What's Making Me Happy

What's making me happy this week is attending a professional meeting last week, affording me:

// Opportunity to sleep in warm (el esposo likes it cold) hotel room solo for four nights. Only parents of young children* or owners of early-rising pets can appreciate this. It was glorious.

// Seeing old and new friends and colleagues.

// Ordering room service, which was of terrible quality and my only complaint about the gorgeous Hilton Anatole, but room service is soooo indulgent and fun.

'Mom Gets into the Minibar'. Digital photograph, 2014.

// Taking the Megabus to Dallas ($25 each way with one stop in Austin). Already a fan of the Megabus - it was immaculate, the wifi was free, and the clientele polite. Instead of gritting my teeth in I-35 gridlock, I dozed, listened to several podcasts (Richard Ford on Fresh Air, THE NEW SERIAL**, Dan Savage), and read.

// Learned a bunch and have several ideas to explore in my lab with the goal of saving time and money and minimizing patient risk. In terms of science it's not sexy but I'm excited!

My mom came from St Louis to help out with Wolves 1 and 2 as Luke had five consecutive shows and then got sick to boot. So, thanks Mom, for the mom sabbatical!

*I have no right to complain here - both girls are champion sleepers. 
**It's Wednesday, the day before Thursday, and Thursday is when the next episode of Serial comes out. Please...crack...case...Sarah!!!

What's happening in your world, friends? Are you listening to Serial? I am listening to two other podcasts that dissect each episode - I have so many questions. Which reminds me of a couple of things I've long suspected about myself:

1) I would look super cute with a nose ring.
2) I would be an excellent detective, Locard's principle and all that. Blame it on all the Agatha Christie/Patricia Cornwell I read as a young teenager and my inflated sense of my observational powers.

Luckily for me I have another superfan, Elise the Police, to discuss it with! AND WE THINK ADNAN DID IT.