Thursday, March 6, 2003 - The conference was busy, so the day went by pretty quickly. I sat at my booth in the conference center giving demos of the website I work on. In the evening, we were shuttled to a nearby hotel ballroom for cocktails, entertainment and a three-course dinner. The theme was Formula One, and there were race car games, slot car racing and an actual race car at the center of the room. There was also female string quartet wandering around the room as we sipped our cocktails.

At dinner, the quartet continued to play. The program promised entertainment between each course: magicians, clowns, a robotic dancer, and "a rubber lady." She started the entertainment off and nothing topped it. Very bizarre to see a contortionist between the salad course and the entree. As we ate, performers wandered around disguised as waiters, playing tricks. As one of the few females, I was harassed fairly often, but it was fun.

After dinner, we returned to the game room for after dinner drinks, very unkind considering how early the conference began the next morning. The musicians made a third costume change and played until the last of us were gone.

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