Just one week after my India trip, I was back on the road again – this time returning to sunny Fort Lauderdale for ARVO 2012. After arriving Saturday, I hussled over to the Ritz-Carlton on foot to attend the “Reality Retina” conference, which being pharma-sponsored, featured delicious hors d’oeuvres and open bar by the beach under the bright perigee moonlight. The next morning, my roommate and I lounged by our hotel’s private beach for some leisure reading before enjoying some crsipy portobello flatbreads and eclectic dessert miniatures for lunch. As expected, Craig Venter’s keynote speech prominently featured himself and his various momentus projects, although it was funny watching him gross out the audience by revealing the amount of rodent DNA in NYC air. In the evening, we hung out at the MEEI reception at the Hilton until the wee hours of the night, which combined with my hacking cough, made for a late start the next day. Aside from presenting my poster, I even managed to catch up with the UC Davis folks (where my wife will be going) at a Thai buffet, and with my research supervisor over delicious Cuban fare. On Tuesday, I took an early morning flight to Durham to spend the day there checking out potential housing options and catching up with the current Duke retina fellows over burgers at Bull City. It wasn’t until the next day, however, that I finally decided on the Clairmont at Hillandale to be my hood for the next 2 years. Sadly, their 1-bedroom options were not available until September, so I will have to stay in a 2-bedroom apartment for the first 3 months. Sick and exhausted, I returned home, thankful that I had a few remaining days off to catch up on errands before returning to work next week.