So I have photo evidence of all of this, but for now just trust that my flight to Orange County got delayed by three hours, but the airport boredom was replaced by an all out Phoenix Suns festival. The first sign that something wacky was going on was the security line featuring a quartet of scantily purple-clad dancers / cheerleaders / solar flares or whatever the hey they're called. I could understand that cheerleaders need to fly, but I couldn't fathom why they would be decked out in uniform aside from some bizarre Suns corporate policy. Turns out they were arriving to welcome the Phoenix Suns to the airport, and they had the famed, child-terrifying gorilla in tow. Oh, goodness. Oh, and let's clarify, it wasn't "the Phoenix Suns," it was "some Phoenix Suns" - Grant Hill, Louis Amundson, Robin Lopez, and a couple of guys I didn't know. I.e. no Nash or Stoudemire, who apparently have better things to do. They welcomed them off the plane as though it were an announcement of a starting lineup at a game - blaring music, PA guy, the whole nine yards (or maybe eight, as there were no smoke machines and a decided lack of laser graphics). People got autographs, posters, calendars, free t-shirts, and mugged by the gorilla. There were decidedly disparate reactions from the obvious business travelers in the audience, who just glared over their Blackberries at the mid day disturbance, and the rest of us idiots, who were enthralled by the entirety of the meaningless spectacle. All of the players / people were exceptionally gracious, took pics with the fans and even ran a mini-trivia game with ticket handouts. The whole time Grant Hill smiled brightly, though I am pretty sure his internal dialogue had a whole lot of "Don't you know who I am? I'm Grant effing Hill! I won national championships! I don't appear at lame-ass 12th man Southwest Airlines promotional stunts! WTF!!?!?"
Of course, the absurdity of the over-exuberant cheerleaders were what really grasped attention. I mentioned elsewhere that they were about a square yard of clothing north of stripper apparel, and while I am sure they are talented in the cheering / dancing department, this particular event required little more that their standing around and showing off eighteen inch waists and ample, too-tight-top-enhanced cleavage. Seriously, it was freaky, and a few steps past family friendly. I got a little entranced by the slew of middle aged men and eight year old girls lining up to get their pictures taken with the cheer-squad. "You are HOT, I must document that I saw you!" "I want to be confined to roles as a sexual object when I grow up!" Or something. Anyways, the cycle continues. You may at this point be wondering why I led this with Dr. Frankenfurter; well, I learned my flight was delayed and turned around to see a Gorilla milling about with exotic dancers and Grant Hill. Don't dream it. Be it.
I noticed that I've been pulling my usual end of semester trick and popping up for air once a week to post here. So I should probably fill you in on what's been going on. Last week I presented my prospectus project for that class; it was more than a little stressful but was pulled off adequately. Immediately went from that to a grading fest of Bio 311 assignments and exams; that course and its 200-some-odd students have had a way for grabbing all of time for stretches. I also had to wrap up some reading assignments for Jason, present an article in lab group, write my final paper for the applied ethics course, and wrap up / respond to the complaints about grades from the aforementioned course. Got kinda nutty and sleep-depriving, but as far as I can tell, I came out unscathed.
I am currently waiting for a plane to take me to Orange County where I am TOTALLY going to hang with Seth and Ryan. Sorry, couldn't resist, and I maintain that the first half of season one is among the best TV ever. No, I am going to the Sackler Colloqium on In Light of Evolution: The Human Condition. I am psyched for the program, as it features some cool talks and some heavy hitters, some of whom I aim to interview down the road as part of my project, so hopefully I'll get a chance to meet them. On the other hand, I am not entirely psyched about the networking aspect of this stuff that I "should" be doing. I am a crappy careerist. I will try to meet some folks and be sociable, but I don't see myself going out til all hours, partying and cavorting with Steve Pinker or anything. Though you never know. This is probably something I should work on, but I think the main thing is that as a lowly grad student, I don't feel very comfortable asserting my knowledge with all these people who have specializing in the area for years. I'm sure I 'm having a fairly standard issue reaction, but I feel like I know squat next to the crowd that's going to be there. I suppose I'll find out how much of a fraud I am at breakfast. "Professor, could you pass the eggs?" "Oh, how cute, the grad student thinks we still call them eggs!" ARRRRGGGGHHH.
So anyways, the conference is for the next two days and then I'm back home on Sunday. I feel bad abandoning Beck / S&W / Fred for the weekend, but I also think that when the Nyet's away, the cat and/or Beck gets sushi. So that's good. I'm somewhat relieved to be for all practical purposes done with my assignments for the semester, but also anxious that there's a stack of more work waiting on Monday. Hopefully it will be work that lends itself to breaks for blogging, though, and I'll be better able to keep you appraised of goings on. Until then...
California... California... here we come!!!
(Oh, and my final ethics paper was on phenomenological / embodiment approaches to the abortion debate and whether they could possibly resolve issues of selective trisomy-21 abortion. Fascinating I know. I won't post it here, but if you want to see someone try to cram too many ideas into a fifteen page paper on a topic that's notoriously clumsy to write about (phenomenology, I mean, though I suppose you could say the same for abortion), I'm happy to share the doc with you. YEEHA).
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