What Happened in Vegas

Um, so, I went to Vegas. Party on, Wayne! The American Nuclear Society Student Conference was held at UNLV this year. Yes, I went to Vegas for a nuclear convention. Nerd alert.

Apparently, you can find a measure of the radioactivity of the soil in a set radius by testing the honey that comes from the bees gathering pollen from plants in that radius. And Westinghouse has really big cranes. And pinches are cool. And that's just a sampling of what I retained, y'all.

I made a buddy from Idaho National Lab. Not that I called a half-day and left the seminar early or anything, but I did happen to be at In-and-Out Burger instead of in an afternoon technical session on Saturday. (I've heard so much about the place, I just had to try it out. Consensus? Good! but not Whataburger good...just sayin'.) As I stepped back from the counter to wait for my order, a man in a suit, who presumably noticed my extra fine $30 lady suit and official name badge, asked where I was from, if I was enjoying the conference, etc. After my initial concern at being caught skipping, I relaxed and struck up a conversation. Then a table opened up and he invited Katie and me to join him. So he told us all about Idaho and interning at INL and hiking and snow drifts and research. Pretty snazzy, especially for a chance meeting. Then I kept running into him off and on throughout the remainder of the conference, and we exchanged pleasantries and everyone was super impressed that I had a friend from Idaho. Well, they should have been, at least.

Like any good Tweetmaster, I covered that conference up and down. I tweeted puns. I tweeted pictures. I utilized the heck out of the official hashtag. I should have won an award.

I walked up and down the Strip. I looked at the lobbies of many famous hotels. I watched the Bellagio fountain show twice. I went to M&M World. I saw The Shins live in an open air rooftop nightclub pool. They were awesome. The opening act was awesome, but not really for the reasons they intended to be. First off, the lead singer wore a quiver. Filled with flutes. He had a quiver of flutes. Every song, he'd whip another one out and start toodle-dooing away. A totally obsolete member of the band was the one who took it the most seriously. He looked like someone's slightly annoying younger brother who they owed a favor so they let him stand behind some equipment and shake a tambourine. But he did so much more than that. He tambourined, maraca-ed, bongo-ed, SPAAAAACETIIIIIIIIMed, danced, you name it. It sprinkled throughout the opening act, then picked up at the end of their set so we had to stand in the cold, rainy, smoky night for a good bit until the rain let up and the Shins came on stage. So. Good. They were just flawless. And super indie trendie.

And now I'm one awesome experience, 100 Peanut M&Ms, 2 Atlanta-to-Las-Vegas-sized doses of cosmic radiation, and one pair of Vegas socks richer.