These are not the most exciting “travel” recaps, probably because this obviously isn’t true travel!
It’s getting late and I took a shockingly low number of pictures today, lol, so I’ll keep this short and sweet. But I want to keep up my little streak, just because. 🙂
Today was the first day of the “real” conference. Yesterday (Tuesday) was a full day “pre-conference” on a very related but distinct set of topics.
Got to sleep in a little as breakfast was later today. Yay! This was nice. I didn’t head down until 8:15.
First though, I made a little trip around the corner to a dollar store for some razors! I forgot mine, it turns out.
Staying right across from Vanderbilt University, and I can see it from my room too, so that’s kinda fun! Haven’t had oodles of free time at ALL but it would be nice to check out the campus.
Got ready- yay, new favorite black dress day!
It was another full day. Tons of great topics though! Lots of food for thought and really interesting.
And… that’s the end of my pictures!
Not shown:
-another yummy lunch
-a hosted cocktail hour (right after conference, on site) with live country music singer and an open bar and heavy hors d’oeuvres plus poster presentations.
-impromptu mingling with several people from other transplant centers, including some good “brain picking” 🙂
-kinda wanted to go back downtown for more music, but it was already 7-7:30 by the time we ended up wrapping up cocktail hour conversations, no one was really hungry after the hors d’oeuvres, and no one seemed to want to go back down to Broadway at that point. In fairness, I was a little wiped too after the long day.
-ended up going briefly back up to the room, then meeting back at hotel bar with just one coworker who I really enjoy, plus 2 new “friends” from another center. We sat and talked for 2 full hours! No photos… but it really is a nice, cozy bar. Wasn’t busy in there, just dim lit and very pleasant. I just got a bowl of soup eventually as I was just a little hungry, but didn’t really want anything more to drink. Already had complimentary champagne + one vodka/cranberry at the happy hour earlier.
Bummed to not get back to the honky tonks, but, it was really a quite lovely evening. Just chatted with Ivan and now it’s 11 pm and I need to go to bed!!! Conference starts earlier again tomorrow, darn.
Daily Gratitude:
I am grateful for some good connections today!
GRATEFUL KAE 
sounds like a good day socializing and learning! I get exhausted when i go to conference/training due to the amount of human interactions all condensed in one day/place. it’s great that you are enjoying it so much.
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Yes, all the learning + human connection did get exhausting by the end! But I’m glad I pushed through and really partook in everything because it was fun and a good experience, too.
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The leopard print shoes are fabulous. Everyone else was copying off you!
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Hahaha, ok, I’ll go with that perspective!!
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That dress looks so fabulous. Seriously. Like straight out of a magazine awesome! And those shoes are perfection. Now I really want a pair 🙂 I’d copy you in a heart beat (though with my giant canoe paddle feet I don’t think they’d look quite as cute as yours!)
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I have giant feet too! Mine are size 10…. The sample shoes in the shoe stores never look quite as cute once I find the size 10….
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I’m glad you’re enjoying the conference! Sounds like it’s interesting and you’re making new contacts. That dress is VERY cute! And I’ll agree with Birchie- everyone else was copying your shoes : )
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Thank you! I’m so happy I found this dress! It’s SO comfy and I feel like it just fits me perfectly. What a lucky find!
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That is great that you made some new friends with people from different transplant centers. This seems like the kind of conference that my sister would attend some day since she had a similar role when she was still working. But she’s pregnant with her 3rd so I don’t see her returning to work anytime soon. She was doing some PRN hours for the AZ transplant center but I don’t know how she can continue that with 3 kids and no childcare aside from the preschool her daughter attends for a few hours a couple of days/week… But maybe someday you guys will cross paths with each other!
I love your outfit! And I also have leopard print shoes which is not really on brand for me as I’m a very plain dresser! But they can be fun to wear with an all black outfit. I’ve had mine for probably 4 years so I guess I was ahead of the trend! 😉
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I’ll have to find out more specifically what your sister does again! I feel like we talked about this once but I can’t remember exactly. It would be too funny to run into her!
I am not usually the leopard print style person either, but I feel like in shoes with an otherwise simple outfit I can handle that!
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So glad you’re having a great time at the conference! I am not into leopard anything, but I think if I had to wear anything leopard, it would be flats 😉
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Right! I just replied the same thing to Lisa- I don’t see myself wearing like, a leopard print dress or pants or something, but the shoes? I can handle that. Hahaha!
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