2 Day Staff Learning conference in Parksville. The best part of the conference was checking into our sweet hotel, kicking off our shoes, and relaxing for abit before heading back for dinner. Neither of us wanted to go, but Mary had made Randi go to an agency dinner at Christmas time, so Randi was pulling her favor and making Mary come to this one....so Randi got a 2 for 1! The conference is in a older little hotel in Parksville but just down the road was the new Beach Acres resort that had a good government rate, so we checked in there!
Here we are, dressed and grudgingly heading back to the hotel where all the managers and staff were for the dinner ....not excited.
We had seats saved for us at a good table with people who loved to laugh ... see the woman in the glasses and the black t-shirt? That is Lisa, she was my interim manager after Mark. I wasn't a huge fan but she is a nice lady and did her best and really just wanted to go back to her old job....but tonight we all definatly saw a new side to her! Turns out we were the loudest table .... which was nice ... I love laughing and don't do it very often ... silly country living.
So here is what we saw of Lisa tonight!! She is a manager and has a ton of money hence continued to purchase wine bottles all night and kept everyone topped up.
It got a little silly .... at one point, a poor choice in my opinion, the managers decided it would be a good idea to have a speaker after dinner for about 1/2 hour .. totally killed the mood. But I am an adult and can be quiet while someone is speaking. But half the table continued to whisper and be silly, it was really embarrassing. The CEO kept looking over and it was like grade school again. I felt bad for the speaker ... its scary to go up and speak to a room of people .... Lisa was leading the charge of whispering which makes me wonder if she is no longer is sold out. I have seen managers get beat up by upper management, right in front of me, after awhile, I would assume you would lose your loyalty? or desire to be loyal? You could tell she just wanted to have some fun. Which we did.
But after the speaker, everyone started to disperse. Lisa wanted Mary and I to go up to one of the rooms to continue to party. There was a group of them heading up, and I was neutral. So we headed upstairs but changed our minds when we got there and decided to ditch! Lisa went off to buy another bottle of wine, but as we were racing to go down the staircase to escape, we could hear her and another girl coming up, talking loudly! We did not want a confrontation to make us go back in, so we ran down the hall and hid in one of the alcoves!!
Here we are hiding....and giggling ....
Anyways ... we got out of there and went to the gym. (I know, aren't we lame?) - I wanted to get my steps in.
Mary pulled her shoulder that morning and it was starting to hurt ... and I started not feeling well either. My throat was so dry and sore and coughing only gave it a moment of relief. So, neither of us slept hardly at all that night. At 2am, I couldn't lay there anymore, so I went off in search of something to help me. The front desk man got me some tea and turned the fireplace on for me...so I was there until about 3 ....
Waking up at 7, we were both feeling pretty rough. But we checked out and went for a nice breakfast. My back and neck were aching!!! Not sure what I did, but the pillows were awful and I woke up with a crinked neck. We went to the first session together, which ironically was called 'Self Care'...but sitting there for 1.5 hours was making me feel worse, plus I had a 2 hour drive home! So, at the break, Randi, Mary, Lisa and I loaded into my car and ran to Starbucks.....such fun girls .... despite my pain, that was a highlight of the morning .... but I dropped them back off at the hotel and headed for home. I needed my bed. When things go bad with me, they come in multiples ... never just one thing can be wrong ... trainwreck, as my sister calls it.
Chris is reading to Isaac right now (he loves that his oldest boy still lets him read to him every night).... So Elliot and I hang out on the couch 
