A long strange trip…

Ok, not really, but where the hell have I been, right?

When I got approval to attend the conference I wanted to go to, I asked Marc if he wanted to go with me.  I told him that he would have to entertain himself while I was at the conference itself, but it would give him a couple of days away and I would have someone to keep me company on the long drive there and back.

His sister was awesome and agreed to watch the dogs while we were gone.  The conference didn’t start until Wednesday night but I took the whole day and we took our time getting down to the hotel.

We then relaxed and hung out.  I used to love going out of town to conferences because it was still a “work day” but I would sleep in and then arrive downstairs in the meeting room right at start time.  Instead on this trip, I got up even EARLIER then I normally do in order to get downstairs into the exercise room.

I repeat – who is this woman??

The exercise room had 3 treadmills.  I can’t imagine how much they cost because they were state of the art and running on one was like a DREAM!  Seriously – we have a pretty nice one, but it is TRASH compared to the deluxe one at the hotel!

Weirdly, the treadmills and ellipticals face the windows rather than the 2 tv’s that are in the room.  Marc said that while he was running on one later Thursday morning, a woman came out and was smoking and glaring at him through the window.  It provided some comic relief.

The conference was actually fantastic.  Relevant and I learned a lot, which doesn’t always happen at these things.  But it was ALL DAY.  They fed us lunch, but we worked through it.

I was spent by Thursday night.  Marc and I went to a local mall but didn’t spend an awful lot of time there before picking up something to eat at Walmart and heading back to the hotel to eat and watch TV.  We are PARTY ANIMALS, people!!!

Friday was another early morning and once again I was on the treadmill, but I only felt a little sorry for myself.

It was a half day but a lot of work, and I was grateful that Marc was with me to drive home so I could just relax on the drive.  I also wasn’t feeling very good, which I thought was due to overeating on this trip.

I was downright exhausted last night, but not as much as the dogs.  Marc went to get them and they came running in to greet me and then went to bed and didn’t make a PEEP the rest of the night!

Apparently Marc’s sister wore them out completely!

Last night I continued to deteriorate and felt totally sick most of the day today.  By evening I had a shooting pain in my abdomen that hurt bad enough that I went to Urgent Care fearing appendix or gallbladder issues.

I was issued an all clear on that front, but they still don’t know what it is.  Maybe a stomach bug?  That made me feel so stupid for going to see a doctor for a stomach bug??!!  You might think food poisoning?  But Marc is fine and I feel sick to my stomach but I haven’t puked.

So I am totally off right now, but I’m sure I will live.  I am not feeling like myself right now, though, and losing an hour tomorrow won’t help my state of mind as we “spring forward”.  I can only hope though that this SPRING forces Mother Nature to get the frigging hint!!