My alarm woke me up this morning at 6 o'clock AM so I could work out. I immediately changed my alarm to 7 AM and slept solid for another beautiful, uninterrupted hour of sleep. :)
Yesterday, after checking in to the hotel and snoozing for a bit, I talked to Katie Casey. She and Aiden came and picked me up at the hotel and hit it off, talking continuously and laughing at each other's labor and delivery stories, and just having a good time getting to know each other. She brought me back to their apartment and we relaxed and chatted until Mike and Maureen came over to visit. It was so good to see them! I haven't seen them since my wedding, I think, so it's been a while. I had been informed about Maureen's cancer recurrence by my family, and got a little bit more information about it from Kaite while at their apartment. She is an incredible woman, that Maureen, still chugging along on the positive track towards recovery. Her spirit is amazing, she is strong, determined and "has things to do here". God bless Maureen Casey, she is a true believer and an inspiration to all of us.
We (Katie, Joe, Maureen, Mike and I) went to dinner at, Cibo, an old house turned pizzeria. They serve what I like to call "traditional Italian" pizza (laugh, Nathan, I know), with toppings like arugula and prociutto, whole leaf basil, and all kinds of fun things. We had a wonderful dinner, shared wine, salad, pizza and good conversation. I got a lot of suggestions of things to do around Phoenix, areas to avoid (apparently my hotel is really close to the prostitute row-ha), restaurants to try and events to see. Mike and Maureen treated us to dinner, thanks!
I got a full, wonderful, uninterrupted, quiet, 8 hours of sleep. Ahhhhhhhhhhhhh. I got up, had some breakfast in the special "consierge lounge" that I get to use since I'm a priority member (I am?). Comparing that to the $20.00 buffet in the lobby is a pretty good deal!
After I was ready to go, I put on my leather jacket, new scarf from Doug and Mary, and headed out for my first day of class: Business of Photogrpahy, Part 1. First I had to take the brand new Light Rail that just started about a month ago here in Phoenix. I'm glad I asked a native which way to go, because I would've gone the wrong way! :)
I got on the Light Rail and had to consult the map that came with all of my PPA papers and do my own navigation to get to the Sheraton downtown. I don't know what people did without iPhones... I love that thing! It saved me three times today from going the wrong way. I never thought I was directionally challenged, but I guess I am.
I got registered and headed to "class" and walked in with a few people about a minute late, just into the introduction to the two speakers for the day: Ann Montieth and Carol Andrews. Let me just say that these two women are not duds like I expected... and they are FUNNY, and spirited and just pain entertaining. THANK THE WONDERFUL LORD. This class is two days long, 9 to 5. I'm soooo happy that these women are the teachers, they turned boring topics into a day of entertaining education. I was exactly what I had hoped! I was in a room with 100 other people who speak my language... and I loved it! I hadn't been in that position since Brooks and I graduated from there in 2003!
At lunch break, I wandered to the closest plaza where there were restaurants (basically following the herd of people from the convention), and saw what I knew would be my lunch destiny: My Big Fat Greek Restaurant. Ha. I saw two women who were sitting in the row ahead of me in class seated outside of the restaurant, so I causally asked them if I could join them, and of course they were more than kind to let me sit with them. Angela and Kaylin were very fun to have lunch with and we had great conversations about lots of things such as Greece, photography (duh), and Celiac disease. Angela has Celiac disease, which means she is allergic to wheat gluten. The reason I know this is because the doctor that did my endoscopy casually mentioned to my father after my procedure last January, that he didn't see any cilia in my esophagus. Translation: I googled this when I got home and for one week, I was convinced I had this disease. I was depressed out of my mind... no cookies, no brownies, no pasta, no bread... ever again. Turns out I was completely fine, but thanks to this doctors casual mention to Dad, I was a mess for a week.
Angela told me all about her issues with the food allergy and how she lives her life around it. She has been gluten free for 3 years! She tells me that a lot of grocery stores carry gluten-free products and there are specialty stores that she frequents. Amazing.
We really hit it off and had a great lunch, talking non-stop about our common issues and photographic challenges. She also has a scientific degree in Neurobiology, so we have yet another thing in common, the science of our degrees.
Anyway, the rest of the class carried on until about 5:15. I had an absolute blast today in this seminar and I'm very excited about tomorrow.
After my class was over, I walked to Katie and Joe's apartment (only about 4 long blocks away) and got to meet their friends Amy and Jeff. We had so much fun laughing, drinking beer and wine and having dinner. The four of them are absolutely hilarious and I had an awesome time. I even got about 5 CDs of free music from them! ;)
Ana is due to arrive in Phoenix tonight at 11. She isn't taking the class that I'm involved in tomorrow since it's part 2, so she's going to rent a car and drive to Sedona. I think that's her plan anyway. :) Of course I'm very excited to see her and share my experience of this class with her.
I got to talk to Kaitlyn tonight on the phone while she was getting her diaper changed by Grandma. She is so cute, I want to squeeze her. She said, "Hi Mama! I luh you... stories... bye bye." Sniff sniff... wipe tear. I miss my babies. I kinda miss Nathan too. ;)
