Nashville airport, 9:37pm

I'm so freaking bored. I've been waiting since 7:00 pm. My 8:00 departure from Nashville to Austin has been extended to 11:30 and I charged $8.30 to my credit card so at least I could blog at an internet station in the C terminal. My back up plan is to go get drunk with the single guys in the bar close to my gate. But I'm not that desperate yet. The keys on this keyboard are exceptionally heavy and sticky and I'd be better served to type with my two index fingers but I'm too embarrassed. People are still landing in Nashville and walking by me to go to the baggage claim.

So with 20 minutes and 52 seconds left, I can catch up on the last week. After the suicide debacle, I , more or less, fled to Raleigh for two days of sleeping, home cooking and parent spoiling. Mom made my favorite meal, and I watched hours of the Ryder Cup with dad. I brought the cats with me so I could leave them to be babysat, and so lots of stalking/hissing ensued. This makes Dad nervous and stressed.

I got my patient to be discharged back to our residential unit. It would have happened sooner, perhaps if some of the douchebag med students had put med orders in when I asked, rather than um forgetting to do so. I got over my frustration in time to be informed that our weekly team meeting has been erroneously split into two meetings with a substantial increase in irrelevance. I sent the team "leader" and i use this term loosely, an email asking for an explanation. I later asked one of my supervisors if she was in on the meeting that crafted the "stupidest thing I've ever heard of." I was fresh out of tact at the beginning of this week. Shawn and I have become a stronger force for sarcasm and inappropriateness since.

So this week I am attempting to fit attendance at the Attach conference in Charlotte with Austin City Limits. So far so good, except for this inane waiting. I went to work early on Wednesday to score a Rorschach and generally bust my ass before having to go to a painfully elementary play therapy seminar that I couldhave taught. Shawn and I shot dirty looks at our colleagues when they asked loads of questions at the end, as we had to go back to the hospital at 4:30 for the purpose of working. I ran around like a crazy person for exactly 2.5 hours and preemptively did discharge paperwork for my patient, and as much readmission paperwork as I could do. Inadvertently, I left my supervisor with a shitload of work to do while I took off for Charlotte for my conference. My patient did not pick a convenient time to attempt suicide, is all I can say. I left MCV at 7 Wednesday night and blearily drove to Charlotte. The conference was held in a brand new Embassy Suites complete with spa and golf course so the next morning I went straight to the spa to make an appointment for deep tissue massage.

This is year 3 for me and this conference. I have learned a few things....like its always freezing, so I was dressed for winter. The snacks provided during breaks are awesome. Lunches are always provided, and I have learned to abscond with mine back to my room for tv watching and napping. I just don't go to network, or meet people. I almost inevitably do, but I was all about sleeping. Attachment people are not an attractive bunch. Dumpy, overweight, oddly shaped middle aged women were everywhere in their knits and sensible shoes. I am always the youngest by eons. Its not a glamorous niche. There's not a lot of money in it, grant wise, at least not yet. You can bet the alcohol researchers are a spiffy looking group. The attachment conference shared a hall with a Microsoft/tech conference or training. It was quite easy to distinguish groups.

However, my great moment of the conference was at this research review seminar where the year's research in attachment is summarized and discussed by a group of attendees, and then any ongoing research from the audience can be presented. Lacking any sense of inhibition, I took to the mic and wowed the group with my study. I have several new projects formulating in my brain, as a result of this conference. It's really why I go. The energy, while dumpy in appearance, is really good, and I always leave with a fresh motivation to be a kick ass clinician and researcher. This is where my dissertation idea took shape two years ago, after all. Well, my time is nearly upand my fingers are sore. I'm off to the bar.