Would Matt Berninger, first of all, be taking an airport rental car shuttle? Probably not. Would he be wearing a gray, ribbed DKNY t-shirt? Probably not. Are those the kind of glasses Matt Berninger wears? No. Is that the kind of watch Matt Berninger wears? No. What kind of rental car service would Matt Berninger hire? Definitely National, which is not the booth this man went to. Could Matt Berninger possibly have been in Baltimore eight hours before a concert in Germany? Mmm, probably not. Conclusion: this wasn't Matt Berninger. Probably. But if you hear a song by the National about a beautiful woman on an airport rental car shuttle, that's me, guys.
Aaaaaanyway, after some weird flirting with the rental car guy ("Is everyone from North Dakota so friendly?" "I needed to check your ID to make sure you were over 18." Ok, buddy.), and springing for the navigation system (great decision), I went out to the parking lot, where I had a bit of a rude awakening. I had rented an economy car, which was far and away the cheapest kind you could rent. I was expecting, say, a Honda Civic or something. What I got was a Fiat 500. At first, I wasn't sure whether or not there were four seats, and I was pretty sure there was no trunk. I debated the logistics of the situation for a few minutes (I agreed to drive Laura and Sam, as well as their luggage, back to Baltimore after the conference), I decided, screw it, and drove off in this tiny, tiny car.
My first stop was at the 24-hour Wal-Mart, where I found my tri-fold poster board, some envelopes for Sam, and a couple of grocery items. Did anything weird happen at Wal-Mart? Probably, but at this point it was almost midnight and I was not paying attention to anything that could have been a fun anecdote later. The drive up to Emmitsburg was pretty long and complicated enough that I was really happy to have gotten the navigation. I rolled in around 1:30, which I would have been kind of pissed about, except that on my drive in I could see more stars than I can remember ever having seen before, so I was actually pretty happy about the whole situation. At the conference center, a security guard took my word for it that I didn't have any firearms or alcohol, I got some very detailed directions from the receptionist ("You'll have to turn a little on the path here or you'll walk right into this wall!"), I parked, checked into my room and then basically passed out for a few hours.
Sam and Laura came by around 7 the next morning, and helped me assemble my ridiculous poster. We were doing pretty well with the bottom half but there was a big bubble in the top half. What are you going to do? They also filled me in on some of the previous night's antics, much of which is still pretty unclear to me. Apparently they were in a car with a bunch of men who were sexually harassing them? Were they drinking somewhere at some point? It's hard to say, but once we got to the cafeteria, it was clear that a number of men believed they were all very good friends. So, that was interesting. Anyway, after an argument with the cashier at the cafeteria, and a not very good breakfast (but a large amount of coffee), we went to the classroom where we would be presenting our research findings. This took up the bulk of Monday, and is probably not very interesting for general readership. Suffice it to say, a lot of people talked about disasters, some of the things they said were good and some were not so good, there was some mansplaining, and by the time I presented (around 4:30), at least one audience member was sleeping quite soundly. It was fun to be able to discuss what I've been working on with a bunch of people, at least some of whom were interested. It was also fun to watch Sam and Laura present, both because of how legitimate their research clearly was, and because Laura specifically said a number of hilarious things involving personal loans and sweeping generalizations about people in New Jersey (<3 you, Laura).
Sam met up with her good friend's boyfriend after the workshop, so Laura and I went on a little adventure to Gettysburg in my hilarious rental car. We went into the city center, had dinner (I don't remember what Laura said to the waitress, but it was on the order of that time we went to a pharmacy, and after having purchased a couple of things, she said to the cashier, "Thank you, you have been so helpful."), and then walked around Gettysburg College ("I hate that statue. I'm going to take a photo of it."). We all re-grouped after that and made plans for morning.
The next day, the conference began in earnest, and we went to the introductory bit, which was very strange. There were a bunch of speakers, all of whom were fine, and then, for some reason, the final section was this 70s-esque talk show type deal, where someone from FEMA interviewed two of the people who helped start the Emergency Management Institute. It could have been ok, but the FEMA guy emphasized things that didn't seem very important ("Wayne Blanchard called hundreds of people."). I hadn't slept very well the night before, and we'd gotten up early, so the whole thing made me very sleepy. I decided to skip the workshop Sam and Laura were going to, and went back to my room to take a nap before lunch. When we all met up again they were really excited about the conversation that had taken place in their workshop, and they have some plans to build on that conversation in the future, so stay tuned for that!
After lunch, the three of us checked out of our rooms, somehow managed to fit everything and everyone in the Fiat, and drove down to Frederick to hang out for a few hours. We drank a lot of coffee, there was general amazement at my ability to braid my hair (see: the hundreds of photos on Facebook), we discussed Ina Garten at great length, and we ate some tasty Vietnamese food. I drove Laura and Sam to Sam's hotel near the airport, we said our goodbyes, and then I returned the car and headed into the city. I'll write about that part of my trip soon!
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