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Tuesday, November 21, 2006

Because I'm Lazy

Since I have been away, and have so much to catch up on, this will be the lazy way of doing it all - bullet points. I'll resume actual paragraphs and punctuation later.

  • Tuesday's flight to KC was uneventful, including the clearing of customs. They didn't even ask. And I was not frisked at all (helps to wear knit pants with no zip). Even my naval piercing didn't set off the metal detector.
  • The room in KC was nice, clean, good view of the convention centre plaza which was just open space until Thursday, when they started setting up the Christmas decorations. It was really pretty at night after that.
  • Room service and a movie, what better way to enjoy the first night there (and I was all alone because Bert was getting in on Wed). In pajamas by 8:30 central time, eating dinner and drinking wine - decadence.
  • The 8 hour course on NICU and music therapy was great, and I want to go to Tallahassee to do the rest of the training. The best was that Petunia took the same course, so we got to do lunch at a sushi takeout place - Bumblefish (what a great name, and really fresh sushi)
  • Bert was there, but had a meeting to attend when I returned to the room after the course. I waited and did dinner with Bert, Petunia, and another music therapist I know from my GIM (guided imagery and music) level 1 in 2001. A cool restaurant called The Mango Room . Good food (southern and Carribbean), good martinis.
  • My Vocal Health and Music Therapy course the next day (5 hours) was helpful, and the best was sitting next to Vermont. This is the longest we've spent together in years, and we caught up during notes throughout the afternoon. I also got to meet her daughter (age 2.5) because she was there with Vermont's mom, and they were going to Omaha to visit family. Vermont and I had room service soup in my room before the opening session, which was kinda lame (so Bert and I left). The silent auction was good - I won two of the three bids I made. Hung out in the lobby bar and had a couple of drinks with Mr DC (my former internship supervisor), Bert, and another friend from grad school.
  • Somehow managed to blow pretty much everything off on Friday. Slept in, had lunch at the networking table with Bert and Pearl, then wandered around for a bit. After lunch, went shopping with Bert and Pearl (P. had a car). $154 of Bath & Bodyworks, oh yeah!!!! (not all for me, a whole bunch for my Mom for Christmas). But I am now very hooked on Exotic Coconut. I only got a tiny tube of Le Couvent des Minimes Orange-Cinnamon handcream - I couldn't bring myself to spend $16 on the shower gel and another $16 on the lotion, but you know I wanted to! Also the Warm Vanilla Sugar shampoo and conditioner (volumizing). What a great product.
  • Berly and her aunt and uncle met us at the hotel Friday night (Pearl, Bert and I), and we went to The Melting Pot for dinner. You may remember my last Melting Pot experience with Pearl in CT back in March (dinner didn't sit well, bad gastric flu episode). Happily, this was a much better evening. Berly's aunt and uncle are very fun, and their friends were hilarious. Chris, the waiter, was awesome (and I will post some pics of the evening once Pearl sends them to me). With 8 of us, there were two pots of cheese fondue, 2 pots of cooking fondue (coq au vin and mojo), and we ended up with 4 different chocolate fondues (2 pots at a time, gotta love the two course dessert!). For those who care, the chocolate selections were: Flaming Turtle, Yin and Yang, Dark Chocolate, and The Original (milk chocolate with peanut butter) with caramel. There were also martinis. Three for me, to be exact. A lovely time, a lovely buzz.
  • Oh, and there was a Williams-Sonoma right down the block for the restaurant. Before we went in for dinner, I ran down to get a catalogue. And came back with a small purchase (Pumpkin Pecan Butter).
  • When we got back to the hotel, Bert went back to the room, and I hung out with Mr DC for a bit. He and I made tentative plans to do lunch or dinner the next day, then I went up to bed.
  • Bright and early regional meeting, followed by a medical music therapy session. Bert and Pearl and I had a quick lunch at The Mango Room (Mr DC called for lunch when we were almost done, so it didn't work out time-wise), and I went to the session I had really been wanting to attend. It as awesome, but ran about 15 minutes over, so I missed the last block session. I ran into Petunia, so she and I went to The Mango Room (she hadn't eaten) and she grabbed a bite and we each had a a martini. Both of us must have been tired, or the drinks pretty strong, because we were both feeling the alcohol a bit afterwards.
  • Saturday evening was a bit disappointing in that we had planned on dinner and going dancing, but forgot that KC isn't smoke free. It took a bit of time to find a restaurant that at least wasn't too smoky, and we didn't even bother looking for the club. The restaurant was okay, the food pretty good - we each ordered soup and an appetizer and a drink (NOT the best mojito I've ever had, but it was strong). The downside was that I lost my favourite scarf. It must have slipped off while we were walking around, but there were four of us and we still can't figure out how a bright red fleece scarf that is THREE FEET LONG could have fallen off without any of us noticing. Damn, and it was from a matched set (with hat and mitts) from my Mom. Bert went to bed once we got back to the hotel, but I went to look for Vermont and she and I hung out for a bit, then Petunia joined us, and then Mr DC. Finally at 12:30, we decided it was time for bed.
  • Went to an 8 am session, then started saying my goodbyes. Missed Bert (she went to church, then we missed each other at the room, and at breakfast), but took the shuttle with Petunia and few other people from the New England Region.
  • Flight home was relatively uneventful, but we were a bit late out of Newark. Customs, thank God, was a breeze.
  • Next year - Louisville, Kentucky.

2 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

It sounds like a great trip! But....Im glad you are home. For some reason I thought this was going to be like a tour so the conference was a delightful reading surprise! (not that the tour wouldnt have been delightful too of course)

Wed Nov 22, 03:58:00 a.m.  
Blogger LymeAware said...

Yes! I was at the KC conference too! Strange this connection didn't happen earlier- we could have met. I can really relate to your description of your conference experience. I find that most of the best part of the conferences are the connections with past friends and colleagues. But, it sounds like you attended some great other things as well...which is always great.

I'm interested- I couldn't find if you mentioned what you might have gotten out of your vocal health course. Any brilliant tips? I find that vocal health is one of the top issues for me in my work. Being in private practice, it is the end of my voice that really dictates how many clients I can handle per day.

And you are so astute about not mentioning the prof at Temple's name. You guessed right - I try not to mention the name of our profession on my blog. It becomes difficult at times, because I can't write about a big part of my day, but- being in private practice, I find that many of my clients find my via the internet. I'd rather they not ALSO hear about my personal life.

But, I'm thrilled to be connecting to other MTs online. It's important to me. Thanks for writing! I look forward to reading more of your experiences on your blog.

Tue Dec 05, 07:39:00 p.m.  

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