On the go......

The following morning we set off to engage in an activity that I'd been dreaming about for months: shopping. Since moving to NZ we've made dramatic strides in effectively and responsibly managing our finances. However, that has meant that we don't have much extra each month for treats. Or shopping. Being one who loves shopping this has been hard but when I was making arrangements to visit DC for Neuroscience I knew I'd have the opportunity to shop for some much needed goodies (like shoes and socks). :)

Our first stop was a sporting goods store where I found a replacement pair of running shoes - this was very exciting! I've started running and have needed to replace my kicks for some time now but prices in NZ are prohibitive. We also found that the store had SmartWool socks - Tim converted me early on and I've been wearing SmartWool ever since. If you haven't tried them they are well worth the cost! Picking out a few pairs for both Tim and I it felt like Christmas-come-early. :)

After that we moved on to DSW Shoe Warehouse - I hadn't expected there to be a DSW so close to our hotel and since they have so many different shoes it was a place we had to visit. Always overwhelming I started walking up and down the aisles and trying on shoes. In the end I found a great pair of choclate brown Born wingtips with velvet laces to match. I needed a pair of shoes that could be dressed up or down and these fit the bill perfectly. I also found a pair of boots and couldn't leave without them. While Wellington weather is never extreme I'd wanted to find a pair of boots like these to wear on rainy days when I have to be out walking. Upon leaving the store with shopping bags in hand I was on cloud nine. :)

From there we returned to the hotel to drop off our shopping bags and set off for the Metro. We zipped down to the National Mall and started making our way towards our destination: The Library of Congress. The Library is located just outside the National Mall on the other side of the Capitol Building. Seeing the Capitol Building was anticlimactic because it was completely encapsulated in scaffolding. This produced a strange effect making it look more like the "Beehive" here in Wellington (Executive Wing of Parliament) than the Capitol Building.

Following the route mapped out in my head we made our way around the side of the Capitol Building and across a green expanse of lawn saw the Library of Congress. While it wasn't labelled as such I was sure we were in the right place. We snapped some photos before going in, through security, and meeting up with the tour group that would start within a few minutes. 

The tour began soon after and we were escorted through some of the main areas of the Thomas Jefferson Building. It is one of three buildings that comprise the Library and house its 150 million items!!! Upon hearing this factoid my jaw hit the floor. I knew the Library was the largest in the world but I had no idea of its scale or the fact that it not only has books but magazines, newspapers, maps, comic books, sheet music, manuscripts and photos.

What was most striking, and what I found most surprising, was the Great Hall. This area of the Library was nothing short of breathtaking; murals, mosaics, sculpture, engraved quotes and stone carvings graced every surface of the mammoth space. The Great Hall was built and adorned as a "statement" of sorts to tell the rest of the world that the US, while in its infancy, could build something just as incredibly beautiful as anything in Europe. Hearing this I thought to myself, "That makes sense". Because it immediately reminded me of the Renaissance architecture and style that graced so many building (inside and out) that we saw when visiting Europe last year. 

Partway through the tour we were escorted to a balcony overlooking the Main Reading Room. Remember National Treasure: Book of Secrets where they run into the Library, through the Main Reading Room, and up to a specific book on a specific shelf? Yeah, I have to bust this one! There is no strolling into the Main Reading Room unless you've gone through the process of getting a "Reader Identification Card". If you want to set foot in there and do work you have to follow the Library's protocols. So the movie, not surprisingly, did a bit of embellishing on that one. :)

I found it most incredible that there were people sitting in the Main Reading Room presumably reading, writing and doing their day to day work. But in the Library of Congress! I thought, "If I lived here I would most definitely study at the Library!".

Our tour ended at Thomas Jefferson's personal library. In 1815 the Library purchased this private collection for what was surely, at the time, a large fortune: $24,000. The books were displayed on round glass shelves that you could walk around. Apparently, the books are arranged this way because he had always wanted a round library so he would be surrounded by his books. Being a book fiend myself I felt a kinship with this man and couldn't agree more with one of his famous quotes: "I cannot live without books". Upon close inspection of the 6,487 titles you could see that some of them had ribbons sticking out from the top of the pages. Some where green denoting that they were original items from his library: the actual books that sat on his shelves. Other books had gold ribbons meaning they were not original items but those of the same edition that had been collected and added to this recreated library. Lastly, there were some items that, to date, had not been found and they were signified by placeholders that displayed their title and author. As you might imagine after seeing his library I've added "round library" to my ultimate wishlist. Simply incredible to see.

