Day 1 of #NAPC2014 – Round-Up

The 10th North American Paleontological Convention has officially begun in earnest. All sorts of great talks have already taken place, and I’m really excited about presenting my own poster tomorrow.

Somehow, I’ve made it to the conference – an outcome that seemed highly unlikely yesterday. Others haven’t been so lucky, and a great number of speakers were not able to actually give their presentations today. I feel kind of guilty for having made it when others did not.

The conveners of the meeting had thought (and rightfully so) that having a big meeting in February in Florida would be a fantastic idea. They did not anticipate a massive snowstorm.

They’re going to have a special “Blizzard Session” on Tuesday, so that those who were delayed and missed their scheduled talk times could still present them at the meeting. No doubt, it will be an interesting and diverse session.

For myself, the day was spent in the sclerochronology session, live-tweeting those talks. (You can check out all the NAPC-related tweets by following this link.) It was refreshing to think about mollusks for a while. No one talks about those at the vertebrate paleontology meetings – mostly ’cause they’re not vertebrates.

I also got out and visited some of my old stomping grounds. I was a postdoc here in Gainesville for about four years. I got married here. Bought my first house here. So many memories.

I left Gainesville for New York about 9 years ago. Gainesville has changed quite a bit since then, but in some ways is just the same as it always was.

We went to lunch at Leonardo’s for pizza and a local brew. I went to dinner at Miya Sushi, a place that my husband and I frequented early in our marriage. I took advantage of the fact that I have a car (which I had not anticipated), and stopped at Publix for a few grocery items.

This meeting is quite unlike other meetings I’ve been to. So far, I’m loving it. I’ve reconnected with some old friends, and I’m thinking about paleontology beyond just the vertebrates.

I feel motivated.

Maybe I’ll actually finish writing one or two of those papers I’ve been working on once I get home. Or maybe not…