Where's Amanda been?

I'd forgotten that there was such a time as 5:30am. Yeah, that's what time I got up Wednesday morning. Was on the road by 7am and in Lansing around 9am. Unfortunately I missed a turn in Lansing and so I didn't get to the Lansing Center until about 9:30am. First session that I went to was a bloodbank session and then we hit up lunch at the deli and then checked into the hotel. We were at the Radisson about 2 blocks down the road from the Capitol Building. Afternoon brought forth antimicrobial resistance and more bloodbanking. Unfortunately, out of the 4 of us that went, none of us went to the bloodbank case studies and our teacher did so she got test questions for our next test. Joy.

I think that the most exciting moment of the night was meeting the old microbiology teacher from the program, and we heard the story of someone who innoculated herself, on purpose with Pseudomonas aeruginosa. And then we found out that she'd taught Tim's uncle and had poured many beers over his head. Well a little while later Tim got the bright idea of buying her a beer. So he went up to her and offered to buy her a beer and she told him that he needed to kiss her first. So according to him, he tool the "Kissing the mother in law" approach and gave her a quick peck, but apparently that wasn't good enough, so he kissed her again. Still not good enough though, but of course, that gave us enough ammunition for the entire conference.

Afterwards we headed down to the sports bar to catch the Wings game and get some food, and then my age came into play. We were all going to go down to Rum Runners, a pretty interesting bar and we find out that it's 21 and up, so it was back to the hotel for me. This is about 10 or so, so I hung out in the hotel hot tub for a while and then went back to the room and passed out on the cot.

Mind you, I was staying with 3 males, and could have slept on the bed instead of the cot, which was the most uncomfortable bed in the world, nice metal bar in the middle of my back, but the guys had their shit all over the bed and there was no way that I was touching it.

When Eric and Tim got back from the nudie bar, I just about killed them. I'd been sleeping real well and they didn't even try to be quiet when they got in. We had to tell TIm that he couldn't call his wife at 3am. Hell, she'd left him a note at home not to call when he'd been drinking. Oh yeah, and they both snore when they're drunk.

Thursday was more of the same, except I learned about hematology all day, and got REALLY excited because I got a 6th Edition Digg's Manual of the Morphology of Human Blood Cells (brand new) at the exhibitor's exhibit. Got ditched at about 8:30 as everyone went back to Rum Runners and so I watched some TV and used the Spa and Hot Tub. Very nice. Managed to grab a bed that night instead of the cot though, so that was good.

Friday, once again more of the same. It felt kind of weird though because it was Good Friday and it was the first Good Friday in years that I didn't go to church. Left Lansing at about 4:30 and made it home by 6pm. Traffic was flying. Got yelled at a bit by my mom for spending too much money on her for her birthday gift.

Saturday I hung out with my mom and then we went and visited my dad's mom last night. Found out that my Aunt Grace got out of the hospital for a bit and was in a nursing home and then ended up back in the hospital after biting her nurse and her lungs were filling back up with fluid. Oh yeah, and it started snowing today.

We went to church this morning and it made me think that there are so many people that only go to church on holy days. Maybe it makes them feel less guilty, but church should be as full every day as it was today. It made me remember when we were going to Visitation. At holiday's Fr Emmet would have the kids come and sit up around the altar so that there was more room for people to sit. And then he'd threaten to get bleachers installed in the church. Those were the days.

We spent the afternoon at mom's mom's house this afternoon and had our traditional spaghetti dinner. Yes, I said spaghetti. On Easter. We're Italian. It was a nice afternoon though, even chasing around 2 toddlers. I'm surprised that Michael doesn't think that his name is no by now. Camden was such a cutie though, big and strong at 5 months old too. Pictures will go up tomorrow.

Now, to do my homework...