Conference in Albuquerque

This was the first time I've been to Albuquerque and the first national school nurses'conference I've been to. The picture above is the New Hampshire delegation. Pam Murphy, next to me, is from Peterborough, Mary Jo Reed is from Canterbury, and Gerri Harvey is from Gilmanton.

First, I must say that I am not fond of the area of Albuquerque, but I've never met nicer people. Those who live there go out of their way to make sure we got off on the right bus stop, ate at the right places, and told us about their culture. The conference gave me perspective on what is happening in the rest of the country. I'm thankful for my state which has a school nurse ratio of 1:376 unlike those in the west with an average of 2500 on their case load. I sat through some interesting seminars on evidence based practice, prescription drub abuse, media and school age children and more. I enjoyed the presidents luncheon with all the presidents of the various states... did you know that Arnold Schwartzenagger is only 5'9" and dyes his hair? I also enjoyed (and I can't believe I'm saying this) the annual business meeting. There is alot of pomp with the roll call. I met school nurses working in Sudan and Morocco who came over to learn more about their specialty. This morning, however, I had my favorite moment when I met the assistant surgeon general of the U.S. who told me that I should come to work with the national public health service. :)

I had to spend my birthday in Albuquerque and that day was a hard one for me to be away from my family. In the afternoon, my friend Pam called and we went to a section of town called Old Town. There were markets everywhere and the indians (Navahoo) were selling jewlery in an open air market. (They were SOOO nice) After, we ate at a Brazilian restuarant that all the nurses were raving about. They sang to me in Portugese. Didn't sound like Happy Birthday though. The food was delish.

Albuquerque is at 5000 feet and breathing was difficult with exertion. The temp was around 90 he whole time but the air is so dry. If I didn't use conditioner, my hair was unruly. It was sunny every day with 1 storm while we were there. They have an average of 310 days of sunshine per year. There is one mountain range that comes out of nowhere. Its called the Sandia range and the tallest mountain is 10000 feet. I hear there is a tram ride up that is wonderful. I had altitude sickness one day only and I learned my lesson really fast about keeping hydrated.

Above is a picture of the Sandia Range.