Whew, home!
School, once again, has sucked up a good week of my time before I knew it. I just returned from the ASHA Converence in Miami. I know, you are all rolling your eyes saying, "Oh BooHoo, little miss academia had to go to Miami for a conference." Well friends, it wasn't all pleasure. I was presenting on Friday and that certainly ate into the "play" time as the presentation needed some work before Jose and I could launch into our 15 minute foray into adulthood.
I was also hoping to blog the experience of being at a national conference with a gazillion other women and a smattering of men (Jose being one of them) but the South Beach Miami Convention Center does not believe in free wireless access apparently. I was appalled, and then very irritated, as I had brought my gorgeous laptop with me to post about talks and observations because, come on, you were ALL clamoring for updates; I know you were. Alas, unless I wanted to wait in line with thirty other folks at a kiosk, it was not to be. Even at the HoJo I stayed in there was free wireless. Come on people.
So unfortunately there is only a smattering of things to tell:
- South Beach is a BITCH to get around. Also: taxis are very expensive.
- South Beach is awesome. I was primarily on Lincoln and Collins (alas, I didn't make it to Ocean Drive) and the Art Deco... My heart lept with all that sleek neon!
- Food was surprisingly reasonable in South Beach. Not only reasonable, but also very good and the mixed drinks superb...
- ... Except for the ">HoJos where we all stayed; while the drinks there were okay, the food and the service were horrible. North Beach HoJo employees were the most unhelpful lot I'd ever had the pleasure of doing business with.
- The Melia Royal Palms was a gorgeous hotel of class and antiquity. I liked it even better than the Loews.
- Thanks to Sarah for the room to share :^)
- And thanks to Nerissa's mom for letting SIX of us stay at her house the night before our 6am flight!
- Lupa di Roma is a fabulous, friendly, and, er, good looking restaurant on Lincoln that is worth the trip. Of particular enjoyment was how the manager/owner singled out Jose as the only male at a table of 14 women. Any manager/owner who will openly suggest that we not get the chicken breast because "it is boring" is a-ok in my book. The waiters were... ah, superb, the food fabulous, the house wine palatable... well, there's a reason why it was house, but it wasn't vinegar... and the al fresco dining was fabulous. If you need a cocktail before (as the restaurant doesn't have a full bar) head next door to the sushi restaurant and have a "Sultry Sake"- a mix of sochu, sake, and mango and lychee puree.
- Drs. Shelly Velleman and Elena Zaretsky are fun to have dinner with. If you have the chance, you really ought to hang with them every once in a while.
- The talk went well even though I screwed up and turned on my 30 minute talk timer when in reality we only had 15. I owe Jose a big, big apology for taking 10 minutes on my half of the presentation. Otherwise, the talk was great and I got the chance to strut my stuff in front of the professors from my school as well as other professionals from around the country. It was great and although I wish I could have done a few things differently, I wouldn't change it for the world. Thank you Dr. Elena Zaretsky, Dr. James Hodgson, and Jose A. Ortiz!
I wish I had more time to write more about the conference, but I have an exam and a project due this week before Thanksgiving, so I think this will have to suffice. All in all, ASHA was a good experience; not life changing, not amazing, but informative and interesting and that's pretty good when you get all those SLPs into one place for three days.
(As a side note, I must admit I'm used to going to technical conferences that have more, er, panache so I wasn't overly impressed with the flash at this conference, but the content was very, very good.)
