Albuquerque

Hello loves! Just a short post to let you all know that I did, in fact, make it to Albuquerque to attend my much anticipated conference! It was completely overwhelming and more exhausting that it probably should have been, considering my aching body and sole desire to climb into bed and sleep forever.
Everything went pretty well, no troubles with the travel arrangements, plane or car, and we found the convention center and our bed and breakfast with magnificent ease--I tend to over-plan and had detailed directions and iteneraries :)
The Blue Horse Bed and Breakfast was AMAZING! It was right at the bottom of the mountains, newly established, fireplace in the bedroom, heated tile floor, great gathering space, and the most delicious breakfasts I've yet tasted, nooo joke. I'm a sucker for the pastries and this little lady had to of been a pastry chef in a past life. I'm making a go at peach french toast and apple/cranberry turnovers this weekend, we'll see how it goes!
Ed and I enjoyed our first casino experience together. I only played slots, which gets old REALLY FREAKIN FAST, I honestly don't know how people do it! Money, so easily lost, and rarely a payback. I guess it's the occasional big win, but I'm such a penny pincher, it was more painful than enjoyable for me. Ed tried his luck at a couple games of black jack and Texas hold'em, and actually won some money! With my losings and his winnings, we actually came out about $10 richer than when we started, not bad, not bad.
So the CONFERENCE. I was one of the youngest people there, by far, and for obvious reasons. It consists of doctors and researchers presenting their findings in clusters of related topics that people can wrap their heads around. I went to several talks on romantic relationships, including the one given by the grad student I worked under, Rich. Turns out our study had some pretty amazing findings and a lot of people were interested in it. And Rich, bless him, must have plugged my name in his talk 20 times, and thanked me right after he thanked his graduate adviser. When I went to introduce myself for the remainder of the weekend, it was, "Oh! Rich's research assistant! He thanked you right after his graduate adviser, that's huge!". Needless to say, I owe him big.
Other talks I went to were about religion, self-esteem, relational security, attachment, dyadic analysis, marital satisfaction over the years, and WORRY AND RUMINATION ON PHYSICAL HEALTH--totally applicable to my own life. Did you know that the physical processes we go through by worrying have significantly similar effects on our heart and blood pressure as SMOKING! Never smoked in my life and I'll die at 40 because I am a chronic ruminator. Talk about your wake-up call. As a result, I've decided to actively engage myself in positive psychological mindsets, aka, de-stressing my abused body.
It was a great experience, completely reaffirmed for me that research is what I want to be doing and close relationships is where I want to center it. I met almost EVERY professor that I wanted to apply to work under in graduate school, which was a nice perk.
Only thing I didn't take away from the conference that I went in looking for was a summer/year long internship--hopefully one that pays well :) I'm supposed to email different people this week, so we'll see how it goes. If nothing pans out, I think I might look into the Gender and Sexuality center at UT. I always wished I had the time to volunteer there, and maybe I'll get just that when I graduate.
I'm feeling..meh, 80% now? Poor Ed got sick on our last day there and ended up puking on the plane :/ and is still feeling poorly. I'm trying to nurse him back to health, because I've got items on my wedding list that are NOT getting done! And of course because I love him, wouldn't want him to be ill :)
So..this ended up being not so short, but yay for you if you read through it all! I love you guys and miss you all, even Heather who is in the same city but is just as busy as I. We should make time for each other, we suck ;)