Monday, November 16, 2009

My Party Nightmare

When I wake up in the middle of the night drenched in sweat and screaming, this is what the nightmare I was just having looks like.  Eating off paper plates while standing and wearing lanyards, the two prongs on the serpent tongue of awkwardness:




18 comments:

kale said...

Eating onion rings with a fork?

Anonymous said...

First of all, this could be /any/ academic conference... ever, they are all that bad.

And secondly, (to kale) people not-from-the-us have a hard time knowing food protocols.

I've seen people eat corn on the cob with a fork before.

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Mike said...

Damn onion ring-eatin' fork-usin' Eurotrash.

Anonymous said...

they tried to make me wear a lanyard and i said "no, no, no".

JDEATH said...

I swear the plates in the middle teo pics are the real deal!

Anonymous said...

I'm with JDEATH - those plates look real. And those rings look like calamari.

Unknown said...

The guy on the right in the last picture has a pacifier dangling from his lanyard. A rave inspired academic conference?

Button Ginger said...

I did a geeky thing and looked up HIAT09 and found it was this

11th International Conference on HEAVY ION ACCELERATOR TECHNOLOGY.

It's Venice and some of the pictures showed lttle fish, so yeah, those fried rings could be calamari.

I can't think what's up with the pacifier/dummy either.

Just, what on earth?

Was he hoping any girls would think it was cute? Or does he need it for when he falls asleep at the back of the conference hall?

just gabbie said...

is it sad that i know this is at the boston public library?

Anonymous said...

Dorks aplenty! Bring the finest snacks and awkward conversation for all of my men!! Together we shall solve equations late into the night!!

Anonymous said...

the plates are not real -- they are just the "high quality" plastic plates that you can get at CostCo and other such fine venues. they have a nice gloss to them and look real-ish but are definitely plastic. we had the same ones at our wedding. probably bought them from the same CostCo, if it is in Boston.

Anonymous said...

i prefer the "lanyard hanging out the pocket" look. i remember a time when they all read WWJD.

Rachel said...

katie if you ever go to miami you have to go to south beach and party crash... its all conferences of various professional groups... basically all like this. those cardiologists really know how to party!

Paul said...

Duff in Venice: lunch at academic conferences is always awkward; lanyards and paper plates make it worse. And don't forget the glass which you are obliged to hold in the same hand as your plate, while talking awkwardly with your peers.

DoeHands said...

Jeez, I feel an anxiety attack coming on just thinking about trying to balance a plate, purse strap+lanyard=choking, awkward conversation where you try your best to avoid answering "so what do you do?", etc. Nightmares, indeed!

I don't know if I'm alone in this paper plate standing situation, but somehow I always end up attempting the awkward "maybe I can use my leg as a 'table' if I lean up against something?"

Anonymous said...

The place is obviously Italy and onion rings don't exist there (believe it or not!)
That's calamari.

Anonymous said...

Did you miss the guy on in red with …

a pacifier??!!