Planes, Trains, and Automobiles.

Last week, I attended an American Health Lawyers Association conference on Medicare/Medicaid (I know-exciting stuff) in Baltimore. While the conference, as always, was extremely informative and the presenters were top-notch, I was mentally drained by Thursday night. Thus, I decided to visit Blackwelder and Chris in DC, enjoy happy hour, and watch the NCAA tournament Sweet 16 games (specifically, Duke, as Blackwelder and Chris are alums---don't hold that against them).

Soooooo, after my last seminar session, I hopped in a cab to Penn Station and caught an Amtrak train to Union Station in DC. From Union Station, I caught the Metro to Metro Center and made a two minute walk from the Metro Center to the Laughing Man at 13th and G where the festivities were located. All in all, the trip was about one hour and fifteen minutes from the hotel to the Laughing Man. After some consultation with Blackwelder, it was decided the trip would not be worth it if I had to obey the "Amtrak Curfew" in order to get back to Baltimore and, thus, miss the Duke game. Blackwelder was generous enough to let me crash at his place.

On Friday, Blackwelder and I caught a 7:30ish am Metro train from his place and I was on an 8:10am Amtrak train from Union Station to Baltimore. I was back in my hotel room by 9:15am and ready for my final few seminar sessions. My flight back to NOLA left Baltimore about 4:30pm and landed in New Orleans at 8:30pm (via Tampa). JSH and I were sitting at La Thai on Prytania having dinner by 9:15pm on Friday night.

Where am I going with all this? If you are scoring at home (or if you are all by yourself), in 5 days, I took 4 separate flights, 4 cabs, 2 Amtrak trains, 2 Metro trains, and was in the following cities for a substantive amount of time: New Orleans, Birmingham, Baltimore, Washington D.C., and Tampa.

It may be a simplistic view but it always fascinates me that in a 24 hour period I was sitting at a bar in D.C. hanging with Blackwelder, Chris, Jeff, Allison, Little Blackwelder, and the other Dukies, made a trip back to Baltimore from D.C., and ended up on Prytania Street, 5 minutes from our house, having dinner with JSH.

Planes, Trains, and Automobiles will get you places..........the places where you will be happiest.