Well yesterday I had my first day of work in Airdrie. Overall I think it went very well. I will be excited to start full-time in May. No more life of leisure for me anymore!
In the meantime I have gotten quite a bit of continuing education credit. Last week I was in Vancouver for the Pacific Dental Conference. I didn't want to go by myself so I dragged my mother along so I wouldn't be bored in the evenings. Well I think she had more fun than I did because she was sightseeing throughout the day while I was at the conference. We stayed at the Hyatt downtown Vancouver which was pretty fancy and it was only a couple minutes walk to the convention center. I also got a nice conference rate to stay there. I have only stayed in really really nice hotels a couple of times and although they are really nice I do have some beefs with them. Like why do they charge for local calls? And why do you have to pay to use their wireless? And most importantly they do not have a continental breakfast! At slightly less nice hotels these are all courtesy. Of course at the Hyatt we could get room service. But really could I justify $15 for French Toast with a $3.50 service charge? (Although I never have gotten room service before, I should try it out sometime.) So instead of getting room service for breakfast, or going to their restaurants/cafe, we went next door to McDonalds for a Egg McMuffin. I actually am not a big fan of McDonalds, (although I like them much better than Burger King) but I do like an Egg McMuffin. I guess that seemed like a no-brainer to me. Also in the room they had water bottles for $4.95 a pop. That is real expensive for Atlanta tap water. So I am really cheap? Actually I like to think of myself as frugal, not cheap. Cheap has a worse connotation I think. And I do not consider myself excessively frugal. I am just right frugal. (I guess that is debatable.)
There were definitely some highlights to our Vancouver trip. I went to some good courses and got a lot of free toothpaste. There were tons of exhibitors at the conference. It was a little overwhelming at first. There were booths for anything and everything dental related. There was a booth where you could try out Wii Golf. (You know because dentists like golf so much.) I got a hole in one! I am terrible at real golf, but apparently I am quite the natural at Wii Golf. Because I got a hole in one, my name went into a drawing for a $500 gift card, but sadly I did not win. Oh well.
My mom and I did a lot of walking around. We walked to Stanley Park and down Robson Street (where there is a lot of shopping). We found this quaint little Italian restaurant called Ciao Bella which was really cute. I love Italian food. They also had a piano player which I thought added to the whole ambiance of the place. I even tipped him! (See not cheap.) We also went to Capilano Bridge which was very beautiful. Vancouver is a beautiful city, and luckily it did not rain while we were there, even if it was a little chilly. I also got the opportunity to reconnect with an old childhood friend, Zahra. We were best friends while were we in kindergarten to grade 3 and then she moved. So it had been a very long time since we last saw each other. It was wonderful to see her again and reminisce about the good ol' days. Life sure was simpler then.
I also got to introduce my mother to Coach bags. She had never heard of them before. She must live yes in Magrath! I myself never got into the craze but I've known plenty of people who are in love with them. We also went to Holt Renfrew and got to look at Prada, Gucci etc. It was amazing. I found this beautiful pair of shoes but they were $800! I also found this
gorgeous dress but it was a whopping $2900! I guess there are some people out there that pay that much for clothing/accessories. As for me I can only look and dream. Sigh...
