Long Beach or bust!

Last weekend, almost my whole class went to the American Occupational Therapy Association Conference in Long Beach. My department paid for our conference fees so we could not pass up the opportunity--and they wanted us to go and we didnt want to seem slacker-ish! So on Wednesday, my friend Amber and I loaded in her car after class and hit the road. Unfortunately, Amber was way sick and sure made road trip eating not as fun. We drove to Vegas that night and went shopping and to dinner with Rachel and Anna. Which, in my opinion, was my favorite part!



Thursday morning we gave ourselves exactly 4 hours for the 4 1/2 hour drive to the Convention Center for the 4:00 start time for Opening Ceremonies at which we were all supposed to sit together with our faculty..oops. So Amber was good to drive fast and it was my assignment to check for coppers. Shortly, we were driving through Primm and could not resist because it is way easier to buy things on vacation. Stopped at Primm for what was going to be a 10 minute spree...quickly turned into 45min and we were on the road again. We still, surprisingly, made it to Long Beach Convention Center at 4:15--we missed our faculty doing the Conga Line but were promptly in our seats before the presentation began. (unfortunately we parked in 20 minutes parking, that was labeled 2 hour--but she "should have known it was a loading zone" so we got a $60 ticket! ugh!) For opening ceremony the keynote speaker was awesome! His name was Warren McDonald and I would highly reccommend his two books just from hearing him talk. He has double above knee amputations and In February 2003, was the first with that limitation to reach the summit of Africa’s tallest peak, Mt Kilimanjaro (19,222ft), and more recently, created history once again in an ascent of America's tallest cliff face, El Capitan. Amazing story of will and great speaker/writer/story teller.




After opening ceremony we had some time to wander the Expo booths (great places to get free OT goods & treats) and check into Dolphin's Cover (Thanks Dad for your timeshare hook-ups) and make it back in time for the student mixer! wahoo! was as fun as it sounds and we mixed, watched some classmates learn a dance, took some pics, and made our way back to the condo.



Friday all day we had class from 9-5, listened to Elenor Clark Slage Lecture (once again--as exciting as it sounds-however is a huge honor in the OT world) and then ate dinner and headed back to condo to swim with friends.




Saturday we went for one class in am and headed back to vegas for more Anna and Rachel bonding time! I love those girls to pieces and live for bonding time with my nieces & nephews!

Sunday headed back to see our husbands who we missed dearly and had some entertaining car convos! All-in-all fun times but was so good to get back to studying and finals prep! gotta love grad school!