Hello Monday!

Okay, no more whining.  I'm done; I've got it out of my system. I'm moving forward with a good attitude and focusing on the fact that despite the staffing circumstances, I'm still able to provide for my students and maintain our program. And that's the most important thing.

Had conference last week. Always a good time. Always. Love, love, love my friends. I really am such a lucky girl to have such awesome people in my life. I know I say that all the time but really, it's true. Just a great group of people. So awesome to get to work with them.

Love these girls!

One of many photo booth surprises... What happens at hospitality stays at hospitality!

Sooner girls!

Apparently I don't know the difference between gansta face and duck face...

My peeps...gansta patrol

And so talented - watched two of them pull together an entire conference and never break stride. Never panicked, stayed calm and focused throughout everything.  Not me, I'm always in serious freak-out mode. It's just how I operate - like the Tasmanian Devil - I get all worked up and run around like crazy. I think it's probably a lot for others to deal with. I do always pull it together when it's time to go on though.  When that time comes, I take a deep breath, put a smile on my face and go!  No one is going to know about the panic except the people behind the scenes - I make sure about that.

But I do kinda stay high strung all the time.  In fact, during the banquet one of the presenters was gracious enough to recognize me and he said something about me having  more energy than anyone he's ever met.  That was really a nice way to say I'm high strung.

I had a pretty decent Newcomers session. I was a little worried that it was too much information, not enough activity.  I had some unexpected speakers that threw off my agenda...but at least the participants got some exposure to some people besides me. That's always nice. I'll adjust for next year and build in those kind of surprises. So less talking and more playing.

Hospitality was okay. Not the kind of turn out I had hoped for - it's just a challenge hosting in OKC. The local people don't get to stay at the hotel and the people from out of town want to go out and explore Bricktown. It was fun, just wish more people would have made it. The photo booth was a hit. Unfortunately, someone broke what I imagine to be a pretty expensive prop. And guess who got to go explain that one? They were very gracious about it but still, it sucked. It was kinda like telling Mom and Dad you wrecked the car...And then when I was cleaning up afterwards, I found another broken piece. So they donated their machine and their time and we tore up their stuff - nice.

The actual conference was great. One of the best that I can remember. The speakers were all relevant and entertaining and it had a nice flow - the program didn't ever lag. I do feel bad because I  missed concurrent sessions.  This was the first time ever that I've done that.  But I had a meeting that I had to attend and then I got tied up so I wasn't able to make it.

To add to the greatness of conference, I also got free parking for my entire stay! Which was completely awesome because that was $26 a day coming out of my own pocket.  When I went to the loading dock to drop off all my stuff  the guy on duty told me and my friend we could park in the reserved spots. He also told us we looked like we knew how to have fun and he could tell we were a wild group. Then he looked directly at me, eye-balled me up and down and said especially you. That's the first time I've gotten free parking for coming off slutty. Although I'm not sure what was so 'wild' about me. The two car seats in the back of the car? Or the way I carried my luggage so provocatively? Not that I'm complaining- think anything you want about me if parking is free. Especially since the last time someone told me I had a slutty air I ended up dating him... so yeah, I think free parking was a win for everyone.

Somehow along the way I hurt my neck. It's gotten progressively worse and has been a pretty big pain in the butt.  I'm not a big fan of medicine so I usually try to tough it out. Drives my husband crazy but I just feel like if I can deal with it, I'll deal with it - I don't need to take anything.  But the last few days I've been popping asprin like crazy. That's how bad it hurts.  I have no idea what I did to it either...I promise, my head-banging days are long gone.

Sore neck or not, I'm still energized from the conference and ready to knock this day out. With a smile! And a few asprin...