Fitbloggin Fun, Sponsored By Funky Glasses

Okay, I promised you a fun post about fitbloggin. And after the post about kidney stones and the horrendous flight home, we all need a little happy up in here.

And to be honest, there was quite a bit of fun and happy this past weekend. I had some really low lows, but the really high highs almost balanced it out. I may have missed all the sessions at the conference but I still had a fun time and met a few people. I missed a TON of people I was planning to meet on Saturday but I figure there is always next year. I can’t dwell any more on what did or didn’t happen. No need to make myself sad about it.

The Fitbloggin Fun Stuff List

• Yes, this post is sponsored by my pink glasses! I wore them all weekend because I love them. They are fun and make me happy, which is what this list is all about. ;)  Look at how cool they are in this pre fitbloggin photo from the airport.
• I met Karla on the flight from Chicago to Baltimore. I saw her reading a Fitness magazine in the airport before boarding and wondered if she was going to the conference, and then when she sat behind me and saw what I was writing we discovered we were both going to Fitbloggin! It was nice to meet her and have a new friend for the shuttle ride to the hotel.
• When I got to the hotel and was checking in Jen from A Prior Fat Girl and four or five other bloggers screamed out my name in the lobby (Jen’s idea apparently). They startled me but it was so totally cool to feel like people knew me and were excited to see me. Mini rockstar moment. My weekend was really complete right then.
• By the time I got to the hotel I was starving, so I grabbed some lunch with other bloggers. Karla, Jen, and I split some food and ate with Gracie. It was really nice to just chill for a minute and talk about why we were all here and why we blog. It was a nice lunch and fun to be with people who all do the same thing you do! 
• Within the first hour of being there I got to see Lisa + baby, Carla, Marsha, all again. And I was able to meet for the first time Jacq (finally!), Mo, Karen, Missy and some others that I forgot names (sorry!).
• Then I went upstairs to register and on my way ran into Sue and Steve! Woohoo! They invited us to come down to mingle in the bar before the POM sponsored thing.
• In the bar we had a ton of fun and I met some more people like @benjamteal. Sue is really hilarious. She and Jacq wanted to hear about Kepa and moving to NZ (as did a lot of people I talked to) so that was a fun topic of conversation. :) There was a lot of fun talk during that hour… they really are all funny people.

I took a picture with Jacq since I was sitting next to her! :)

Then I met Josie!

• After the cocktail reception where I met a few more people a bunch of us headed out to dinner at James Joyce Irish Bar Restaurant. There were quite a few of us there and we took up several tables. I met Trayce and Mandy. I forget when I met Jen the first time during the day, but I sat between her and Esther, which made my night because I love both of them.
  Me and Jen:
  
  Me and Esther:
  
  Esther rocks…. I can’t believe a few years ago I was watching her videos in awe thinking she was so cool and now I consider her a friend. That’s just really cool to me. The first night was really great!
• I woke up the second day feeling kinda iffy, but Lisa had texted me to make sure I was up for the 5k so I felt like I couldn’t back out. I didn’t feel my best but got dressed and went down to meet the group for the run. I was still trying to decide between walking the one mile, walking the 5k, or trying to walk/run the 5k. Then I talked with Sue who was running (slowly jogging) the one mile and was talked into doing it to. I figured, why not at least try? Sue, Jen, Lissa, and I all set out to do it together. You know already that I jogged my first full mile and I’m super proud of that fact.
• And I even was in the photo for the runners. I missed the official fitbloggin photo :( so this was the best I could do. Yay for waking up to run so I was a part of something!
• I went to the first session all ready to meet new people and maybe even learn a thing or two. I met Jenn there and she took this awesome pic:
• Of course that’s when all the crap with the kidney stones went down, so I didn’t actually stay for the session or attend anymore. But I did get a lot of help from the super awesome Allison, Roni, AJ and Kate. These people rock so much that I can’t even begin to explain it. They made the whole terrible pain thing survivable.
• This probably shouldn’t be on a list called “fun stuff” but it does need to be on the list because it was a good thing… John Hopkins Bayview Medical Center was a great place to get treatment for my kidney stones. Everyone I encountered there was amazing and helpful and made me feel at ease.  I may have spent the entire afternoon in the hospital but I was getting quality care from nice people. That might not be fun, but it is good and it is something to be grateful for.
• When I got back to the hotel after my hospital stay I was completely out of it with the medicine I was on but I had to go get real food so I went out to dinner with Jen and the Shrinking Jeans girls (who are so awesome!) and a few other lovely ladies. We ate at Cafe Gia’s where the food is only topped by the awesomeness of the owner.
• I know I left people out that I met so many awesome people that weekend it’s hard to remember them all in my loopy/tired state. But I do remember meeting all these awesome people: Elisabeth, Rebecca, Lisa, Deb, Christie, Julie, Gina, Heather, Marissa, David. I was so inspired and happy to meet all of you healthy and amazing people!
• I didn’t meet everyone and I missed a ton of people.  I’ve been joking with Roni about next year’s fitbloggin and how I’ll have to run a 5k then have my appendix taken out. But really I just want to have a full conference where I can meet every single person there.  :)

Those are a few thoughts/events/meetings and such that were fun and made me happy during the weekend. It was a terrible worst weekend ever kind of weekend, but at the same time it was still fun and I enjoyed it (the good parts).

1. The Long Ride Home From Fitbloggin, Sponsored by Delta Sucks
2. The Fitbloggin Hospital Experience, Sponsored By Kidney Stones
3. A Mile At Fitbloggin
4. Goals Review: Did I Meet My 2009 Goals?

Tagged as: fitbloggin