rocked it!

So it is a week post-PIC and I think I've finally adjusted. It was absolutely amazing experience and I am so proud of my team and what we were able to do. It was crazy to see 2000 high school students all at once, train and work with a staff of 108 plus the 15 people on my team running it all and just survive on minimal sleep. I'm glad this only happens once every 4 years. 

So I run leadership conferences for middle & high school students and we run one for the Presidential Inaugurations. Since I started my job in August I've been almost primarily focused on this conference at work and since mid-November was pretty much all I was thinking about. Last time I posted I was about to head into the 10 day stretch of staff training and conference. So mostly in pictures here is my experience. I don't have any photos from training but it was fun to bond with my team, meet the 108 staff members we hired and train them for the conference. After the 12ish hours of training - between set up and meetings/re-set for the next day I ended up hanging out with my fellow PCs and just laughing so much at the inside jokes we created and really just hoping things were going to go well. And it was so fun to see so many people I've worked with in the past all together! 

giving one of my two program overview speeches on arrival day - the second one had over 1000 students in the room!

Got to meet Condi!! I planned all our student interactions with our speaking events - room set up/seating,  photo opportunities, asking questions during events. It was really awesome to see it all come together during our speaking events! Plus I also got to meet Bob Woodward (I LOOOOVE Watergate), Nick Clooney & General Wesley Clark!

Bob Woodward & Nick Clooney during their panel! I need to find my picture with them!

My roomie and i on Inauguration morning. We had the Air & Space museum prior to the Inauguration and totally had McDonalds at 9:30 am when the staff opened it up just for my team! I had been up since 3:45 so it was totally lunch time!

I didn't go out onto the Mall until late-ish 10:30 so we were around 10th - the 7th street entrance had already closed. But still pretty cool!

Washington Monument behind us!

Out of the 1 million people on the Mall what are the odds I run into my 2 super good college friends?  Linds, Em and I lived together all 4 years! 

heeeeeey Anderson! 

My Inauguration buddy - Kaley and I!  And yes - if you saw anyone on the mall with a yellow/blue scarf they were a staff member for our conference!

My roomie and I stretching during a coordinator meeting - yup, we like to keep it professional after standing all morning for the Inauguration. Sadly this wasn't too weird when it was just us coordinators!

The student's final event was at the Udvar-Hazy Air & Space Museum - the big one that holds all the planes. It was a awesome time!

Roomie and I being all official at the dance! And yes - due to getting 13.5 hours of sleep in 4 nights I wore my glasses almost the whole conference except arrival day & inauguration! 

Survived! Susan and I at the staff party after all the students made it home! She was with the middle schoolers all week.

PC partner love! 

Sums up the week! 

 It was absolutely crazy in the best possible way. The weather gods were upon us with amazing weather on Inauguration Day and somehow all of our students got out on departure day. And it was just crazy to see 39 busses for 2000 students. Plus 13.5 hours of sleep in 4 nights. I was on an adrenaline high the whole time. I did have one minor freak out - about 2 hours before Condi and I was finishing organizing everything and saw the room set up was wrong and had emailed who I needed to make a switch, when my directors did a quick touch base - as soon as they asked how I was doing I burst into tears (I know, right!, when I'm stressed I get real emotional and I tend to cry when asked how I'm doing, plus I had only 2.5 hours of sleep the night before) but it was a good moment to remember to ask for help as I can't be in 3 places at once, teamwork and that the event was going to be awesome. I knew all the little details, but the 2000 students didn't so don't fret the un-important things. I am still just so happy I had the experience  with our speaking events and that my directors let me do that because it was so far from the usual things I do with curriculum. But I learned a lot about logistics and it will only make me better at what I do! But overall I was so proud of myself and my team for what we did with this conference and how much we rocked it! Wooooo!

keeping it classy with Michelle

The days after were a bit crazy. We had an all staff party on Wednesday night and it ended up with me bringing a cardboard cutout of Michelle Obama home - and somehow she ended up in my bed that night... and then continuing to drink and laugh with my coworkers Thursday, Friday, Saturday nights and a mimosa fueled brunch on Sunday.

Finally getting normal sleep patterns back! Woooo! But that is just a start to the crazy. We start our training on Monday for 5 days for our spring conferences and then I'm off around the country!

So never boring in my life!


What is everyone up to? I've missed blogs!