Reality check.

Did I need last week off or what? Boston was wonderful, and I now feel guilty that I didn’t keep a few notes each day so that I could go back and update my diary accordingly. Ah well, live and learn. When I go to California/Oregon next month I’ll try to do that.

The conference lasted from Saturday to Wednesday. Saturday and Sunday were full working days for me. I’m not a practicing veterinarian, but work in industry as a “food safety expert”. There were three full days of food safety lectures, and I attended two and a half days of them. They started Saturday and lasted through Monday, but the ones Monday had very little relevance to my job. For a lark I jumped over to the Bioterrorism lectures midway through Monday, but (believe it or not) those were as boring as hell. Tuesday I attended a full series of lectures on the animal I specialize in, but there were no relevant lectures in the afternoon so I shopped instead. More on that later. Wednesday I attended a couple of computer workshops (Excel and Access) and came away only marginally wiser than I started out.

I spent WAY too much money while I was there. My younger sister’s birthday is in September, and I stumbled across a salt and pepper shaker by an artist whose work she likes. Before you say “yeah, great gift: salt and pepper shakers”, let me inform you that these are in the shape of running rabbits and are on wheels like an antique child’s toy. You can roll them across the table to whoever asks for salt and pepper. I got some maple sugar candy for The Professor (he’s developed an absolute addiction to the stuff since coming East), and a nice housewarming present for a friend of mine who has recently moved to be with his lady in Oregon and who I hope to visit next month while we’re out there.

And for me … I got a ring. Silver leaves chasing around my finger, with slender gold bands top and bottom. The silver is so clear it looks like etched glass. I went back and visited the ring several times before I actually broke down and bought it. I’ve never spent as much on a piece of jewelry in my life. I cringe to think of my next VISA bill. But sometimes something speaks to you. At the risk of ridicule, that ring spoke to me of life and hope and all things beautiful that I value. It won’t be spending much time in the jewelry box. I consider it a gift from my mother, since it was the money from her estate that I recently received that enabled me to pay for it.

I went up to Boston with a dear friend from vet school. We ate seafood every night (Legal Seafood ROCKS!). We drank more beer than I can easily recount. We goaded each other into buying things we shouldn’t have bought. We took a Boston Duck tour, and purchased “quackers” so we could quack on command during the tour. (If you don’t know what a Boston Duck tour is, then, I’ll explain later when I get my pictures developed.)

I also met up with a friend I made during a summer externship while I was in vet school. Back then DNA-boy was a vet school wanna be, and we ended up talking vet med a lot that summer. We developed a strong friendship that lasted during his attempts to get into vet school, his first year at vet school, his painful decision that being a veterinarian was not what he wanted out of life after all, his engagement and subsequent break up with the woman who followed him to vet school. He’s seen me through a broken arm, my vet school angst years, my brush with death, my divorce, my meeting The Professor. I consider him a brother, and he in turn calls me “Sis”. He now lives outside of Boston, and my friend and I spent a couple of days visiting there until we came home on Saturday. We visited a wonder spot called the “Butterfly Place” with him – it had butterflies from all over the world in a free flying garden/”aviary” setting. I’m praying that at least some of my pictures from there turn out.

Coming back home after a week away from The Professor was also wonderful. In anticipation of my return he’d vacuumed, taken all the trash out, washed all the dishes, made the bed! … and then locked me out of the apartment! He’d forgotten that the door was chained and bolted. I got back, loaded with bags and baggage, hauled my sorry ass up three flights of stairs, and unlocked the door, and then tried to open it. Nothing. So I tried my key again. It appeared to work. It was at that point that I realized what he must have done. I pounded on the door. My Korean neighbors were returning from a trip to the shore at the same time, and kept passing by me in the hallway as I (surrounded by my luggage) was pounding on the door. It must have looked like he’d thrown me out! When hammering on the door elicited no response, I finally pulled my cell phone out and called him. He had a wonderfully sheepish look on his face when he finally came to the door and let me in.

I love that man.