sabbatical [suh-bat-i-kuhl]
any extended period of leave from one's customary work, esp. for rest, to acquire new skills or training, etc.
Synonyms include: holiday, time off, leave

Work sent me to another conference this week. I had to man our booth at the Society For Neuroscience convention in San Diego. My drive down on Sunday was as pleasant as it could ever be. Traffic flowed and I cruised at 60-65 mph, only taken aback by the after-effects of the massive fires that took place a few weeks ago. Thank goodness it was finally extinguished!

I got to Mission Valley (this town about 5 miles from Gaslamp/Downtown) in literally 2 hours. I checked in at a newly-renovated Hilton and, despite having waited almost an hour and a half for my room, I was quite impressed with the place nonetheless. It's so weird staying in a hotel room all by myself, with just one big bed instead of the 2-room suite that I'm so used to sharing with, oh I don't know, 10 other friends sometimes. It was nice though. Sometimes we forget to enjoy a little something called "silence," which I truly appreciated in the four days I was removed from my little box of reality.
When I finally got my keycard, I unpacked all my toiletries in the bathroom (with OCD perfection) and hung all my clothes for the week in the closet. I swear, the maid must've been superbored with my room because all she had to do was fix my bed (which I actually managed to leave unmade) and replace one towel in the bathroom everyday.

On my first night of "Quality Time With Anna," I spent an hour or so at the Borders across the overpass from my hotel, and then ordered some fish 'n chips from Gordon Biersch to-go so I could watch the game in my room. I had FoxSportsWest! How awesome is that?! That's such a random channel to have in a hotel room. I expected MTV and a movie channel but not FoxSports freakin' West!

So anyhow, what's more random than me attending a Society for Neuroscience conference? How about seeing my cousin, Melissa from Ohio at the Society for Neuroscience conference?! Mel's getting her PhD in neuroscience and she attends this conference every year! Of the 31,000 people that were at that conference, I happened to notice HER walking by our booth! This girl is such a character! So smart and so witty! I was kind of relieved to have her there. We see each other every other year for family reunions but this time - what a pleasant surprise! After my first full day of passing out free journals, telling people about neuroscience and the publications we offer (talk about pulling information out of your ass!), gawking at all the hottie neuroscientists (seriously I can't believe how many goodlookers there were at this conference!), I had dinner with Ate Lisa and her daughters, my nieces April and Alyssa, remember them? It's never a dull moment with these two. After dinner we walked through an outdoor mall, hung out at Build-A-Bear for like 45 minutes, then headed to Gepetto's Workshop (a toy store, of course) for another half hour and then Bath & Body works for another hour or two. HILARIOUS...
Time in the booth got progressively easier as the conference went on. I found other sources of relief for the mind-numbing boredum in between Mel's random visits (like observing and writing ideas down for stuff).

Overall, it was a great trip! They're sending me to Palm Springs in January. Who's free for 4 days?!! Hmmm, we'll see how that one goes...