busy consultant life

Wow I've been truly living the high life as a consultant...I flew to Las Vegas last weekend to an Inter-MBA mixer event where there was small group dinners, networking pre-game mixer, VIP entry and bottle service with tables at 2 night clubs, and entry at a day club ( pool party!).

Really memorable, I made a lot of good connections, found out how MBA students really can drink and party, and lots of firsts on this trip. First time at a day club, first time in a jacuzzi hot tub with a bunch of people I barely know (including hot guys), first time clubbing with people you kind of know but don't, first going around and introducing myself to about 50 people per night in a club, first time losing my voice from all the shouting over the music in the club...definitely went out of my comfort zone and had a great time!

Really wish I had more time though, would have wanted to do a road trip to grand canyon, antelope canyon, death valley, bryce canyon etc...maybe thanksgiving trip?

I realise that in the past 3-4 months my workload has almost tripled, and while I'm working more hours (more like busy consultant hours now hahaha, head in 8am and leave at 10pm, go back to hotel and work some more...) I am feeling more productive! Super satisfying to be adding value to the project and feel valued by my coworkers. At least I still don't -quite- have to work weekends, unless I want to (which I did on Sunday, always good to get some emails cleared out...)

Can't wait to hand off some of the work to the new resources we are hiring though, so I get more time to do my own things. I've been trying to work on the All of Me guitar song, but since I'm always traveling I don't have my guitar with me :(

Also, I have a list of books and shows I want to watch, and I hardly progressed on any of them...though I finally finished reading all 5 Game of Thrones books (it totally felt like a marathon), and Norwegian Wood! I also wish I had more time to read up for work - I'm trying to read white papers and learn more about converged infrastructure, cloud technology and LAN best practices. The technology progresses at such a fast rate that if I don't read up, I'm lagging behind!

Ahh and good news! I've just been invited to speak at a large national conference in Vegas early May (yes I'm headed back to Vegas again haha) with my boss! I'm super excited: this is a highlight of my budding career, I'm getting my name out there not just with potential clients but also within my company, it's my first time at a work conference, and I'm getting invited to funky posh work parties in vegas! Now I'll get to see how middle aged white guys "party" while at work...

Seriously. Every time I head to Vegas it's for a different reason.
- My first time was to go shopping, try all the good buffets (I ate SOOO much, 4 buffets in 4 days...), check out casinos (broke even at blackjack and lost $20 at the roulette table) and helicopter to grand canyon.
- Second time was to watch a JJ Lin concert + go clubbing (checked out 4 different clubs in 4 nights...) and visit a strip club for the first time.
- Third time was with my family, so watched shows - Cirque du Soleil and David Copperfield, walked around like tourists and visited old Vegas (Fremont Street!) where my dad reminisced about how it used to be like 20 years ago.
- Fourth time was last weekend for an inter-MBA mixer event, more for networking and connections while watching everyone else drink and party haha. I mean if I'm drunk, how am I going to give out my business cards right??

Ok so this fifth time I will be there for work, a professional conference event where I'm presenting at 2 sessions! Really glad that I'm experiencing so many different aspects of Vegas, I really do enjoy the fact that there's always something different it offers!