After pulling ourselves away from the Library we talked about coming back the following day to get our Library Identification Cards and spend some time in the Main Reading Room. :)

From there we went in search of an Artemide showroom that Google Maps told me was nearby. When my mom and I lived in Minneapolis, MN, a few years back she ran an Artemide Lighting showroom. Artemide is an Italian lighting firm that makes modern, high end fixtures. I even worked at the showroom briefly when I was finishing my undergrad at the U of M, Minneapolis. I only did clerical work but enjoyed working in such a fancy place of business. All that to say we researched and located a DC showroom and, of course, wanted to visit. Unfortunately, upon arriving at our destination we immediately realized there was no showroom to be found. After some head scratching we determined that we had been snookered by Google Maps. The correct street address had been entered but with the wrong direction; instead of NW, where the actual showroom was located, it directed us to SE. Sigh. A bit dejected we caught the metro, via one transfer to another line, back to our hotel. We regrouped, went out for Thai food and then headed to the movie theater around the corner from our hotel.

Smithsonian American Art Museum.......

After lunch mom and I consulted Google Maps and decided we would metro into the city and go to the Smithsonian American Art Museum. While we are both artists and great fans of art I wanted to visit this particular gallery because it houses some pieces from my favorite painter, Georgia O'Keeffe. During the conference I had strolled past this building before realizing what it was. After that I couldn't wait to go back and explore what was inside.

We walked two blocks from the metro stop and were soon picking up a map of the museum. Huddling over the map we considered what to look at first. But I just couldn't wait so instead of looking around we asked where we could find Georgia's paintings. Up to the second floor we went into a "Modernism" section.  Stepping through the door I saw them. Across the room I recognized her style immediately. Now I had seen a couple of her landscapes at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art a few years back. But never her flowers which have always been my favorite. And there was one right in front of me. We popped back and forth between "Hibiscus with Plumeria" and an abstract design deemed "Only One". We marveled at the color combinations and studied her patterns and brush stokes. I've said this before but it's really true: when I look at a piece of art, the longer I look the more I see. It's almost as if the piece transforms before my eyes even though it remains the same - it's just my brain that races to catch up.

We had been walking back and forth between these two paintings that were separated by a large rectangular canvas. During one pass my eyes danced over the description of the larger painting and what I read stopped me in my tracks. It was one of hers as well but I never would've guessed that had I not read the nameplate. Titled "Manhattan" it was nothing like her other paintings. All hard lines and strange color combinations that had us confused. However, upon closer inspection we realized that the painting, while at first glance so very different, still had traces of her in it.

It was hard to believe that I was standing right next to three of her paintings and so it was difficult to walk away. We spent some time perusing the rest of the modern pieces - I really liked this one because it was a painting that looked like stained glass. 

Then we moved on to Impressionism but not before being side tracked by a two panelled stained glass window. Upon close inspection I realized that many of the pieces of glass were not smooth but surprisingly jagged. The pieces extended outward, toward the viewer, from the lead bezel that held each little jewel in place. The effect was striking and nothing that I would expect from stained glass; I had only ever seen completely smooth pieces. These particular windows held the smallest pieces of stained glass I'd ever seen. I couldn't imagine trying to  put these windows together one tiny piece at a time! 

After sitting with the stained glass we did make it to the Impressionists. The photo doesn't begin to do it justice as this is an incredible subject created with a trillion tiny brushstrokes. I have no idea how the artists keep their wits about them when creating such a small portion of the piece with each brushstroke. Incredible. Beautiful and moving.

After checking out a few of the other wings we took a trip through the gift shop and then decided it was time to get back. We walked back to the Metro, disembarked at Silver Spring station and with a little help from Google Maps found a Chipotle nearby our hotel. And no, it wasn't the only place I ate at while in DC! :)

Coke.....

