to say, I didn't come to work until lunch today.
So the conference wrap up. I learned a lot. Enjoyed the conference itself, but didn't like the reception that I got - but my inner naturalist had a great time.