San Diego Recap!

Before I get started on my trip to San Diego, I have a bit of a side comment to rant about a little bit. Well, maybe not rant, but need to just get out there because… well I want it. So today (and on a few other occasions), I’ve had people tell me what good pictures my camera takes and how awesome it must be to have such a good camera. I’d sure hope that my camera would take good pictures, I forked over a hefty chunk of change for it, but its NOT just my camera, actually, my camera is probably only 1/3 of how my pictures turn out.

It’s hasn’t happened often that people have complimented ONLY my camera… I’ve had plenty of people tell me that they love my pictures and say nothing about the quality of my camera. However, it was brought to my attention today by someone asking me what kind of camera I have because it takes such good pictures. I don’t think she was trying to be mean by saying that, but I don’t think she thought beyond the camera, like, its part of who is behind the camera as to how the picture turns out. You can give the best camera to someone who knows nothing about photography and you won’t get any better pictures than someone with your run of the mill camera because they won’t know anything about it. I’ve read and read about the features on my camera and different things about photography and experiment with things outside of the box and then I edit and edit… that counts for the majority of how my pictures turn out. I delete and delete and delete too! In any case, I just wanted to get out that yes, I like the pictures that I take (at least the ones I post online) and I love my camera, but my camera isn’t ALL that makes my pictures look like they do…

Okay… onto my trip! I had to get up bright and early on Wednesday so we (Amy and myself) could make it to the airport on time. I was super excited, but it still didn’t seem real. It really didn’t seem real until I was on the plane on the way to Chicago! I had no problem with getting air sick, never have. I love flying and this time was no exception, although the flight from Chicago to San Diego was a little long! We landed in San Diego and waited for the other two AuD students from Point that were coming, but who had taken a different flight. They arrived within the hour and we headed off to our hotel.

Unfortunately, we found out that our hotel wasn’t very close to the convention center… about a half mile away which was definitely within walking distance, however there wasn’t really an easy way to get there, as in we didn’t walk home at night in the dark… NOPE!

On Wednesday we headed to the convention center to check in and check a few things out. We didn’t get there in time to attend any sessions on Wednesday, but we attended the SAA reception which had a bunch of free food (actually, I didn’t pay for a meal the entire time we were there, other than a few snacks in the airport) and then Amy and I headed back to the hotel room while Nicole and Janelle went to a baseball game (we got free tickets through the convention), however they didn’t stay for the whole thing.

Thursday morning was another early morning since Amy and I wanted to go to some morning sessions. We went to one on cochlear implants which I thought was really interesting and then had a bit of a break before the afternoon sessions started. During that time we walked around down by the San Diego bay for a little while and went into a few shops.

The afternoon was spent in class… we each went to four other ones and then wandered around the exhibit hall where all of the hearing aid companies were ‘selling’ their stuff. We got a bunch of free pens, and even a free rolling duffel bag, but also found out about some pretty cool products! It was fun to hear everyone say they had the best stuff! And we got lots and lots of free food!

Thursday night (since the sessions ended at like 6pm), Amy and I walked around downtown and did some shopping since I had forgotten my id and wasn’t able to get into one of the hearing aid companies parties that we had gotten passes for. I didn’t know about the party before we left for the day and only brought my convention badge for the day since I didn’t anticipate needing my id for anything, however that wasn’t exactly the case and well I wasn’t going all the way back to the hotel for it because it wasn’t a party that I needed to get into anyways. We could hear the music from outside the gates anyways and we had more fun shopping! I picked up some jewelry for myself, a t-shirt for Jay, and a t-shirt and little stuffed animal for Ayden.

Friday I slept in with Nicole and Janelle and Amy headed off to the convention early since she had to volunteer. We got to the convention around 10ish and I walked around taking some pictures since the first class I wanted to attend wasn’t until noon. I went to two and a half classes, since the last one really wasn’t doing it for me information wise. After that, I walked around the poster presentations and then we all headed back to the hotel to get ready for the parties that night. All of the hearing aid companies were hosting parties that we had plans to attend!

We hit up one at the HardRock hotel with super good food and drinks (although I stuck with water) and then headed to another one on a boat with even better food! Anyone ever seen mashed potatoes martinis?! Okay, they weren’t actually martinis, but mashed potatoes in martini glasses and then a whole table of condiments you could add! I though they were SO cute!

And after that we went to the USS Midway for the Beach Boys! More free food and drinks, although by that time I was stuffed and didn’t need anymore food. Beach Boys were awesome and then we got to see some fireworks (actually twice that night since the baseball team won their game and they shot some off just as we were getting back downtown)!

Saturday was another early morning and another long day flying high in the sky! It was nice to get home and have today to relax, although today went really fast. I had every intention of doing some homework today, however that went out the window. I am fairly certain that my first class is cancelled tomorrow which means I will head into campus early and will work on my presentation then instead of tonight. I really just needed today to relax and not worry about anything. Since the weather was nice, I washed all of Ayden’s bedding and hung it outside to dry, but there is about four  loads of laundry still sitting in the basement that need to be washed and who knows if that will happen before the weekend.

This week is another short week class wise since we will be headed to Madison for the mini conference on Thursday and Friday. Means I won’t have double clinic this week which is good, but another two days that Jay needs to be home from work early in order to be able to get Ayden off the bus. Oh well… at least the semester is almost over!!! Can’t wait! So much studying to do, but SO happy that two of my finals are TAKE HOME! Well one is take home and one is online and the last online one I had was pretty easy, so at least I think so. Got an A on the test I took last week so that was good!

Well, I didn’t go into as much detail as I thought I was going to, but I’m really just wanting to sit down and watch some TV since I really haven’t done that at all today… too busy playing with Ayden, cleaning, or editing pictures!

CIAO! LOVE ME!