Communal living

I really should be cropping these photos before I post them, but what the heck. It doesn't hurt to get things fresh from the camera now and then.

What you're looking at here are bits and pieces of the Barrier Lake Field Station, which hosted the conference that I was at. I mentioned the conference, right? Yeah, I thought so.

I had half a thought to talk more about the conference itself, but I've decided against it since it really wouldn't be of much interest to the general public (or my two fans, probably). We came, we saw, we conferenced (is too a word. For today, anyway), and I for one left with a general sense of... well, exhaustion.

Exhaustion partly because I didn't sleep worth a damn most of the time I was there (big surprise, I know), but also partly because of the whole constantly being around people thing. I can't help it. I'm used to a fair amount of alone time, and being surrounded by people for most of the day every day gets a little hard on my loner brain. It's tricky to keep myself switched on for that long.

What you're seeing in this photo is the Main Lodge, which houses the dining hall and the women's dorm. Yep, separate dorms for men and women because boys are icky.

Or something. I don't know.

Dorm living is an interesting experience when you haven't done it for over twenty years (twenty years? Really? Geez, I'm old). The dorm we were in wasn't bad as far as dorms go. Reasonably quiet, and thick enough walls that you couldn't hear every time your neighbour turned over in bed. I think you'll agree that that's a good thing. We also were a small enough group that we didn't have to share rooms, and that was definitely a good thing. Two words, folks: BUNK BEDS. Can you imagine your friendly neighbourhood OLF not only dealing with sharing a room but dealing with bunk beds as well? Just as well that we didn't have to go there.

The dorm wasn't bad, as I said, but there are some inevitable downsides to the whole dorm experience. Generally they have to do with the bathroom. It's not really ever a good thing when a bunch of women find themselves sharing a two-stall, two-shower bathroom. I tend to shower fairly early in the evening to avoid the rush so that was ok (although we were warned that there wasn't a lot of hot water so we were encouraged to take Marine showers. As in, water on to dampen, off to lather, on to rinse. *SHIVER*), but even the simple fact of having to get back into all of one's clothes directly after having a shower is never, ever going to be comfortable to me. Nothing like trying to get yourself back into the ol' underwire suspension device while only towel-dry. I'm not a nudist by any means, but I can tell you that by the time I got home I was more than ready for the freedom of going about my business in whatever degree of undress I felt like.

Um, in my apartment, of course. I did get dressed to go outside.

Anyway, I managed to survive four and a half days of enforced socialisation almost completely intact. Yay me. On the off-chance (waaay off-chance) that any of the Field Station staff stumble upon the blog I'd just like to say thanks for taking such good care of us and that I miss having someone make me breakfast. And lunch. And supper. And two fresh-baked snacks a day...




Ok, so the communal living thing isn't all bad.