Ok, so mom and I sit down to eat lunch at the hotel restaurant. Now this is going to sound crazy but I have to describe it. When the waitress asked if we wanted something to drink my usual mantra of "no, thank you, I'm fine with water" kicked in automatically. In Wellington we rarely order drinks because of cost so I didn't even process the fact that I'm in the US. The land of Coca-Cola. But my mom immediately jumped in and said, "Don't you want a Coke?". To which I laughed and replied, "Oh! Yes, please!". Not being able to get real Coke in NZ breaks my heart. They make regular (non-diet) Coke and distribute it throughout NZ but the bottling process is different and the end product tastes like diet even though it is not. What could be worse than something that tastes like diet but still has all the sugar?!

Not only did I get to have real Coke but it came in a tall glass filled with ice cubes. After being in NZ for almost three years this has become a novelty to me. If you go to a restaurant here odds are you will not be served any beverage over ice. It just isn't done. And I love ice cold drinks so having my favorite one over ice was a big treat. And I won't lie - I had Coke over ice many a time while in DC. :) The small joys you never knew about until you experienced something different.

Cards.....

This is a break from my DC blogging to tell you, with great regret, that we have dropped the ball and will not be sending Christmas cards this year. :( Failbook! I always enjoy writing them, addressing the envelopes and dropping a great stack into the mail box. However, with all the hubbub leading up to Neuroscience I hadn't been thinking far enough ahead to get this task sorted. Sigh. It's a big frustration and disappointment but this is the reality for Christmas 2014.

On a brighter note I unpacked all of our Christmas stuff and set up the tree - it's looking awesome and already stocked with presents from Tim's family. I love Christmas! Soon it will be St Nick's Day - hence the little stockings. Time to break out the Christmas movies - I've already cued up several Holiday Pandora stations. Christmas is here.

Neuroscience 2014 - Art........

Gigantic mobiles at the convention center. Tennis rackets, bar stools, kayaks, guitars and bikes.

Neuroscience 2014 - Wednesday.......

So there I was, Wednesday morning, stuffing the last of my clothes and toiletries into my backpack. I rechecked around the room to make sure that I had everything and then hefted the pack onto my back. After checking out I got lucky and caught a shuttle bus just a few minutes later. Arriving at the conference I made my way to the "bag check" where I was told that each bag would cost me $5. Really?! The conference isn't making enough money off the 30,000+ attendees! I coughed up the money and handed my bag over to the people manning the desk. They literally wrestled it into submission and I stowed my pickup ticket in my shoulder bag.

I somehow had enough time to stand in line for Starbucks before finding my way to the minisymposium that was addressing the neurobiological basis of food addiction. Settling in for the talks I managed to juggle my breakfast and tea while taking notes. With my poster session behind me and it being the last day of the conference I was feeling pretty light. About halfway through the talks a thought struck me like a lightening bolt. You know all those books detailing everything that was happening each day at Neuroscience? The ones I threw straight into the garbage the night before? Right, that's probably a bad idea after I had taken some precious notes on the black pages at the back of each book!! With a mental head slap I waited for the current talk to finish then quietly snuck out the door at the back of the room. I called the hotel to see if my room had already been cleaned. They said they would check so I figured instead of waiting around I would just shuttle back to the hotel. Upon arriving one of the ladies from housekeeping was kind enough to find what had been in the garbage can next to the desk in my hotel room. I was able to extract the notes while thanking her profusely and feeling like an idiot for making such a silly mistake!

With the notes stowed safely in my bag I caught the next shuttle back to the convention center where I said to myself, "I'm calling it!". Neuroscience 2014 had been AWESOME but it was time to get going. So I retraced my steps to the bag check, hoisted my bag onto my back, adjusted all the straps and set off for the Metro. There I swiped through the gate with my nifty SmarTrip card and was lucky to nab a whole seat for my bag and I. We settled in for the ride up to Silver Spring. I consulted my Metro map to make sure I knew where I would be disembarking. I didn't need to check as I already had the details firmly etched in my mind but with riding the Metro for the first time I wanted to be extra sure I wasn't going to make a mistake. Without incident we arrived at Silver Spring and I hiked, well it felt like hiking - I don't know how people actually hike with these packs! - the three blocks to my mom's hotel. I could see it as soon as I emerged from the Metro station and it's always a relief to know that you're in the right place when you're traveling somewhere new. I walked through the doors and started looking around. That's when my mom came running up to me with a huge smile on her face. We hugged and laughed and took my stuff up to the hotel room. I unpacked everything and then we went downstairs to grab lunch at the hotel's restaurant.

Neuroscience 2014 - Tuesday.....

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! :)