Sunday, June 26, 2011

Stanford and Me

Two weeks ago, I went to Stanford University.

There was a conference on sequential methodologies, which, as it turns out, are not exciting. And yet, somehow, they are. But that's beside the point.

The point is that, for three days, I was consistently the dumbest person in every room I frequented, including my hotel room, where I was the only person in the room. I tried not to even talk to anyone, lest anyone blow the whistle on me.

I am not a statistician. I am not a biologist. I am not even a hardcore researcher. I am a therapist who happens to be employed by a larger system that values research and statistical training. And since that system requires stats training of my students, I believe that it is only fair for me to be likewise trained.

But, I will be really honest, I really went to Palo Alto for this:


And this (which came as a recommendation from my brother, who is an expert in Japanese cuisine):

And to snap pictures like this one:

And this one (because I teach an MFT theories class in the winter and make reference to this place roughly 700 times):

And this one (for Kim):

But this is really what made my trip worthwhile:

One was Meyer Lemon. The other was fleur de sel. Both were divine.

4 comments:

Melanee said...

You need to read PW's food photography tips. Your okonomiyaki kind of looks like barf. And yet I'm still jealous that I didn't get any....

Ami said...

If you were the dumbest person in your hotel room, I think you were probably also the smartest person. So, swish for you.
It sounds like the most boring conference ever. So I'm glad you had some good food experiences. I don't even know what fleur de sel is, but it sounds delicious.
I must say, I found it easy to pooh-pooh solution-focused therapy while I was in school. Since becoming a real therapist, I definitely find more value in it. I still don't think it's the be all end all, but there's some good stuff. So, swish for the MRI.

Megan said...

The pictures of the food were taken inside the restaurants where I ate them (because they tend to frown on you taking their plates outside to snap a shot in natural lighting) with the camera on my phone. I don't care if the food looks good to you. And FYI, okonomiyaki does look like barf.

Kimberly Simón Akins said...

I appreciate the thought, but how about next time we
a. go together
b. attend an actual game
and...
c. make sure the trip has NOTHING to do with research or stats.
Though I think we're both kidding ourselves when we say we aren't researchers because we talked about it A LOT and VOLUNTARILY when I visited. We will not be doing that when you visit Lubbock :)