** I'm transitioning over to Wix and will add the pictures back as soon as I can! **
Late Night Flying
I rushed out of work as early as I could and caught an Uber to Boston Logan airport expecting to be late. I was not! I had a seat at Boston Beer Works and ordered a pumpkin beer, some broccoli and sweet potato fries. I am a weirdo, I know. The four or five of us in a row were all going to Las Vegas. To my left was an air traffic controller going to a conference and two boys from NH who were working at the casinos out there. To my right was this very pleasant OB/GYN from a local Boston hospital who was giving a speech at a conference in Vegas. It turns out we had some mutual acquaintances, which was fun.
My seat mate was this very nice, clearly loaded and high up accountant that talked A LOT. I wanted to sleep and that was not happening, but he was so nice that I couldn’t say no. I did manag to watch both Suicide Squad, which was exactly what I expected it to be, and the Jason Bourne movie, which was amazingly Bourne. Both required little cognitive effort, which was exactly what I wanted.
I arrived in LAS and waited about 2 minutes for my airport shuttle that I had booked in advance. The driver was very pleasant and chatty and spent the whole ride talking about how much he liked my boots. As I was getting ready to leave he asked me if I liked beer and when I replied that I did he offered me a case of beer to welcome me to Vegas. He said one of the casinos had given I to him for free and I should take it. So I did. Here are the boots:
Planet Hollywood
I thought I’d be in bed by midnight PST since I got to Planet Hollywood around 11:30pm, but check in was a disaster. It took FOREVER and they only had a smoking room available. Apparently even if you request non-smoking, they don’t guarantee it. The room was disgusting, so I requested that they swap me into a non-smoking room at lunch the next day. The lady at the desk gave me a hard time about it and I got nothing additional for free, so while switching the next day during lunch was annoying, it was worth it. By the time I made it to bed it was past 1am, I was exhausted and annoyed, and the room reeked of smoke. Icky. Up at 6am the next morning to start the conference.
Lauren, one of my coworkers, attended the conference, too, so we got to explore the Christmas decorations throughout Vegas!
Emergency Medicine Boot Camp
The conference was Emergency Medicine Boot Camp, and it was actually really good. I’ll spare everyone the details, but anyone new to an ER job might consider it. The best thing I got from the conference were documentation tips and tricks, when to refer, and how to try to avoid getting sued by documenting well. My trusty HydroFlask was well used since they took the coffee away after 9am. Don’t they know ER folks drink coffee incessantly?!
I sat next to this very awesome lady from Pennsylvania, Kathy. She was an Army MP, a mom, then went back to PA school and just switched into the ER. She’s also in the PA National Guard (as a PA), a runner, and an all-around good person. Here we are at dinner at Hexx, which was this great little restaurant on the strip across from the Bellagio. Eating outside in December was amazing, even though the heat lamps were much appreciated. Poor Kathy took the waiter’s wine suggestion without asking the price and ended up with two $26 a piece glasses of wine – yikes! I had a $1/day gambling budget and ended up coming home $5 ahead. Woo! Here’s Lauren winning $1.
The Bellagio had a really pretty, free (which is unheard of in Vegas!) Christmas display that we checked out.
During lunch the next day a group of us went back to this rooftop Beer Garden. The food and beer were good, nothing special, and they were reasonable, which again is hard in Vegas, and the view was just awesome! We just wanted to sit outside.
After the conference the ladies went to the spa. It was some absurd amount of money for a massage or mani/pedi, so instead we utilized our $25/day resort fee and went to the hot tub.
Later two of the guys we met at the conference joined us for a few beverages in the room. I had to get some help drinking my case of beer from the boots! Then the ladies went to bed and the boys went to the casino.
We also found Jenna, who works at another ER in Boston and used to work with Lauren.
This is what happens when you hand your new friend your phone to give you her number:
We found a place in the crazy mall that did 3 drinks for $10, so I had a Kentucky Mule.
A group of us got a table at Gordan Ramsay’s restaurant, Burgr, which was really good. The wait was insane but it was worth it, and we ended up getting seated rather quickly. Saturday, the last day, we had a half day of the conference. It was a beautiful afternoon so we spent it walking the strip, hanging out outside at the beer garden watching some of the Army/Navy game. Then we hit up the hot tub again, had a few drinks in the room and trekked over to the Luxor hotel for the Criss Angel show.
Criss Angel was a little over the top, but I guess that’s typical Vegas, right?
I think this robe is too big…?
My friend Laura from UVA took this same picture of me ELEVEN years ago… I’m old!
You can walk around with a drink in hand in Vegas, so we did. Because we could.
The next morning I got up early and headed to the airport. I was on the 11:59pm red eye back to Boston, but I wanted to go back early. Originally my friends in LA were going to come hang out but they weren’t able to make it, so there was no point in me continuing to hemorrhage money in a city I didn’t love by myself. So I went for it. The JetBlue gate agent, Tamara, was awesome! Originally she was putting me as #1 on the standby list, then she “accidentally” (?) just confirmed my seat. Thank you! It was a packed flight so as #1 on the standby list I would have had a chance, but it still may not have happened. She is my hero. Plus, there turned out to be weather in the system that night and the later flight had the potential to be delayed (it wasn’t, but still).
The conference was great and really useful, but I can live without Vegas again. Happy travels!
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