Conferences make me tired

I'm exhausted. It's been a long week and it's not over yet. But it's been a good week... lots of great ideas floating around. A few things that people mentioned that will either improve my work or tie my work to what they are doing. I consider both of these great. It's also been fun to catch up with people I haven't seen in a while, though I haven't done as much networking as I should. I've sometimes gone to conferences in the past with a list of "big-wigs" I wanted to meet. But I didn't do that this time. One of the reasons I had done this in the past is partly because you must be known in your field to get tenure. Departments "go out for letters." Meaning they ask people in your field to write basically a letter of recommendation on your behalf. It's all kind of weird, especially when you are in a field that cuts across lots of different sciences. I don't know who they would have write at this point, but that's still a long way off.

The hotel is very swanky. I must note that I am a big klutz. I was so looking forward to enjoying the pool at my hotel, but I now have very bruised legs. I nearly fell down the stairs yesterday. I caught myself on the way down, but I still knocked my shins on the hard stone steps pretty good. I have a scraped knee and some nice big bruises (that I'm certain aren't done forming yet). So no skirts today (though this is one of the things I look forward to about conferences since I don't have a chance of being in the lab, where I won't where skirts).

Also, a strange observation about the hotel I made today. The shower looks like it is stone. Well, it's a stone design on regular tile. I think it's pretty strange.