My trip, part 1

My trip was the most powerful thing I've ever done. It was enpowering, exciting, joyful, everything. My flight going out to DC was wonderful. I was by myself and thoroughly enjoyed it.

During my layover in Denver, I got a meal at Quiznos and just chilled out till it was time to go. Got to DC and Tami aka Exalted Flame aka Zazzysmom picked me up with her 3 kids. We drove to her place and she showed me different sites along the way. The Pentagon was on one side of the freeway, and on the other was the Potomac River and DC. I saw the Capitol Building, Washington Monument, and barely could see the Jefferson and Lincoln sites. It was amazing. I'm staring at the Pentagon and I KNOW I'm looking at a building that was hit by terrorists on September 11th. It's hard to take in. You drive right by Arlington Cemetary and see all those rows of white headstones too. I was in complete awe. We get to her home and grab her dh John and head out to a pizza place. It was fun and her little boy monopolized me the entire time. Had a great dinner and ate a TON of the little cinnamon rolls they serve. We go back to her home and I get to see how cute it is. Every room has a different paint color or flooring. So cozy and fun. She and I sat and talked for hours while she fed Emma. By the way, Emma is such a sweet tiny little thing. She was exactly 3 weeks old when I was there. Slept great on Tami's couch and then in the morning, she dropped me off at the hotel where the conference was.

I get in the lobby and start to feel a little panicky. Here I am across the country from everything familiar and I have never met one of the women from this group. I talk on the computer with them daily, but never met any of them and I was panicked. But I turned around to go put my luggage down till I could check in and see two girls right off the bat. They recognized me and I them and we met up with two or three more girls and ended up having breakfast together. No one could check in and it was only like 10am. They had to convert part of the lobby of this hotel into a holding area for luggage. There were so many bags!! All of us were just hanging out till we could get into our rooms. We ended up meeting about 5 more girls downstairs and sat in the bar and chatted for a while. I immediately recognized them and one person had a cheat sheet with everyone's screen name, real name, time they were arriving, and from where. So if we saw someone, we could cheat and figure out who they were.

We had so much time, that myself and two others decided to go sightseeing. We split a cab that took us to the Lincoln Memorial. It was so peaceful and beautiful there. I'm upset that two of my pictures didn't come out. I took a picture of the site were Martin Luther King stood to give his speech. There was something inscribed in the marble where he stood. Then I took a picture of what he was looking out at when he gave that speech. It's very similiar to that picture I have up of the Washington Memorial and the empty reflecting pool. I didn't know the Lincoln Memorial was outdoors. There are a million steps to go up and the columns surround the outside of it. On the other side of the columns are 3 sides with Lincoln sitting and facing up towards the WA monument. It's open air in there but so reverent. There is a plaque asking everyone to keep thier voices down, but you could feel the respect in the air if that makes sense. You knew you were in the presence of someone and something great. My friends and I didn't know where to go to next. We saw a map and realized we were just less than a 50 yards away from the Vietnam Memorial. So we walked over there. I got the right paper out and a pencil and found out where my mom's former fiance was on the wall. I was able to make a rubbing for her. It's so intense to stand there with all the history right there in front of you. All those thousands of names. You can clearly see yourself in the walls there. Down at the bottom, there is a type of lip that visitors leave things in rememberance. I got a picture of a letter that a vet had left for his buddy who had died in the war. There were flowers further down. I heard they had a museum filled with all the things visitors have left behind. I wish I could have seen more, but it was icy cold and my friends weren't able to walk very far. One was just going through chemo and the other had problems with her legs. So we headed back at that point to the hotel.

Finally got to check in early. Put my bags upstairs and went down to the registration desk. Got my bag, namebadge, and my lei. Each person put on a different colored lei. Whites for people diagnosed less than a year, yellow for the husbands or caretakers, orange for those with advanced metatasic disease, purple and green for 10 year survivors or those out further than 1 year from diagnosis. Just depends on your status. I go in the exhibitors hall and enter the world of everything PINK. Wow. Every drug company, group, etc., had a booth and stuff to pass out. I have enough pens for the rest of my life! I got a water bottle, pens, cookbook, guides, pamplets, little doodads, and candies to go in my bag. My bag itself is nice sized with some pamplets already in it, umbrella, gorgeous sparkly keychain, big bottle of Avon body lotion, and uh, a little sample bag from Pure Romance. Anyone heard of them? So I drag all my stuff upstairs and dump it on my bed. Thank goodness they give you a bag, because it was jammed full of stuff and should have been on wheels so I could drag it. It was that heavy.