I went to a conference and all I got was this lousy post

I just got back from a two-day conference in Irvine, and damn is my brain tired. Not from gaining too much knowledge, though. Oh, no, not me! It was a huge piece of crap, which is too bad because I had high expectations from the 5th Annual Health Literacy Conference (name changed slightly--I think--to protect the innocent), which was to highlight alternatives to printed material in treating low-literacy patients. (That's not sarcasm you're reading there--I know, it's hard to tell with me.) Unfortunately, the conference was full of presenters reading off their not-interesting-to-begin-with PowerPoint slides and telling me things like "the internet is used for emailing, chatting, entertainment, and research." Really?? THAT'S what the internet is used for?? Shit, I've been doing this all wrong!

Anyway, there were two highlights to the conference. One, there was a papillon show going on right in the same hotel. What's a papillon, you ask? Well, it's a yappy little dog that's probably cute when seen alone, but creepingly frightening by the dozens! The highlight was seeing all the showdog moms and dads up close. I wish I'd had the guts to take out my camera and shoot their tables and tables of papillon merchandise, but I did manage to get a shot or two of some dogs hanging out outside.



Highlight two, because I can be kind of mean, was a woman who, for no reason we could figure out (believe me, my coworkers and I read every piece of the conference schedule to see if this was part of the agenda) had with her at all times a box of stuffed animals. She came in each morning and sat the box right in front of her on the table. What is that? Is it a weird form of autism? An assignment for a psycho parenting class? The toys of her long-lost daughter (ooh, that would be sad!). Here's a picture of it. You can't see the woman who they belong to because she's actually to the left of the woman it looks like they belong to. So, I don't feel so bad posting it because her identity is concealed. But, anyone have any idea of what's going on there?


And, here's a bonus conference highlight. Bunnies in the parking lot! Run, bunnies, run! (And why do you live in the parking lot, anyway?)