I recently attended the Joint Statistical Meetings that were held in Miami Beach. This is the largest statistical conference in the US each year, held the first week in August, and rotated around different large cities. It had attendance of around 4800 and often has more attendees when it is in better places. I have to rate this as the worst JSM I have ever attended (includes '99 and 2006-2011). My perceptions were colored by the state of my recovery to some degree. But I wasn't alone in my evaluations. On the last day of the conference, I was in a meeting where it was noted that Miami Beach was not in consideration for any future meetings. There was a round of applause, the only one I've ever been a part of in a meeting like that. It was too spread out, expensive, and with little to do other than sit on the beach (for me at least).
The night before I left for the conference I got as grumpy as I've been in a long time. I don't know if it was the heat, being tired, or just the looming day of travel. Teresa was sweet as ever and eventually it faded a bit. The conference required quite a bit of walking and standing, all of which I did in my walking boot. I also had too many meetings to attend, which combined to allow me very little time to attend presentations. I had to fight that same feeling of grumpiness every day as I used up what little walking I could do. I'm not sure I completely succeeded, but I tried.
The Miami Beach convention center is extremely large and has its set of presentation rooms on east and west wings of the building with what seemed like about 5 or 6 football fields between the wings that you had to navigate via a sky walk sort of thing. The administrative meetings and mixers were at the Loews hotel near the beach and not very close to the convention center (maybe around 3/4 mile?).
I had hoped to use the city bus since it ran from the convention center to very close to my hotel but it was somewhat poorly labeled and after one adventurous ride I wanted very little to do with it. I got on the bus one day hoping to head south to my hotel. After waiting a few minutes, the bus pulled up. I hopped on, paid my $0.25, and settled in. I wondered why the bus was pretty empty but figured it was just an under-used resource. At the first intersection, it turned when I wanted it to go straight. And then it turned again and started to head north. I had researched it online a bit and knew the bus route had some odd loops in the north section and figured I would ride it around and one way or another I would get close to my hotel (it generally runs on a loop). And then the bus pulled over and I was told to get off. I was told to find a bus near the Publix a block away. Fortunately, I found one of the areas 'Decobikes' rental spots. So I grabbed one of those and started riding. I really didn't know where I was or which direction my hotel was. After a few blocks and a couple of turns, I found a road I recognized and knew how to get home. I found out that locals even get caught with this problem with the bus route and I didn't try the bus again.
I mainly used the decobikes to get around. This had its own issues. You rent them for $4 for 30 minutes and can leave them at any of their automated parking areas. A little pricey to use for commuting and you can't buy a pass unless you are a resident, but in general they are a decent idea. In retrospect, I should have just rented a bike for my time there (that would have been $15 a day) and could have parked really close to each place I needed to visit. I did enjoy biking along the beach and the exercise was nice. One time I got to my desired station that was full and the parking locations were a bit sparse near the hotels, which would seem to be an important place to have lots of spots. I guess the network is only 2 months old and maybe it will be improved in the future.
In terms of my recovery, it wasn't a great week. I was so tired each night that I didn't do a good job with my PT. I walked so much that I wore out the padding in the my boot in the heal and started to worry about doing some damage because of that. Flying was also an issue. On my flight to Miami, I was able to manage my swelling because of a long layover between flights, getting an exit row, and having an empty seat next to me. On the way back, I barely made my connection (almost had to run in Minneapolis because there were no golf carts even though I requested one) and was wedged into the wall on the flight from Miami to Minneapolis by someone that was close to needing 2 seats. The stewardess gave her a seatbelt extender on her way into the flight, if that is an indication of what I enjoyed. One positive feature was that I wasn't cold on that flight at all. The net result of my trip back was that my ankle was the largest it has been in weeks, maybe even more than a month. On a positive note, the swelling is now gone and I am getting stronger and starting to walk a little around the house. I will hopefully get cleared to begin walking without the boot on Monday morning when I see the surgeon for my 8 week check-up. I can't wait!
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