I'm back!  And boy, I can tell I really needed this break, because I'm actually a little impatient to get back to work tomorrow.  Had a lot of fun at the conference!  There were several of my classmates there, so we spent a lot of time hanging out together.

I spent most of each day in lectures, which I will nerdily admit is fun for me,  but had a lot of fun at night.  Went out to eat with friends most days.  Saturday night we got to see a performance by Bill Engvall, Sunday night each school had an alumni reception, and Monday night we saw Jim Belushi and his band perform, which was entertaining for many reasons.  Firstly because his band is called the "Sacred Hearts", which of course inspired WAY too many "Scrubs" jokes among me and my friends...and on that note, I am very envious of one of my classmates because her new married name is "Cox".  Oh yes.  Dr. Cox!   But another reason why the performance was interesting was because I got to dance with Jim Belushi.  He came down off the stage at one point and made his way through the crowd, dancing with girls in the audience, and I happened to be one of them.  Just for ten seconds, but it counts!  Now all I need to do is connect him to Kevin Bacon and I'm set.

But Tuesday night was super fun!  One of the drug companies paid for about 3,000 of us to go to Sea World after hours...we had dinner, went on a couple rides (Afton LOVES roller coasters!) and got to see Shamu et al perform.  Loved it!  Absolutely amazing what the trainers can do.    One of my classmates used to work at one of the Sea World locations back in the day, so of course I had to ask him if Shamu was really Shamu or if this was one of the situations like when a goldfish dies and mom and dad replace it on the sly so little Billy won't be upset.  He told me that every orca is "Shamu" when in front of the audience, but as far as he knows, he thinks the real Shamu is still alive and kicking.  Or flipping.  Whatever.

So today I'm cleaning, unpacking, laundrifying, and getting some things ready for work tomorrow because I've got some ideas!  And making sure everything is off the floor, because the Padre is bringing Toodle-face back up today and I'm very excited to see the little poocharooni again.