I Did It All By Myself*

This is the post I meant to write yesterday, before I was so completely distracted by the chicken pox debacle at my kids' school (see previous post).

*Title of Sesame Street book we own. And not especially accurate, as Hot Guy was kind enough to drop me off and pick me up from the Amtrak station and he and my parents took care of the kids and . . .well, damn, I couldn't think of another title.

So I've just spent a couple of days in Philadelphia BY MYSELF, bitches.

Well, I mean, all the other people at the social media summit were there. But I had a hotel room to myself. I took the train by myself. I could sit back and listen when I didn't feel like talking, and no one yelled "Mommy!" until I spoke.

When I taught, I occasionally went to conferences. But since we were but a poor district, I never got to go to a conference out of town. Which makes me sad, because going out of town by yourself is fun. Though it probably wouldn't have been as exciting when I lived alone and actually traveled alone regularly.

So it's probably better that Immunize.org asked me now, when I could truly appreciate the pleasures of visiting a new city by myself. My job was to talk about social media, to introduce it to representatives from various non-profit health organizations.

The first night involved a dinner/cocktail reception. I talked to a few people, then pounced on Amy from Amalah and MamaPop, whose name I at least recognized and who I was presenting with first thing the next morning. Later we met up with Mir of Woulda Shoulda and Susan from Marketing Roadmaps. We also completely interrupted Bora from A Blog Around the Clock so that we could chat with him before presenting with him the following day.

So the next day I helped with 3 sessions - Facebook, Twitter and building and community. I don't think they totally sucked, and I didn't swear a blue streak, talk in a teacher or mommy voice or sound too much like a Valley Girl reject. But I do think I'm much better at answering questions than just talking off the cuff. Also, I will be a lot more confident if I ever get the chance to do it again.

For some reason, the whole thing made me hungry. I'm pretty sure I'd be even fatter if I worked in an office and went to meetings all day, but I'm not sure why. After the sessions on Tuesday, we went into Philly proper and had some time to explore before meeting for dinner. I am proud to say that I was not in the group that headed straight to a bar. But my group, after we saw Independence Hall, the Liberty Bell (I really think it should be bigger) and the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, also hit a bar. But it was totally historical - it was founded in 1773. How could you not drink in a place like that? Especially when you're with public health workers, who like their liquor (which is TOTALLY AWESOME).

While this was all going on, the Real Guys Immunize campaign was being launched. We got to hear more about it the next morning, and then there were more cool presentations but I had to leave early to get home to ChunkyMonkey, who naturally developed his first illness in 3 months on the day I left.