UCLA EM @ ACEP 2007 -- Sunday Student's Fair

In LA it was sunny and warm but an hour into Alaska Air's flight the world below disappeared into a milky wet smear of cotton meaning only one thing -- we were getting near Seattle. You could begin to smell the wet wool, facial hair and Starbuck's coffee, even at 37 -thousand feet.

It's Sunday October 7, and it's actually "ACEP minus one" since the Scientific Assembly doesnt' officially start until tomorrow. My wife Lisa Waltz and I found Richelle Cooper waiting for the same flight at LAX and after the usual delay we pushed back.

Seattle's airport, surprisingly, sucks. LAX is as finely tuned and as fast stepping as the Grambling Marching Band at halftime with full drumline compared to Seattle. In the land of high tech and microsoft, I was surprised. Lisa, Richelle and I avoided a 300 yard long cab line looking for the 'Airporter Bus' since the ACEP Sheraton Convention Headquarters doesn't have an airport shuttle. Carlos Cao and John Crisp joined us in the single ticket line for bus tickets, which, in some odd synronicity also stretched 300 yards.

The ACEP/EMRA med student's fair started at 3PM, and since I was manning the booth, we were in serious time squeeze. A crochety bus driver pulled out with a full bus, promising another one in 8 minutes to take us down town.

4o minutes later, our casino-special style bus pulled in, and we climbed aboard.

The driver was crazy. After pulling a way from the curb, an angry red-haired ER doctor type waved him to a stop. He stopped and opened the door. Nice. Finally someone showing that Seattle sense of community.

"It says you run every half hour!" she screamed at him.

"Screw you! I been driving this bus for 17 years, and you're telling me what to do?" he screamed back, turning to Lisa, Richelle and me. "There's always one jerkoff in ever batch."

Then he jumped off and loaded her luggage.

Welcome to Seattle. It was now raining steadily, and our driver was obviously a man on the sheer edge of homicide and mania. It was tense on the bus as our driver came back on to collect tickets and dispense homey advice and brittle twitchy disipline.

Richelle did her best turtle and, being smart tried to make herself small and invisibile.

The rest of the ride was...ummm...tense. Our driver insisted that he was a retired gastroenterologist who drove on the weekends, which didn't really make us feel a warm sense of camaradarie. He asked us to turn off all cell phones and electronic devices since they interfered with the bus's navigation system, and his pacemaker.

Jon Crisp suggested that we hand him a magnet, quick. Ask Jon, I'm not making this up.

With 15 minutes to spare Lisa and I waved goodbye from the curb to Richelle, Carlos, Jon and the rest of the hostages, as the bus disappeared into the drizzle, leaving us at the Westin, where the Student/Residency Fair was starting in 5 minutes.

Up, up, up the escalators, we followed the signs until we reached the "Eagle's Nest" Ballroom. The place was packed, maybe 8 or 10 rows of tables, each with a sign saying the name of the residency, from the East Coasters -- Harvard, Hopkins, NYU, Drexel, UPMC on the left and heading west to the left -- where a long line of California schools filled both sides of the last row -- Lisa and I ran down the row -- USC, UCSF, Irvine...

No UCLA.

Sh....shoot. We parked the baggage in a corner and found the fair coordinator, Michelle. Up and down the list...nope, no UCLA. Hmmm. Somehow we had failed to register. Great.

Rain, psycho bus, now no table. Recruiting season is starting just great. I braced myself for explosive diarrhea, which would make perfect sense right about now...

OK -- so what to do. Michelle said that she thought Pam Dyne was around somewhere but that she didn't think the UCLA table had been set up since we hadn't registered.

"Can we grab a spare table? Is there someone who hasn't shown up?" I asked her.

A few minutes, some pins, stolen tape and Lisa had our UCLA table set up across the end of the final row -- like a throne at the end of a long hallway. With the UCLA Banner set up, applicants moved down through the other California schools (talking to people along the way like UCLA Alum Jen (Krawczyk) Oman, who runs UCI's program featuring Mike Menchine) until they came to the ULTIMATE program, UCLA.

UCLA, the end of the rainbow.

Pam and Peter Bloomfield showed up as the fair started, and we were underway.

Our program got a lot of attention, for our academic and clinical excellence, and especially for our UCLA "R DOCS R HOT" custom M& M candies:

At UCLA and Olive View, life is Sweet!

By the end of the first hour, our end of the row was rocking, like Jerry Hoffman's VW microbus during the 'Summer of Love.'

Carlos Cao and Jon Crisp were joined by Alum Luis Moreno, then the really hip, northwestern-style latte sippin' slackers Reza Dinesh and Greg Moran showed up to form a swirling posse of cool lookin' guys representing the program.

We were definately the happening place to be. Lisa walked the whole hall and said that the west coast programs had the best tables and the most interest, and that UCLA was the 'destination' in the hall. Our guys (and girl) looked great (we ARE from LA, after all...) and I believe Reza, Peter and Carlos got a couple of phone numbers...umm...strictly for recruiting purposes. You know, check up on the progress of applications, and that kind of stuff. Right. Pam and I would make our pitch, pour a little wine and then loose the guys on the candidates.

Then Crisp would give them candy.

"Take this and repeat after me: I'm ranking UCLA number one...number one..."

An hour later and the fair was over. We had a great showing with more residents, faculty and alumni than any other program I saw. I think we made a terrific impression on a number of students and it was a good time. Much wine and candy was consumed.

Then it was off to change and get some dinner. Seen in the hotel lobby on the way were Alums Kelly Painter and Tiffany Hackett, looking beautiful with thier dates, Jerry Hoffman, Lynne McCullough and Robert Rosenbloom.

That's it for Sunday -- meetings start in a few hours and I'll send the news along.

Coming up: Tuesday nights UCLA Alumni Reception and Wednesday's Senior Reception at the Triple Door Club on Union street.

Mark

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