Seattle 2017

I spent the weekend in Seattle at the annual conference for the American Psychology-Law Society. I had a presentation to give on Thursday afternoon, and my flight left Thursday morning. I was nervous about making it in time, especially with the weather in Chicago lately. I decided that it would be best to travel in my suit in case I did not have time to change once I got into the city.

When I was dressing again after security, I knocked my watch out of the bin and when I picked it up, I found that it was not ticking and one of the hands had come off. That was disappointing, but at least I had an empty seat next to me on the plane.

I spent the plane ride practicing my talk with my laptop in front of me, and mumbling to myself under the roar of the engines.

I made it to the hotel with plenty of time, and even got to spend a few minutes in my room after registering. The talk went very well, particularly as I was the fourth talk after 3 dull ones.

It was a surprisingly interesting conference, with a special appearance by Amanda Knox, the young woman who was wrongfully convicted of murdering her roommate while in Italy. She apparently lives in Seattle, and was invited to come and be part of the proceedings, sharing her story. I even got to shake her hand and talk with her briefly Saturday night. 

Today, we had another special presentation from some of the experts and attorneys who have been working on Brendan Dassey’s wrongful conviction case. That was very engaging, and a nice demonstration of the importance of our research.

Tonight is a poster session where my graduate student will be doing his research debut with a project we’ve been doing.

As usual, I miss the kids terribly by now, and Kira could sure use another pair of hands, so it’s a good thing I’m heading back tomorrow. Hakan had a fever the day I left, so Kira took him right in, citing our past problems with child illnesses as soon as I leave for any trip. It’s a good thing she did, because he tested positive for strep. She got him on medicine as soon as possible, so he’s been doing very well.

Merritt surprised us all a few days ago when he accepted a pacifier at nap time, and then fell asleep while sucking on it without rocking. He’s done it several more times since then, too. He’s also sprouted his second tooth! Recently, one of his favorite things is doing the actions along with some songs, like 5 Little Ducks and such.

Avey is one week away from spring break now, so she’s looking forward to relaxing and avoiding her brothers. She turned in her project on George Lucas this week, which turned out great. She spent most of Sunday night decorating a box to look like a space battle scene from Star Wars.

Carver is turning out to be more of a homebody than we thought. He spends most of his days in his pajamas that he received at Christmas. He’s already worn holes through the feet of both pairs. Most of the time that one of us offers to get him out of the house for a little outing, he will turn us down. We’re hoping that Kindergarten will get him more interested in new experiences rather than just running around the house.

We’ve got a relatively normal week ahead of us, for better or for worse…

#Happenings