Everything is bigger in Texas

I'm back from my work trip to San Antonio. And I'm alone. J is away on a pleasure/work trip for the whole week. Which means by the time we see each other next, we will have been apart for 10 whole days. WAAAAAAH.

Anyways, some observations on this trip.

The Riverwalk is overrated. I mean, it's just crowded. The walkway is small and I saw several people fall in the murky water because we were walking elbow to elbow. Okay, I didn't really. But it could have happened.

I didn't go to the Alamo this time. That's overrated too. It's just that I saw it on my last biz trip to San Ant. I don't think it's changed. Once is probably enough.

I ate Mexican food everyday. Yippee skippee!

There was a 50-degree temperature difference between San Antonio and NH.

The meeting I covered had to do with managed care issues. I am realizing more and more how much this industry LOVES buzz terms. Everything has a term. Value-based benefit design. Patient-centered medical home. Consumer-directed health care. Medication therapy management. Specialty pharmacy. It's a bit like phonetics. You just have to sound it out to understand it. But it just takes a few extra seconds to process the sentence because of this.

There was a hearing-impaired lady in a few of my sessions and I give a lot of credit to her interpreter. I imagine there was a lot of spelling out, but to know right off the bat how to spell fampridine and pazopanib, wow. The interpreter did not seem to skip a beat at all!

The exhibit hall, where the pharma companies have traditionally given away everything from pens to i-Pods, was the size of my living room. Pharma is really taking this whole "no freebie" rule seriously!

My camera is being temperamental, so I can't upload my picture. Instead, enjoy this one of my 2003 business trip to San Ant. Except for the fact that my hair is about 10 inches shorter. And I have less wrinkles. And I still had no idea what I was doing in my job at that time. Oh, and I was with a different co-worker this time. So really it has nothing to do with this trip, but I couldn't do without a picture.

BossLady & I on the RiverWalk in 2003

So I have big plans this week while I switch into single-self mode. Sunday's agenda includes meeting with my scrapbooking group and then I get to see Mouth and NHBound, who are in town for wedding planning (poor souls)!