The Days of DC - Part 4: Anticipating Upcoming Sports Seasons

Over the past year and a half since I’ve been with this job, I’ve been sent to at least three conferences (this one being the third). The appealing part about doing these functions is meeting new people. My first conference was in San Francisco and it was represented by various non-profit institutions in Northern California. The second one was in Pomona, California, which had a lot of universities from Southern California, but some from the northern area. Now, with this one, mostly everyone is from the east of the Mississippi River. Aside from me, the only other California school is Chico State. For west coast schools, University of Washington, Seattle is here also.

Everyone at these types of things know that they are on a limited amount of time, so they might as well make the most of it. So, people tend to try to make friends with you fast. Every little seminar, that “friend” will ask to sit next to you; come lunch time you all sit at the same table, and what ever the event for the evening is, you will all cling together. I don’t mind this. I appreciate the new faces. Since mostly everyone is from some drastically different area of the nation, it’s fun to get alternative perspectives on random topics and discussions.

I do my best, with these conferences, to do as much mingling and networking as possible. I like to hear people’s stories. This evening I had a gentleman ask me how my night was going. I told him it was going just fine. He then asked me what school I was with. I realized that I was in foreign territory and not everyone knows the layout of California, so Santa Cruz may not be known to all. I said a school in Northern California. I asked him the same question.

“University of Alabama!” in the thickest southern accent possible “can’t wait for football season to start!” of course you can’t.

I sat at a table with some random folks. One was from University of Southern Illinois, one was from Saint Louis University, and the other from the University of William & Mary. As I spoke some more, the one from Illinois asked me something that I have been asked in the past.

“Are you British?”

I was always curious on why I was asked this, but then over time, it all clicked. So I responded back.

“Why do you ask? Is it because I talk fast, have pale skin, blonde hair, and bad teeth?”

“Uh…I…uh...I…mean, no…I…just thought…I” then some laughter came from the other persons at the table. I hadn’t made somebody uncomfortable in a while so this was my quota for the day. He didn’t really talk to me after that.

Anyway, here’s some more pictures to feast your eyes on.

My money was on the woman in pink. She came in a close second.

When asked about the downsizing of torture, President Bush said there will be less spikes involved, less fire usage, and less screenings of Pauly Shore movies.

Home of true celtic pride: FBI headquarters (FBI: Full Blooded Irish. Get it? Ha!)

Boo!

Scientists have proven that politcians evolved from dinosaurs.

Apparently there's a large beastiality problem on capital hill.

And a pedophile problem too.

This is where Ronald Reagan was shot; he was attending a special viewing of Tootsie, and a man named Boutros Boutros Ghali shot him, saying he was trying to impress Sissy Spacek.

When in doubt...waffles.