I Love a Good Conference

Today marked the end of the hotel portion of Safety Week '06. I must admit to being rather bummed that there's not a day 3 because when I'm in a situation where I can learn a lot very quickly and have nothing too unexpected come up throughout the course of the day, it's a refreshing change of pace. And when I'm at the office, there's not snack table that has an unlimited supply of bottled water. Over the last two days, I've consumed over 200 ounces of water, 2 cups of coffee, 4 cups of hot tea, and 500 ounces of iced tea. And tonight, there was an open bar to kick off the dinner so I tossed a couple of Budweisers on top for good measure. Oddly enough, though it was a situation where everyone was drinking out of the bottle, I felt odd and wrong for drinking beer from the bottle at a dressy-business-casual event. Thank goodness some Southern Living rubbed off on me. I did enjoy my beer, albeit with a napkin wrapped around it.

Networking is another perk of conferences. Must now find a way to get to the ASSE Conference in San Diego later this year as I had a blast hanging out with another IH that works engine labs out there. We bonded over being smart females in a tough, male dominated field and all the stuff we've been trying to learn about engines. Another great thing about networking is being able to whip out my hot little chelsea green vera business card holder and do the slick card swap move. And I got to do all of this wearing high heeled boots, gray slacks, and a hot black oxford. I miss being able to wear non-sensible shoes to work.

Tomorrow is the start of the breakout sessions. I'll be in environmental training all day because I'm prepping for what's after safety. I get tired of trying to protect people from themselves although the truth of the matter is all I can do have a good program in place and hope for the best. For a while, I wanted to resent certain aspects of my job, but on Friday, as I cleared all the bullshit off my desk for the week, I realized that all of this and everything pertaining to it is a stepping stone to something greater. And it all came together yesterday afternoon when I was introduced to THE corporate industrial hygienist as "----, Future Corporate Industrial Hygienist" and I realized how close I am to really taking off professionally and doing all of the things I told my parents I'd do the night I withdrew from one college and started packing to leave the state and give higher ed a try somewhere else. It's odd and charming to be so starry eyed about my chosen profession. Oh, and don't forget the snack table.