Wilson flipped through the conference brochure as he ate, trying to decide where to go first. There was one lecture and Q&A on blood cancers that looked interesting, and another on Pediatric Oncology that seemed intriguing as well. With plenty of time before the first panel started, he sat back to consider his options. The other members of his table had drifted away one by one as they finished their food, realizing that the Oncology resident had nothing to offer that they hadn't seen a thousand times before. Wilson glanced at his watch as he finished his coffee and left the dining room to look for the blood cancer lecture.
House finished his breakfast and immediately left the other occupants at his table. He could hear their comments about his rather disheveled appearance and attitude begin as soon as he turned away from the table and dismissed them out of hand. He wove his way through the ever-growing crowd in his escape from the dining room. Passing by one of the lecture halls, he noticed that the symposium inside had just begun and wandered in, taking a seat at the end of the last row as the physician lecturer finished his opening remarks on blood cancers. At least it's not a lecture on how to comfort a dying patient or some shit like that.
House glanced around at the hundred and fifty or so other doctors in the room, recognizing some and labeling them all dull and narcissistic asses. The lecture itself was rather interesting as those things went so he stayed until the end, watching as the herd filed out of the room. He spotted a wide-eyed young doctor moving with the crowd, an anomaly for these kinds of conferences, and decided to follow him around for awhile to break the tedium. Not surprisingly, House was bored and it would be a very long time until lunch. He had no idea how he was going to survive four days of this nonsense, but at least he'd be able to escape into the jazz and blues clubs in the Quarter as soon as the conference ended for the day. Something to look forward to, he thought as he followed the fresh-faced doctor to wherever he was going next.
Wilson attended a couple more lectures before the lunch break, then spent the afternoon wandering the massive main exhibit hall. There wasn't much there that he'd be able to use as an Oncologist, but he had to admit there were some very cool things that would soon be available to hospitals and individual practices. It was impossible to take it all in and eventually he wandered back out to the registration area, where the crowds were lighter with only a couple of small groups milling about. He sat down on a bench and leaned his head back against the plate glass window behind him, taking a breather before tackling the masses again.
House followed the young doctor, who was obviously at his first medical conference, as he attended two more lectures before lunch, one of which was on the dreaded subject of comforting a dying patient. The way this guy was paying attention to the speaker, House figured that he probably didn't have much experience with patients dying. Judging from his demeanor, he probably didn't have a whole lot of experience being a doctor either. There was something about his idealism that was a refreshing change to the hundreds of older, greying, jaded physicians who seemed to have made a career of attending medical conferences. House had seen their kind before, traveling in packs, already making plans to meet at a conference being held in Geneva three months away even as they discussed attending an upcoming conference in Aspen the following weekend. But this young guy, he was different, and so House continued to follow him around. The only person at this whole fucking event who's not boring, he thought. When the guy sat down on a bench by the window, leaning his head back against the plate glass window with his eyes closed, House caught a glimpse of his name tag. Dr. James Wilson. He could see that the kid was overwhelmed by the whole experience so he took the opportunity to head outside for a smoke and a change of scenery. Wilson stuck out like a sore thumb. House would have no trouble finding him amongst the masses of medical idiots roaming the convention center.
House wandered down the block to a small storefront and bought himself a large coffee. He groaned with pleasure at the first sip of the ambrosia and drank half of it on the short walk back to the convention center. He spotted a knot of smokers outside the main doors and placed himself well away from them. House had no interest in engaging in idle conversation so he leaned against the side of the building with his coffee, setting it down only long enough to light his cigarette and savored both as he let the sights and sounds of the city envelope him.