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Two days of errands for the PNI conference

2006-05-29 - 8:06 p.m.

We'll get the most immediate stuff taken care of first, then see if I have any juice to backtrack. I'm exhausted and have been out in the sun in a two ton metal box most of today. Contents are under pressure and may reflect said warpping.

* * *

My last few days have been almost unbearably busy. All of this revolves around a conference I'm going to in Miami, from Tuesday 'til Sunday night when I get back. I'm giving the flagship talk of my niche area, and some very famous people in my specialization will be in the audience.

Yesterday (sunday) started out simple: get a wireless presenter clicky remote, then head to the Sears at the other mall end for some new ties, dress shirt and pants at Sears.

I got that stuff, drove back home.

I then looked around to see if I could find a tailor. I bought my original suit from the Men's Wearhouse, so I figured I'd try them. The tailor was just about to leave early when I called, but she stuck around. I put on my suit jacket, which like a tarp flowed around me.

"No, no--no this will not look good," she said with a Russian vein.

She put in some pins, trying to voodoo up the ensemble, to resurrect the thing. But she continued to shake her head. She was right: the jacket was far beyond hope.

"You're skinny," in her words.

I thought about this for a minute while changing back and decided, right there, that I could either:

1) Wear dress shoes I'd had for 8 years with a threaded belt, passably good slacks, and a suit jacket 8-10 inches too big in many places.

2) Start from scratch

I went with #2.

The tailor was gone but a black gentleman was guiding me through the process. I always appreciate how cordial the wardrobe consultants are at suit places, and he was exceptionally professional at guiding me toward good combinations.

Much later, I had a new (much smaller) Italian suit jacket, Italian slacks from the same designer, and the most pimped out shiny black dress shoes, a regular black belt (aren't you vaguely proud of me, Hill?). I am in love with those shoes. In addition, I chose a few of the ties the consultant recommended, along with one cream dress shirt.

The total was semi-painful. Great for what I was getting but bad for my budget. My credit card was nearly maxed out. I declined the sheik 99.99 carry bag they offered, opting for a 10$ garment bag. At least I will superbly well-dressed; that and a great business card can get you professionally laid.

So I got that stuff, drove back home.

It then occurred to me to get business cards. I checked online. I found a kinkos. Guess where it was? Across the street from the Warehouse. I talked with a woman on the line about printing up cards. She said all I needed, if I wanted to use a logo, was to have said logo as a PDF on a travel drive.

I did so, I drove so, I inquired thus.

The 'I am SO middle management, not your fucking helpful associate' type of guy informed me I needed a PDF of, well, a business card. I figured maybe there was a creation studio there. He also confirmed I couldn't use my university's insignia without permission.

Ok.

So I drove back home, spent two hours making a business card using my departments NON-copyrighted insignia. If people know my department, then my card is better than with a uni logo; if they're not familiar, it'll look like I did that graphic myself and I get bonus 'cool' points.

I drove back out to Kinkos, processed the order with a curiously awkward geeky girl, and waited for my proof to be finished today.

Somewhere in there I had 4 brats and a pepsi at the Brat Fest, underneath a willow. It kept gently wacking me. I appreciated that. Some youngish boys were using branches as swinging vines, because their parents could part with 2 bucks to put them on a bouncy ride thing. I didn't at all appreciate that.

* * *

Today was either mostly hilarious or upsetting. Maybe both. I:

*Drove to the lab to present my talk, no one was there.

*Drove to my place, got Thai food.

*Drove to Kinkos, only to find out that it would take 24hrs to print my cards from the time I accepted my proofs. I'd thought it was from the time of ordering. I excused myself to check my calendar for no good reason. I looked so distraught the guy said it could be done by midnight.

*Drove back home, checked email. Gabe was at the lab, thankfully.

*Drove to the lab, showed her my presentation. She gave thumbs up and well-wishes. She's always really there for me. I'm happy to have given the head-nod for her to be one of the authors on my work.

*Walked up to Psych to practice my talk, realized that I had to pick up my suit at 4 (it was 3:30)

*Drove to the Warehouse, put on my suit, got the thumbs-up from a consultant, and Iven (the original consultant) finished up things.

*Drove back to near the lab, parked, went out to the psych building. Practice my talk 6 times. Got it down FINALLY to 8 minutes. Started to add vocal inflections and emotionality.

*Got in my car, drove back home, nuked a pizza, ate it, began to chill.

So basically drive, drive, errand, drive, drive, drive, errand, errand, drive.

In all, the most productive Memorial Day I've ever had. Kudos to Kinko's and Men's Warehouse for getting a man ready to make his fate in battle.

And for some requisite bitching: Did I mention it was 88 degrees out, with 66% humidity, my car has no air-conditioning, and my front driver's window doesn't open at all? Yeah. Sucky. But I didn't get a heat headache, so actually I'm thankful.


I still have to pack. I always do it last-minute. It's only for 4 days, but I have to be very careful with the suits and ties. Thankfully I have a garment bag for the suits. The only thing I still have for carry-on otherwise is my ugly green satchel with the flat bottom. At least it has deep, entirely separate side pockets.

Otherwise, I have the taxis ready, my temporary Aussie post-doc roommate knows when I'm coming, I have my talk down pretty solid, and I have just enough cash where I can SCRAP by. 500 bucks in hotel expenses is gonna hurt like a bitch in non-sunshine areas.

* * *

My personal life is all over the place. We're talking at least 2 good long posts worth.

But I have to pack. If I have time between packing, heading out to Kinkos to get my business cards, and uh sleeping 'til 8am, I'll write.

Otherwise I'll do the "be back in X days, I'll update about the event, no I fucking swear I will" message.

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