Sunday, July 17, 2016

if you like piña coladas and getting caught in the rain

Conference is over! I'm definitely ready to go home, but I definitely had an amazing time - I talked to so many people, and got a decent confidence recharge, and learned some new things, and expanded my ever-expanding to-do list, and successfully never had more than three drinks in a day, which is a pretty good record for me at a conference.

Today was more of the same, but I was hitting my introvert wall, which made rallying difficult. I got up at 7:30 and threw on some clothes (the same clothes I'd worn briefly on Thursday, but I don't think anyone noticed) and went down to breakfast with Sarah so that we could see Sherry Thomas speak. Sherry is a fabulous writer, but I'm also friends with her (weird to say it, but I think it's true), so I wanted to make sure to hear her speech - and she did an awesome job with it, so I left feeling inspired. I talked to Barbara for a little bit after, and then I was going to go to my room and shower, but instead I met up with my friend Leigh for what turned into an hour and a half of talking and commiserating and goal-setting near the pool.

Then I went straight in to lunch with Barbara, Jami, Veronica et al. But I was running dangerously low on social energy at that point, so after I ate every last scrap of my salad, I abandoned them, put on my swimsuit, and laid out by the pool for a couple of hours. I put my headphones in and covered my face with a shirt so that no one would recognize or disturb me, and I had some glorious time alone in the sun to burn away my social stress.

Eventually, Sarah joined me, and we sat for awhile while I drank a mai tai, and then she went for a run and I grabbed an iced coffee and came up to shower. Then I did a tiny bit of work before meeting Sarah and some of our mutual friends for a very early dinner, where I quietly hated on one of the people ("friends" is apparently a misnomer) and ate too many nachos, which resulted in a nacho baby under my cocktail dress. #noregrets

Then we came upstairs and finished getting ready - Sarah was up for two awards tonight, so she needed to look presentable, and I also needed to look presentable since I was along for the ride. When we were ready (which was kind of a joke, since I forgot hairpins and styling cream and eyeliner, and she forgot fake eyelash glue and foundation), we met Jules and Lia for champagne in Jules's room (Jules was also up for an award), and then we sat together at the ceremony.

The ceremony was waaaaaay too long (30mins longer than the one I planned, but I run a tight ship), and unfortunately Sarah and Jules didn't win their categories, which was a bummer. But there were some good speeches, and I cried a bit, and we snuck in a bottle of champagne and finished it at the table, so it was all good.

But after a bit of time in the bar with some truffle fries and part of a mai tai, and after some debriefing with Sarah, it's beyond time for me to go to bed - I have to get up and pack and fly home, and then recuperate so I can work this week. Goodnight!

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