Mixing work and pleasure: Part 1

Although UC staff haven't gotten cost of living increases or merit increases in a while, there is a huge perk to being a UC adviser: the 3 day UC Advisors conference that happens every spring. Basically, the department pays for its advisers to stay at a nice hotel in a nice location in order to mingle with other UC advisers and go to adviser workshops with titles like "How to Charm Students at The Door and Not Keep a Flask in Your Drawer" (no joke). This year's conference was hosted by UC San Diego so we were put up at the Hyatt Regency in La Jolla.....ca ching! I enjoyed my king bed, my comped meals, and being able to have an excuse to not check my work email (the hotel did not have free internet) and instead use any free time to dive into reading "Angels and Demons" or watch random television (including the Biography Channel which had an interesting segment on Christian Bale). Unlike last year's conference, most the workshops I went to this year were rather interesting. The most useful seminar was about the topic of the low-income student experience at UC campuses and how to best serve this student population. Our keynote speakers at breakfast and lunch were also entertaining, including a professor of music who proceeded to play the maracas for 10 minutes at the end of his talk which he said was a metaphor for being able to improvise in any life situation....haha.
Since the conference was in La Jolla, I was able to visit Krystle and Dan during both nights. They took me to Yogurt World the first night which has the most amazing cake batter yogurt....it is unlike any fro yo I've had. Then we watched (and discussed) Wednesday's episode of LOST which was fun since they are fellow LOST fanatics. On Thursday night, I was able to practice my MarioKart Wii skills at their house and I have to say, I'm a little tempted to buy a Wii again. I'm a little ashamed to say I never came in first, but at least I got back to a decent level of MarioKart competency. Krystle (who moonlights as a Starbucks barista) also made me a wonderful peppermint hot chocolate on her new espresso machine....yum!

Evidence:




Since the conference ended on a Friday, I had decided to extend my SoCal stay and visit Ash in Orange County and Rach in LA since UCD was paying for my airfare anyway and it would be a great way to see them both in one weekend! So after bidding the Hyatt adieu, I navigated my way through the San Diego public transit system and got to the Solana Beach Amtrak station to get to Irvine. Amtrak is a nice way to travel and if I had to commute, this would be my preferred mode of transportation. The seats were comfy, plenty of leg room, and the view of this particular route was very calming: all along the ocean. Listening to my iPod and traveling along the coast always makes for a good combo. Now I'm in Orange County and look forward to a night on the town with the Rickmans!

My sweet ride to Irvine: