beginning of the end of january

alright, so i got a little ahead of myself- my birthday actually happened the day before ginger and i went to kilgore, and i celebrated it with nicolette and nafia with a simple dinner (reminiscent of last year-simple, small, private.not a big deal) we were going to do cheesecake factory, but it was so packed, we opted for blue mesa next door. it's always good to catch up with the girls and laugh a little! they were very thoughtful with their gifts-those who know me, know i am a sucker for stationery! so stationery, a sweet journal and the  i received some sweet cards over week leading up to my birthday, and silly/humorous affirmation cards! time i get to spend with these two has become so limited, but when we do get together, it truly is enjoyable!

i also received several cards leading up to my birthday-a few from colleagues (thanks leadership team, alyshia, and joyce-so thoughtful!) not to mention, the following weekend i received a gorgeous bead necklace, which is totally me, (for which i have the perfect matching earrings) and another stationery set from sabrina, none-too-soon, i might add...as i only have about 4 cards left from the punny set, and maybe for from the inspire set. yes, i may have substituted letter-writing for blog-posting over the past couple months. oops.

that last weekend of january, we were off to abq, new mexico. i found out about a month too late that one of my old kampers, and dear friend, kelly v lives there! if only i'd known sooner! anyhoo. i was pleasantly surprised that my flight was hooking up with sabrina's, so she saved me a spot on plane while i was boarding from dallas. i was excited that we were going to get an opportunity to fly together-a little hangout time long overdue. we did some work on the plane (as much as we could, as the wifi was sketch). we arrived in the afternoon, had some copies to run and things to do to get ready, then we grabbed a late-lunch/early dinner and went to settle into the hotels.

 notice i said hotels plural? well, as it so happens, the two hotels are basically connected by a courtyard, divided by a gate. so i checked into my room, then made my way across the courtyard to hang out with ju and sabrina in the other hotel. it was like playing marco polo trying to figure out where they were, but eventually, i heard my name ring out through the air, "JUAN!" and then my phone rang out and we talked my way through the mine-field...as i tried to use my sense of direction and looking at where the sun was setting, as the constellations hadn't come out yet (and even if they had, i'd left my astrolabe at home)...reunited and it feels so good... 

when i first arrived to my room, i was a little worried, and i ransacked the place, trying to locate the hair-dryer. i was getting worried. i looked under the sink (the usual place) under the OTHER sink, not there either, in the closet, in each of the drawers,

BIBLE: beauty is fleeting, why you need a hairdryer?
DEX PHONE GUIDE: baby, i got yo' number... (closed that drawer right back up)

behind cupboards...but finally! really? hanging on the back of the door? who'd-a-thunk?

oh! there you are!

it didn't take too long before it was time to go to bed, and wake up again! of course when you wake up with these two, you know it's going to involve a little starbucks, as well-and so we were off, and i tried the sous vide eggs for the first time-gruyere and bacon...ah, delectable! somewhat heavenly bites-if you can handle the consistency. as we slowly drove through the parking lot, past the carl jr's, i'm pretty sure there was a homeless man in the back corner who was making drug deals or something. i mean, there was something going down back there- both mornings a truck drove by and then the next morning a car was back there-and they weren't dropping off blankets and toiletries. just sayin'.

we got back to the convention center and had some setting up to do-it took pretty much 30-40 min. creating the posters, setting up the tables, passing out the papers-but it got done, and people started showing up, many of whom the girls had worked with before (several of them seemed so excited to be back-which has been a welcome progression!). cris appeared out of nowhere and we got her stuff set up as well, and it wasn't long before we saw lori come in as well. it was good to see her out of her boot, although it may have been a little premature, she did pretty well. this was the first chance i got to meet kelly and she introduced us all to heather, her partner in crime.

the session began with a little review from the previous round, because there were lots of positive comments about it, in fact, believe it or not, there were a couple of teachers in monday's group, and tuesday's group that actually brought their lap-folders with them-so excited about all the foldables! so there was a bit of review on portfolio/profile/display ideas, goal-setting, problem-solving, and then a bit on PLCs, followed by a survival -type team-work-collaboration. and that was followed by more end of year reports/work-time.

it was comical when one of the gentelmen that was in the session shared that he disagreed with the order of some of the survival game entries...and he was a survivalist. HA! (keep your opinions to yourself, mista!) it was still fun!

we had a great lunch (when it comes to sushi, i trust julie k, she never does me wrong!) i forget the name of the place, but we did it for lunch both days, and i was a happy girl! yummers!

monday night after the training, we headed out to dinner with kelly and heather, and it was loud. partly because it was like 8 girls in a small room, surrounded by small parties and some business men. add a little wine, and the girls get louder. the food was really good-we had quite the variety-a bit of everything! lovely evening. while my reach wasn't bad, the gentleman from the next table offered to take our picture, and it came out much better! (i'm sure he was probably thinking, 'just let me take this and get it over with so ya'all can get out of here and we can have a peaceful conversation, bringing the decibel count down a notch). ha!

my lovely friends/colleagues. 

i do enjoy working with these ladies! abq day tuesday-ish next up.

julie