It's Practically Business School

For years now I've been preaching the necessity of taking a warm, sunny vacation in February to my fellow Minnesotans. February tends to be brutal month, as the shine of the holidays has completely worn off and you're left with dark and cold and spring is still a good 2-3 months away.

Unfortunately, I've been pretty bad at following my own advice...we went to Hawaii last New Year's, which was awesome, but it was a little bit too early in the season to properly alleviate the winter doldrums (or "the greys," as I've decided to call them).

That was all just backstory to help you understand exactly how much I'm looking forward to getting on a plane tomorrow to sunny LAS VEGAS!

I know what you're thinking: But you always look forward to Las Vegas.

And you're right -- I love Las Vegas no matter the season. But I am particularly excited about the timing of this trip because I have a serious case of the greys that I know will be washed away by just 10 minutes in the desert sun (and by the sweet, sweet sound of the slot machines).

This trip will be a little different because I'm going for work (have I mentioned that I love my job?), but my husband is coming too, and the work part doesn't start until Tuesday, which means nothing but fun between Sunday afternoon and Tuesday morning! And then a little more fun Tuesday night!

We're having Valentine's dinner at L'Atelier de Joel Robuchon, which is not to be confused with Joel Robuchon, where they have the 16-course tasting menu that's on my 40 by 40 list. (We were actually going to make this the trip where we spent nearly a mortgage payment on dinner, but we couldn't get a reservation, which I took as a sign.) I'm actually hoping that we'll make it Paris for our 10-year anniversary (!) this year and eat at the original L'Atelier, too, so you know, this is like research...very important research.

In fact, we should really think of the entire trip as educational. I will attempt a historic recreation of the Rat Pack era at the Seahorse Lounge. Anyone with suggestions on what a lady of that era would have ordered from the bar are appreciated - I always end up ordering a cosmo because the pink is so pretty against the sea blue interior.

I will once again attempt to answer the question of whether the staff at Centrifuge are bartenders-forced-to-dance or dancers-forced-to-bartend.

And, of course, there will lots of financial skills training in the form of Monopoly, Price is Right, and 99 cent margaritas.

Yes, yes and I'll also be honing my expertise on social media and organizational communication. I'll even demonstrate my knowledge by posting photos of all of the above to Facebook.

I will no doubt return from this trip as a smarter, more well-rounded person.