Greetings from the west coast!

Yo.

It's me! I'm in Vancouver right now, typing this blog post overlooking the harbour. Boats everywhere, the mountains now invisible in the darkness. It's 11:13pm local time, but my body still kinda wants to believe that it's much, much later.

And to make matters worse, I have red wine teeth.

Yes, the dreaded grey pallor that takes over your teeth after a few too many glasses of red wine. Which is why I don't often drink the red. Well, that and the heartburn. But I digress.

Tonight was our conference banquet and there was wine on the table. They were serving beef (which makes perfect sense to me - everyone comes to Vancouver for the beef) so red seemed like the perfect choice. After the dinner itself a bunch of people bolted, so like the good scavengers we are, my colleague and I grabbed any bottles left on tables and made it our mission to ensure no bottle went undrunk.

Well come on - who wants to let good booze go to waste? Certainly not me. I mean, that has to be one of the advantages of not being pregnant, or even in the throws of trying to GET pregnant...me and booze can be friends again.

Last year at this time I was in Halifax for this same conference. I was right in the midst of our first medicated cycle at my first fertility clinic, so there was little to no drinking (and huge heaps of stress) for this diva during that conference.

I'm happy to report that I'm righting that balance this year.

It's weird...I remember being in Hali last year and seeing the booth promoting this year's conference in Vancouver. I took one look at the booth and thought, too bad! I love Vancouver. But I'm sure I'll be pregnant by then - or hey, might even have a child and be on mat leave! - so I won't be able to attend.

Every time I remembered that moment I topped up my glass.

So yeah, like I said, I've got red wine teeth.

It's been a good time so far. I had a fantastic dinner last night with two of my virtual 'friends' that I hadn't met before we chowed down together. Now, I'm increasingly saddened that these very cool women don't live closer to home, 'cause daym are they fantastic women. Sigh. But alas, despite the fact that we can't get together for cocktails more often, I'm so happy we did have the chance to connect while I was here. All good things...all good things.

The ride hasn't been smooth though. I got here yesterday morning and they didn't have my room ready. Fair enough - it was only noon and check in time is 3pm. Even though I had requested an early check in, I knew it wasn't a sure thing so I was relatively okay with it. I hauled my suitcase into the bathroom, got changed, and went to my first session.

I came back out at 3pm, the aforementioned check in time, and you guessed it...my room wasn't ready. Boo-urns. Me and the Westin were not getting along so well.

I return again at 5 and finally, my room she is ready. I haul my bags up, unpack my stuff, plug in my laptop...and nothing. It doesn't work.

Grrr. I had numerous conversations with the tech support folk and of course, they couldn't fix it. Double grrr.

Fast forward to today, and again...internet still not working. So I go to the front desk and they decide to switch my room. I get 'promoted' to the Starwood preferred floor with a king sized bed, a view of the ocean/mountains and, eventually, internet access.

Soooooo....I hope that explains my absence of the past few days if nothing else. I'm very happy to be back online...red wine teeth and all.

And that's your daily dash. How's your diva doin'?