Tuesday was shaping up to be the craziest day of the conference! With this in mind I didn't go in at the crack of dawn to cut down on the exhaustion that was sure to follow. I arrived at the conference and decided I should go and get my poster so I would be ready for the afternoon. I pushed through the door at Fedex and was told that it wasn't ready yet and I would need to come back at 10:30am. This erked me because there was a special lecture I wanted to attend that related specifically to the research I've been doing since beginning my PhD. From there I went back to the conference and made the rounds to visit a few posters on my list. I had good conversations with several students about their projects. It was getting close to 10:30am so I went back to Fedex where they told me that it still wasn't ready and I would have to wait until 1pm. My poster session started at 1pm but I wanted to put up my poster at noon because I was going to a panel session on the use of animals in biomedical research from noon to 2pm and would run back to my poster as soon as it ended. Then I would stay until the session ended at 5pm. That was my plan. So my mind was racing, what could/should I do? Yell? Go back to the hotel and get my crumpled poster? I took a deep breath and said, with increasing volume, "Alright, I was told that my poster would be ready by 7am this morning then it would be ready by 10:30am and now it's 1pm. So which is it? I need to put up my poster in 45 MINUTES! What can we do?!". I'm fairly confident that I sounded like a crazy person. Dead silence filled the place despite the long line of people waiting to be served. Then one of the employees said, "Um, ok, let me reprint it for you right now". I thanked him for doing this and wondered why that hadn't been done when I came in at 7am. From there I watched the clock tick closer and closer to the noon hour. FINALLY, he held up the poster to which I gave a thumbs up. I paid and with poster in hand rushed out into the cold. I hustled to the convention center and went directly to where my poster would be hanging that afternoon. Now I was hoping that the morning poster presenters would be there so I could ask nicely if they would allow me to put up my poster during the last few minutes of the morning session. Alas, they were nowhere to be found so with a big sigh and roll of the eyes I made my way back upstairs and was able to sneak into the "Animals in Medical Research" panel. Out of everything offered at the conference I wanted to hear what people had to say about this topic and therefore could not miss this session! I found it very interesting and even heard from one of the people who has been involved in an initiative called the "Concordat of Openness in Animal Research" that is leading the charge to change the culture surrounding the use of animals in research. That is, a large number of universities and research centers from around the world have signed on to increase transparency about the work they do with animals. The UK is at the forefront of this movement and I hope the US will follow suit. I really wanted to chat with this woman or see if she would have coffee with me the following day but there was a line of people waiting to talk to her so I decided to cut my losses and headed back to my poster. Arriving at the posterboard, that was now empty, I quickly put up my poster, caught my breath and wondered if everyone who had wanted to talk to me had come in the hour when I was at the animals in research panel. For the first few minutes no one stopped to chat but soon there were a few people, then a steady stream including one of my fellow lab members. By the end of the session I had talked to quite a few people and got to see some posters from lab groups in Europe that are using the same rat model as our group. There are relatively few labs in the world that have this tool so it's exciting to meet with others who are using it. Suddenly, five o'clock rolled around and it was time to take my poster down, gather my things and head upstairs to attend the last Presidential Lecture of the conference. Again the place was packed with thousands upon thousands and we heard a talk about glial cells and their incredible importance in brain function.
Leaving the conference I was tired but had a smile on my face. Despite the hiccups with my poster the day was a smashing success!! I headed back to the hotel to drop off my stuff. Then I set out to get some Chipotle takeout and the cashier was nice enough to give me some of my change in quarters. I wanted to do some laundry before checking out the following morning. After returning to the hotel I put in a load of laundry and settled in to enjoy my Chipotle supper. :) Then I decided I'd do another load of laundry but what do you know? The machine decided to eat my precious quarters so I spent about an hour getting a hold of the hotel staff, trying to retrieve the quarters, trying to restart the machine then getting the front desk to refund my money. Drama. In the end I was able to wash and dry everything and set to packing my bags for the following morning. I was planning to take my bag with me to the conference, leave it at their "bag check", attend a morning session and then walk to the metro stop so I could get on and take it up to Silver Spring where my mom's hotel was located.
I sorted through all my materials from the conference and threw most of them away. I mean, why would I need a comprehensive list of posters presented at the meeting? I will return to this point.
So after a huge day I crashed for the night knowing I was ready to check out and embark on the second part of my DC trip: sightseeing and shopping with my mom! :)
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