Vegas Wrap-up

Let me make one thing perfectly clear, I don't gamble. Why not just go burn some money for a giggle if that's your pleasure, it's so not mine. But how to sum up our trip to Vegas for the American College of Emergency Physician's (ACEP) conference with my two doctors - one who Gma calls her "little doctor" and the other my "old man?" Maybe I could sell a script to TV Land called, "My Two ER Doctors." Maybe not. We met at the Mandalay Bay hotel. My daughter and her colleague (another young woman with long blonde hair who might have been her twin sister and was just barely pregnant) waltzed into our room, overlooking the pool area, and collapsed around us with funny flight stories. Dinner included another colleague (we met many, her hospital's residency program sent over 20) at an Asian Fusion restaurant in the hotel, and then the young docs went out to party, and we turned in early since the time change takes its toll on us semi-seniors.

When my sweet hubby left for meetings early the next morning, I was wondering what to do with myself. Usually at these conferences there are tons of amusing travel adventures to choose from for the non-medical spouses. Years ago I toured the colorful Victorian homes in San Francisco, and on the same trip experienced a wonderful wine tasting tour of Napa. We even made it out to the Hearst Castle! But either the times have changed and ACEP no longer offers these side trips, or women are fast becoming ER docs themselves and no longer marrying them? I quickly realized I'd have to make my own fun, which incidenatally is how the French say it - you must amuse yourself, you do not have fun, fun cannot have you, oui? So I picked up the phone and found Canyon Ranch at the Venetian: http://www.canyonranchspaclub.com/las_vegas_nv/. One heavenly massage and an ice cream pedicure later, I was no longer feeling sorry for myself. Did I forget to mention that a few days before the trip my flip flops flipped me over the front steps and I was in desperate need of drugs and/or a massage?

So, back realigned, I successfully avoided the "death ray." Yes folks, it's a real thing that happens when the sun is reflected off one of those concave wonderwall of windows hotels and happens to refract itself next to a pool, thereby setting some poor unsuspecting sun worshiper's hair on fire...really. Next, in my swimsuit coverup - the girls plucked me away from the fake beach and wave machine...really - we trolled the conference center for free pens and candy. It was amazing to see my little girl with her residency posse walking around, Dad in tow, sharing Life in the ER stories and speaker's laments. He is the wise one, they are the new young Turks. We ultrasounded the colleague's expectant belly with a tiny wand that made Star Trek's scanner look like a possibility; looked for my husband's book on ER management in the library; and kvelled over lab coats that let blood just slide right off them! There was this shimmer in the air, here was my child the physician, a grown married woman, in a professional organization, having a wonderful time learning and sharing her accomplishments with her friends and her very proud papa. Sometimes I had to remember to breathe!

While they enjoyed their days of lectures and labs, I was learning to amuse myself Vegas style. Since I couldn't abandon ship and check into Canyon Ranch for the week, I figured out how to see the sights and use the monorail so as not to go broke taking cabs everywhere. Looking out of one overpass at a sphinx, with the Eiffel Tower behind it, gave me pause. There will be no Nevada retirement for this family, thank you. The piece de resistance of our Vegas trip, seeing Cirque du Soleil's "O" at the Bellagio. That and the gala dinner when we got to introduce the girls to the pioneers of Emergency Medicine. Oh what a night!