just can't remember who to send it to

I got lost on my way to the conference this morning and had the chance to use my cell phone for about the third time in my life when it was actually useful in a semi-important moment as Shawn was able to direct me back to the right place. It's beautiful here, but the roads are confusing. Where I used to live, you could tell when you left the city limits by all the cows and wheat fields. Here, the cities all seem to touch each other, and the only way to know you've entered a new one is by the sign welcoming you to it, once you're already thoroughly lost. Still, sometimes when I'm driving across the bridges I am so awed by how beautiful it is here that I almost can't breathe.

The conference was interesting. From a purely social perspective, I enjoyed getting the opportunity to talk to some of my new colleagues who I had not, as of yet, gotten to know. Look at me, enjoying people. Weird.

As for the sessions themselves, they were a mix (as is generally expected) of both interesting and tedious. The opening speaker was, for me, quite fascinating. I was really amazed to hear about the growing wave of psychologists practicing "hypno-rebirthing" in spite of the fact that research and empirical data shows that it accomplishes nothing. In fact I had a small private snort to myself because it struck a chord that reminded me of my own unsupported beliefs not so long ago, now debunked much to my relief. Just because something seems to make sense, or feels right, doesn't mean it is. Sometimes science proves that we fool ourselves into believing things that we just really want to believe.

The second session I attended was dull, and I blame myself because I chose this session based upon what the others from my school were going to attend rather than choosing what I, personally, thought looked interesting in the program.

When it came time for the last session, I toughened up and stopped acting like a teenager and picked something that I wanted to learn about for myself. And it turned out to be pretty good. But too long. Three hours of sitting in a chair is hard for me. I don't like not being able to move around. I don't know how I ever got through school.

I am attending the conference again tomorrow. And then it's the weekend. Yay.

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