{"id":10316,"date":"2008-11-14T09:11:44","date_gmt":"2008-11-14T13:11:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ewm.com\/internalblog\/?p=10316"},"modified":"2008-11-14T09:11:44","modified_gmt":"2008-11-14T13:11:44","slug":"conference-crybaby-and-cosmic-conviction","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.myewm.com\/?p=10316","title":{"rendered":"Conference, Crybaby, And Cosmic Conviction"},"content":{"rendered":"

DAY 1: My first NAR convention experience . . . not necessarily a great one.\u00a0 I left Thursday (still on antibiotics and coughing insanely) after making rounds at the office\u00a0and printing a last-minute map from Mapquest. I hit the turnpike and made a wrong turn and ended up circling Orlando.\u00a0 I have no idea how I found my way to the Hawthorn Suites hotel, which was currently undergoing renovation with the \u00a0fresh smell of paint everywhere — including my room.<\/p>\n

The next day I was going to walk to the Orange County Convention Center.\u00a0\u00a0A conferee\u00a0stopped me and told me to take the trolley.<\/p>\n

The conference was huge.\u00a0 Just finding the registration booths\u00a0entitled me to\u00a0a one-mile hike from the entrance. I scoped out the first class,\u00a0Excel 2007, and because I did not do my homework and pre-register for the class<\/strong>, I was placed on standby.\u00a0 I managed to get in the class, and I was astonished that\u00a0the instructor did not exactly know what she was doing and at one point was taking instructions from a class member!<\/p>\n

I left the class wondering why I ever attended this type of event alone. I wandered around and saw no one I knew.<\/p>\n

Later that day, after grousing and complaining to JoAnn over the phone that I should have done my homework before deciding to come here, I walked around the Expo which seemed a little sparse for a convention this size.\u00a0 About 5:30pm, I left the convention center — almost boarded\u00a0three wrong trolleys, only to finally board a trolley that\u00a0deposited me\u00a0in the middle of nowhere.\u00a0 The more I walked, the more confused I became.\u00a0 Completely disoriented, I walked back to a hotel I had passed earlier and\u00a0asked the staff\u00a0to call me a cab.<\/p>\n

I just wanted to go home.<\/p>\n

The cab found\u00a0the suites,\u00a0and I\u00a0had just enough\u00a0time to get cleaned up for dinner. Dirty and disenchanted, with tears streaming down my cheek from exhaustion and exasperation, I pushed the elevator button.<\/p>\n

The door opened, and a little girl, about eleven or twelve years old, exited the elevator.\u00a0She was wearing\u00a0a bright pink bathing suit and\u00a0an ear-to-ear grin. \u00a0She had\u00a0NOT ONE HAIR on her alabaster head.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Obviously, she allowed nothing<\/em><\/strong> to steal her joy — not even cancer.<\/strong> She<\/em><\/strong> was going swimming.\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

____________________________<\/p>\n

“Everything has its wonders, even darkness and silence, and I learn, whatever state I may be in, therein to be content.” — Helen Keller<\/p>\n

“Life is 10% of what happens to you and 90% of how you react to your circumstances.” –John Maxwell<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

DAY 1: My first NAR convention experience . . . not necessarily a great one.\u00a0 I left Thursday (still on antibiotics and coughing insanely) after making rounds at the office\u00a0and printing a last-minute map from Mapquest. I hit the turnpike and made a wrong turn and ended up circling Orlando.\u00a0 I have no idea how […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1439,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_expiration-date-status":"","_expiration-date":0,"_expiration-date-type":"","_expiration-date-categories":[],"_expiration-date-options":[]},"categories":[15,59],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.myewm.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10316"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.myewm.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.myewm.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.myewm.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1439"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.myewm.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10316"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blog.myewm.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10316\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.myewm.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10316"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.myewm.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10316"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.myewm.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10316"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}