I spent a week in Texas, and it didn't feel like I thought Texas would.

I went to Austin (which is apparently a pocket of liberalism) to attend the American Astronomical Society meeting. The winter meetings of this group are the biggest in America (for astronomers, that is). It is usually a fun and draining time. It's fun because I get to be in a different place and I get to see people I don't normally get to see. It's draining because I get to see a lot of people I don't normally get to see. I almost always leave these things with the strong desire to be alone for weeks on end. This is never possible.

I gave a talk this year, which was very nerve-wracking. I usually present a poster and have no trouble talking to people one-on-one. Fortunately and unfortunately, my talk was the first talk in the first session on the first day. This meant that I couldn't tell people about it to have them come. I couldn't look beyond the first few rows of chairs, so I couldn't tell you how many people were there if I tried. I think it went well. I was glad to not have to worry about it for the rest of the week.

I wandered around downtown Austin a little. There were few skyscrapers, but the ones they had were tastefully done. I walked along the river a little and stood on a bridge that is known to be home to millions of bats in the summer. Aside from all of the astronomers, I met up with a friend from high school. She talked astrology with my astronomer friends; they took it well. Because I actually know a fair amount of astronomers at this point, I spent more time socializing outside of the conference than sight-seeing. Also contributing to that was the fact that the weather was pretty gross, as seen in the picture below.