There are a couple of ways you can get around waiting a week. Basically if you click on "Buy or Sell" instead of "Convert to Steem" you can sell your steem dollars on the internal market for Steem and then you could take and power that up right away. I hope this make sense. I just upvoted you! I just posted steemit's first pool meeting where I talk about my initial thoughts about it. Check it out! https://steemit.com/steem/@brianphobos/first-pool-meeting-on-steemit-initial-thoughts-and-advice-from-someone-who-has-made-money-online-since-2008