I won something!

Yesterday morning I woke up at the crack of 7am! I had a conference I needed to attend in Richmond, VA--which is about a 90 minute drive from DC.

I've never been to a conference that wasn't theatre related and theatre people will be casual as often as humanly possible. So I wasn't sure what to wear.

I finally decided to go fancyish with black slacks, a purple button down, and pearls. I figured I could take out the pearls if things were casual--or leave them in if things were fancy.

I didn't want to shower because I was supposed to have left by 7am to be there by 8:30am. Instead, I put a little more make-up and deodarant on and did my hair in a Sarah Palin french twist. Voila!

On the drive down I almost fell asleep at the wheel. I slapped myself silly the last 20 miles and sang loudly to "Take me down to the paradise city where the grass is green and the girls are pretty." But nothing was working.

Downtown Richmond was nice, expect for all the poor people running around. Holy cow batman. It's bad. But I imagine it could be worse. The Marriott was pretty. I got to breakfast and the other professors from Stratford were very kind. It's my first big conference with everyone and they were very nice.

The workshop I attended was given by Scott Fitzgibbons of the Pacific Institute. He was great! I sat next to the water pitcher and the little dishes of hard candy. I was in heaven! The hard candies were wonderful and the water made these awesome droplets on the velvet table cloths that wouldn't absorb. I would just roll water all over the table. Awesome.

After the workshop, we had a big ol' banquet. The conference was for all the career colleges in Virginia. They began to call out names to come and sit at the head table. And they called my name! Apparently, I'm teacher of the year at Stratford University this year.

It was such a cool surprise! I had no idea!! It makes me all giddy inside.

Each school got to submit their winner and then someone from the school would present on that person. The woman giving the speech about me had never met me, so she just read a speech that the Dean had given to her to read. It was awkward, but really flattering.

We ate the best filet mignon I've ever had. Scrumptious!

And then I went to visit all the text book vendors and got 10 free books!!

It was the best conference ever!!

And I did NOT fall asleep on the way home. I had to call my mama!