Feeling overworked recently, I kept my trip to AAO in Chicago fairly simple this year. Despite vowing to avoid red-eyes, I was also keen on avoiding connections, and ended up flying Wednesday after clinic to land in ORD Thursday morning. Fortunately, I made the smart move to book an extra hotel night which gave me a few hours of shut-eye before lunch. The sketchy walk to Chinatown rewarded me with hearty Slurp Slurp Noodles and baked goods from Chiu Quon Bakery to fuel the pig eye injection wet lab at UIC. For dinner, I unwittingly opted for fish at a steak house for the Adverum steering committee, but enjoyed my colleague rapping on the cab ride back. I managed to attend most of the first Retina Subspecialty Day, with only a break for dim sum with ex-fellows, and ended the day with industry functions, the Michels reception, and a dip in the hotel pool. Saturday included investor lunches where I spent more time waxing poetic on clinical trial data than ingesting food, my talk on gene therapy inflammation, and catching up with friends at the MEEI and UCD alumni receptions. After my OCT course and shooting an EyeTube video on Sunday, I headed for some Qing Xiang Yuan dumplings which were definitely worth the wait in line and another visit in the future. I managed to avoid socializing with colleagues and residents on the return flight, giving me time to catch up with work before another work week begins.