A comedy of errors, but overall a good day.

(Don’t mind the guy behind me – he’s just my bodyguard.)

Yesterday was our annual geek-fest at school.  We all geeked out, and we got to have lunch with the keynote speaker -  Laurie Glimcher.  She is the new dean of Cornell School of Medicine and she has discovered many important sciency things (the details of which I won’t get into) during her career.   She is a mother-of-three rock star, and I wish I had half her energy / intelligence / motivation.

This year’s geek-fest had some pretty funny moments.  My favorites:

• Daniele’s name was changed to “Andy” in the program, and her department changed to “Medical Nutritional Sciences,” which I suppose is approximately the same as microbiology (in a not-at-all kind of way).  Despite the program errors, her poster garnered a lot of interest from Madame Glimcher (previously mentioned goddess). 

• Erin’s abstract in the program was somehow replaced with Chadene’s personal statement.  Keyword = personal = not intended to be published for the BU School of Medicine.  Which was just as well because the printers screwed up Erin’s poster, so they had to drive it over… a couple hours late.  It finally arrived, and it was beautiful.  And so was her pretty green dress.

• Not only did Chadene’s personal statement get published, but also her personal information.  Chadene had to leave early for a special appointment.  When the awards were announced, the organizer (a really nice woman, bless her heart) told the large room full of people, “Oh yeah, Chadene had to leave early.  She has an appointment (pause… smile…) with her soon-to-be-born child!”   Chadene hadn’t actually told the world her news at that point.  Surprise!

• I gave a talk this year (see above photo).  I was told by at least one person that I looked like I might vomit at a couple points.  Funny, that’s exactly how I felt.  I love morning sickness.  So much.