More Signage, Less Walking

Last night, at the opening gala, I got carded! I wanted one of these blinking martini glasses, but in order to get one, you had to get a martini. When I went to get the martini, the bartender asked me for ID. "I am flattered!" I gushed as I pulled out my ID. He was slightly embarrassed when he read my date of birth.

By the time we got back to the hotel, my feet were just killing me. One of my colleagues had recommended soaking my feet in cold water -- as cold as I could stand it -- before going to bed. So I tried it, and it really seemed to help! This morning, my feet felt better than they'd felt yesterday morning.

I'd been worried, because today was going to be a big signage day. But luckily, we got some student volunteers who came looking for work to do, so they put out all the signs tonight instead of us (awesome!).

I spent most of the day (other than the signage part) meeting people. I had signed up to be a mentor for some of the students participating in the conference, so I met my protege, a very nice young woman majoring in mechanical engineering. I also met the ever-fabulous ScienceGirl, who is every bit as fascinating and engaging in real life as she is on the computer screen.

I also went to an interesting BoF (Birds of a Feather) session on diversity. I am always interested in making the computing community more diverse, as it gets kinda lonely sometimes when you're the (token) female. I am going to be leading a BoF on a similar topic at the Tapia conference next year, so I was excited to see the eponymous leader of this BoF.

Other than that, I haven't really participated in much of the technical program. Hopefully I will make it to a session or two tomorrow or the next day.