AVID Conference - San Diego

Went to San Diego last week, July 27-July 31, for an AVID conference. (AVID targets students in the academic middle - B, C, and even D students - who have the desire to go to college and the willingness to work hard. These are students who are capable of completing rigorous curriculum but are falling short of their potential. Typically, they will be the first in their families to attend college, and many are from low-income or minority families. AVID pulls these students out of their unchallenging courses and puts them on the college track: acceleration instead of remediation.) The school where I work is one of twenty schools in the country chosen to be a pilot school for the AVID program. It's very complimentary for the school and will give the students a huge boost to be successful in school and to attend college.

This conference was unlike others as one has to attend ALL of the sessions. Sometimes you can skip out of one or two due to 'meeting overkill' or 'just tired of sitting on my butt all day', but not this one. Had to meet the shuttle at 7:30am to get to the conference room before 8am and then meetings until 4:30p, with an hour for lunch. Fortunately I went with seven other people from work, including my new principal, so lunch and the evenings were fun. My poor principal is a little overwhelmed with all of the things he needs to implement, especially since the last one left him with a mess.

The hotel/resort we stayed in was called the Town & Country Resort. It's not one building, but about nine buildings that make the entire resort. The running joke was how expensive everything was. We paid quite a bit to stay there, and then they expected us to pay $10 for the WiFi (which I didn't have to as I was able to get someone's for free in my hotel room; have no idea why but I didn't complain) and $8 for the gym (can we say I didn't make it to the gym once) and $3 for water. Oh, and the water in the hotel? All I could think of was the Friends episode where Rachel makes the trifle with beef and Ross says "It tastes like feet!". That's all I could say to myself every time I brushed my teeth! The water was horrid and I wasn't even in Magna for heaven sakes!

Behind the resort was the fancy, schmansy Hollywood mall. There were stores in this mall that I only have seen in a Vogue magazine. My friend Melina and I kept commenting on the people who walked out of the stores, wondering what in the world someone does who has a Burberry, Gucci and Jimmy Choo sack as they walked out of the Louis Vutton store (apparently they weren't up to spending $3000 on a bag that day). I joked with Melina and the boys (shout out to Tim, Tony and Taran) that these were the type of people who carried their dogs in a bag. You know the ones, the little dogs (that I will have to have due to my stupid back) that weigh no more than 5 lbs and are carried everywhere with them. Rossi hates people who do that and I told them I can't wait to get my dog and carry him/her around in a couture bag everywhere I go just to harass him.

Because Tim and Tony look out for me like a sister, and I wasn't able to go with them to Coronado Island due to my having the hot date with Christopher (according to Melina, 'That is one black dude!), they picked me up a little something.
Meet 'Huge', my Scottie dog in a bag. (the name is an inside joke with the SD group)
Get ready Rossi, he's coming everywhere!!!!