Bye Bye Bourbon

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My trip to AAOS started out stinky.  My early morning flight canceled and left me scrambling.  After a new travel agenda was arranged, I headed out to face the week.  Little did I know that stink would find me yet a second time in one day.

I call him "sock man" althought I am sure he has a given name that is less humiliating.  As I sat in the Atlanta airport trying to remain calm due to many travel hassels experienced earlier in the day, a young gentelman, maybe 35 years old, sat down beside me and proceeded to remove his slip on leather boots in a Mister Rogers fashion.  Confused by this usually culturally unexcepted performance, i waited to see if there was an explanation.  When he opened his mouth to speak I realized that he was foreign.  I wrote it off as a fluke and quickly left him to go line up to board the plane.  What do you know, he lined up right beside me.  After seeing my Biomet backpack, he asked if I was headed to New Orleans for the AAOS meeting.  (Since the plane we were boarding was only going to New Orleans, it seemed obvious to me...but) I replied that I work with Biomet in the bone cement department and that struck a common cord with him.  Come to find out, he is a molecular scientist that developed a european cement.  Dang, I thought he was a nerd, here I am in the same profession as him and talk about the molecular structure of bone cement.  It finally hit me that I am offically a looser.

Imagine going to Chicago and inviting your friends to go out and hang in the slums. That is New Orleans.

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Throughout the week, I ran into the "sock man" two more times.  Once in a bar on Bourbon street.  I didn't approach him because he was wearing cargo shorts, a button down shirt and those same slip on leather boots.

New Orleans is a dirt city.  Imagine going to Chicago and inviting your friends to go out and hang in the slums.  That is New Orleans.  But, since I was there, I had to experience it. I visited the famous Bourbon Street.  I hung out and had dinner at Pat O'Brien Bar and took a morning run along the river.  By the end of three days I was more than ready to get the heck out of there.  However, when I went to log on to my flight Friday night, I found out my ticket had been canceled.  Because Southwest canceled my flight on the way down, it caused my return flight to be canceled.  So, I spent the next 2 hours straightening out the situation.  Southwest ended up reinstating my ticket and I was able to leave on Saturday as planned.

What wasn't planned was the 5 hour delay in Nashville during my trip home or the two travel companions that I picked up along the way.   As I sat exhausted in the New Orleans airport at O'Dark Thirty on Saturday morning, I see two reps that I know from Chicago approaching the same gate that I am waiting at.  It ends up that they are on my flight home.  So, we go grab breakfast together and sat next to each other on the plane ride.  We spent some really quality time together in Nashville during our 5 hour layover.  I saved Matt's life during the stint in Nashville.  After hours and hours of drinking both in New Orleans and at the bar in Nashville, Matt developed a rash all over his body as a reaction to the alcohol.  I nursed him back to health using simple Benedryl and force him to stop drinking alcohol long enough for the drugs to work.  We actually had a blast.  Traveling with Drew and Matt was like traveling with Dumb and Dumber (in a good way).  The laughs were never ending and the time passed quickly.  Which was good since I didn't get home until midnight on Saturday.

Overall, the meeting was productive.  I did have fun in New Orleans and definately got my fill of the city and Bourbon Street.