Day #3 - DC

Today was a big conference day so there isn't a whole lot to share. Before I get to boring you all to tears with my professional activities I will share with you the scary subway escalators. The subway here is way underground. Or maybe it's not so far underground, they've just built the escalators to be moving ladders. Whatever the cause, the escalators leading into the subway station are intense. This isn't even the steepest one! They all kind of give me vertigo, particularly in conference overload.


I started my day at the conference with a 30 minute session with a career counselor. This was invaluable! She confirmed a lot that is in my head about my professional future and gave me some suggestions on how to find a new job, the suggestion being network, network, network! Networking is something I neither enjoy or am good at. It's something I need to work on. When I go to conferences I make it a point to talk to one person in every session I attend. A good start, but it's not going to get me the job. This shortcoming drives me insane because I know exactly what I need to do and can totally envision myself working a room but I just can't make myself do it. The career counselor did suggest telling everyone I know that I am looking for a job. Consider yourself warned: I am looking for a job in the Boston area!!! She also took a quick look at my resume and had some positive comments and suggestions. All-in-all, well worth the $30 and the getting up at the crack of dawn to make it to the session by 8am!

I attended three sessions today. Most professional literature suggests attending at least one session that's completely over your head. I got that out of the way first while I was still a little groggy. It was only when someone asked a question at the end of the session did I actually get the point of the lecture. The other two sessions were much better.

I did leard something that I can share: when going to a conference or vacation where you will be doing a lot of walking, be sure to test out your footwear selection before going!! I took a pair of sandals I haven't worn since last year and a pair of clogs I wear all the time (with socks). I wore the sandals all day yesterday and got a big blister between my big and second toe. I popped it last night. The bandaid I wore all day got scrunched up all day today leading me to thing that a blister was forming on top of the one I popped yesterday and worrying that it was going to pop in a gross, painful mess. Turns out the only blister that formed today was on my brain, while I was packing for this trip - what was I thinking???

I need to clarify something I wrote in yesterday's post: I am not looking to move to DC. Washington DC is one of my most favorite cities in the US! I LOVE visiting here. Right now I live in a very sucky city - one which makes me more and more miserable the longer I am stuck there. I love DC this week but I would also love any other city in the US with a working subway system, a walkable layout, multi generations and diversities everywhere you turn, culture sights all over the place, etc equally. I crave city life. DC is feeding that need this week. I want Boston to feed that need long term. :-)