About last week.

In bulletpoints, even though I could write essays (who, me? ramble?)

* Saw a lot of really interesting talks, and really appreciated the whole science plus society/policy spin of this conference. Tres cool.

* Met a lot of cool science writing folks, and asked a lot of questions about what people did, how they got to be doing what they do, etc. They're hella fun and hella interesting, on the whole.

* Hey, remember that end part of that Blind Melon video where the bee girl finds all the bee people? OK. I felt a bit like that.

* Don't underestimate the learning curve of "But I'm a scientist!" though.

* Realized new and unchartered territories of Professional Stuff I Need To Work On. I'll leave it at that.

* OK, one example: How long does it take two people to realize the importance of business cards, work in a team on procuring their own, before coming out with a final product which doesn't leave ink sumdges on the recipient's hands? About five days.

* Well, I'm young(ish) and learning. So I guess it's OK that I probably seemed totally goofball/"Greetings Earthlings! I just flew in from Planet Academia!" the majority of the time. Sort of.

* Didn't stray from conference-related science-writer stuff the entire time (with the exception of the night of my birthday.) For reals. It was too fun.

* Birthday bashment was awesome fun as well. Blake made me a totally fabulous birthday dinner. Sort of like they hire mourners for funerals in some cultures, Blake invited his friends over to celebrate my birthday with me. Thanks, Friends!

* Then we all went to DC9 for dancing and Lesbians on Ecstacy. But missed the latter.

* I somehow happened upon this post when trying to find a link to the above statement, and I found it pretty damn funny.

* Eventually we shut the place down sh-sh-shaking it to indie/punk/electro-/britpop/whatevers at Taint, the DJ'd part of the evening. And it totally rocked out.

* I've been told Taint is DC9's gay night. Me? at a GAY night? wha?

* Even better, cute gay AND straight boys and girls alike bought me birthday drinks there. Yay. Harmony.

* Damn I miss living in cities spinning dance music in the aforementioned genres.

And there you go. About last week.