Crashing a National Conference {TNTML}

So I'm gonna crash a national conference.
Yeaaah! Here's the scoop:
Every January the North American Veterinary Conference (NAVC) takes place in Orlando, FL and it usually costs at least $100 to go for one day. The conference lasts about 4 days and has awesome lectures, vendor exhibits, free goodies, parties, and a great way to make contacts in the veterinary world. Even just a guest badge which gives you access to the exhibit halls and everything except lectures and labs is about $45. Parking is $10 (or more, I don't know the cost this year) per location per day. So all said and done it can be super expensive to go. Annnd for the last few years I lose track of time during the holidays and suddenly its January and damnit I'm not going AGAIN. (My boss is going which is good but the clinic can't afford to send anyone else this year--at least he'll go and learn new stuff for us)
However one of our vendor reps was telling me that he was going to be down at the conference during most of it and when I mentioned that I wasn't going again (and most likely I said it rather pathetically) he told me he could get me into the exhibit hall. SWEET!!
So I'm still going to have to pay for parking but since I'm on kennel duty this weekend and our clinic is relatively close to the convention center I won't be spending much more in gas (I'll go when I'm planning to travel to the clinic). So excited!! I haven't been to the conference in years!!! Two years ago I went with a friend to an event that was sponsored by the conference but we didn't get to go into the exhibit hall (which is so fun). The event we went to in 2010 was a lecture about the future of a veterinary company but they also opened up SeaWorld just for those attending to ride the rides, they had an open beer/wine bar (OMG WTF!!!), a special night time Shamu Show, and we all also got these cute stuffed dogs.

Hopefully I'll be able to report back with some new and exciting pet products or information. Often times we can get awesome free stuff for attending.
Anyway, in other news: I've been a terrible blogger and social media friend lately. Work has been particularly rough lately with sick patients and dealing with my sick kitty just leaves me exhausted at the end of the day. I think I have over 300 blogs to read. I desperately want to redo my blog banner and tweak the layout as well as catch up on my writing. My 12 things for 2012 really hasn't been going as planned but the good thing about that is its for myself. And since its for myself I can pull myself back up and start again.
My kitty is doing pretty well. She's eating and seems to be in good spirits so we are continuing her trial treatments and will reevaluate once they are finished.
Update: Yeah so that didn’t work out so well. The vendor was going to be able to get me into the exhibit hall for only like two hours and then I was already spending like $25 in gas and parking. I checked to see if my friends (vets) who were attending could sign me up as a guest as the website stated guests were able to go to evening lecture sessions—so I figured it would be worth my time. The lady at the desk told them guests can’t go to any lectures so we decided to call it quits. But I plan on starting a little fund so I can go next year. If I’m a vet tech student I can get in really cheap—something I’ve been considering. I want to start little funds for: NAVC (conference), a Spirit Hood, and my kitty’s vet bill/ongoing medications. I have no idea how to do that, I mean I expect to pay for all these things myself but it someone wanted to chip in how would that work? By the way—all etsy and pet sitting profits are going to pay my kitty’s vet bill. We still owe $150—it was $260 and that was just what was put on payment plan. I gave up getting a new iphone so my dad would pay for my cat’s ultrasound instead ($230). Mind you these prices are heavily discounted due to my work in the field.