The Big Easy

So I went to the annual conference of the American Association of Nurse Practitioners last week. Or maybe the week before, I don’t know at this point. It was down in New Orleans. I had not been to NOLA but now I have so expanding the horizons, then. This conference was actually my birthday present from my parents, basically the best present ever besides my trauma shears (you do not even understand how awesome my trauma shears are. I cut through all the layers at the neck of a hoodie in like two seconds once. Jeans waistband, no problem. It’s not that I look forward to people being grievously injured but as long as it’s going to happen why not have me there with my shears? Saves time which is pretty heroic if you ask me.). It was a smorgasbord of seminars and research presentations and I looked forward to it greatly.

The very special guest speaker in the opening ceremonies was Loretta Ford who INVENTED NURSE PRACTITIONERING. She is 95 and kicks so much ass. I have the loudest whistle in the world and I unleashed it in her honor at the end of her speech. I felt it was well deserved. Also Naomi Judd spoke and that was cool but also there were a few patronizing moments and that’s not my favorite. I did an ECG seminar that was unbelievable, a liver failure lecture, some attended posters, a research lecture, a DNP student seminar, and a few other things. The absolute best, though was the acid-base balance lecture. It was seriously one of the best educational experiences I have had. I mean I can delta delta in like 10 seconds flat. Super exciting. To like maybe 1% of the people who will read this.

My policy is to never waste a meal by eating things that are not awesome so I exercised that in NOLA. I ate some very excellent brisket, some grits and biscuits and gravy, some more brisket, and brisket sandwiches. That makes it sound like I only had brisket but it just really stood out. Along with the peanut butter pie. That was good too.

I stayed in a hotel room all alone which ruled. I love my house and family but it is a rare treat to be an adult with no obligations aside from my own schedule. So I reveled in that a bit, mainly by sleeping in a starfish shape in the bed.

Aside from the crappy airline travel (Spirit airlines, cannot recommend and the clusterfuck that awaited me upon landing (foreshadowing), it was a good trip.