The Best Thing About the Joint Meetings

It's as if I have friends! I just walk around from hotel lobby to hotel lobby and linger in high traffic areas, and I run into so many people I know! I get to see people who I knew from assorted geeky summer jobs I had over the years! I even run into imaginary people who I know from the internet! (The topologist was like, "Who's that you were talking to?" and I'm like, "Someone from the internet.") I got to talk to a bunch of guys who I had crushes on a long time ago!

If real life was like this, I'd have a bussling social life! I'd be eating meals and drinking coffee with people all the time!

I'm sure it's all an illusion, as at work I am surrounded by dozens of mathematicians on a daily basis, and they are not even a small fraction as interesting as the people I see here.