grown-up [grohn-uhp]
having reached the age of maturity; characteristic of or suitable for adults
Synonyms include: full-fledged, adult

I have yet to blog about NYC, but I thought I'd use this as a little warm-up. This weekend I attended my very first conference for SAGE. ACOG (the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists) held their 55th Clinical Meeting at the San Diego Convention Center. You all must be thinking, "Why the hell did SAGE send YOU to THAT?" Well, we have a few journals that we want to promote to the attendees at this conference so we bought booth space to publicize. Typically, the various editors and sometimes marketing staff attend conferences, but no one was available to set up for the weekend so they sent the commercial sales assistant (me!). Lucky for me, Isa and Nick had a Cinco de Mayo party on Saturday and, since they live in Anaheim, I asked them if I could stay over so that my drive to SD wouldn't be so long.

Cile and I stayed over the Ballons' that night and it's a real wonder how I was able to get up at 6:30 after falling asleep at like 4 am! We got to sleep in the guest room and, even when the lights were out and we had already said "Goodnight," of course we couldn't shut up. Cile was like, "I'm sorry I'm keeping you up, but it's like we're roommates again AND IT'S EXCITING!" hahaha! I do miss talking to Cile before falling asleep! I miss her, "Come on, 10 more minutes...Soooo, how's life?" hahaha!!!I left Anaheim at around 7:30 and got to downtown San Diego by 9 am. I hadn't eaten any breakfast yet, but I wanted to get the set-up over with so I decided to head straight for the Convention Center. I estimated about 2-3 hours for set-up. How hard, I asked myself, would it really take to set up such a small booth?

After ripping through some industrial strength shrink-wrap, which enveloped an entire pallette of journals, a tool box and 2 huge plastic cases which held the display unit, I heaved a sigh of relief after 3 1/2 hours and this is what it looked like when I was done (Hooray for Lisa and Jovi, our convention queens, for the training!!!). Let me tell you, I was STARVING after I got done! Talk about manual labor! That damn poster in the middle probably took me the longest to put up! Velcro was the bane of my existence that day. Thankfully, the Gaslamp District was across the street and I took a breather-walk around town in search of a nice place to sit and have a meal. I found an Australian restaurant called, "bondi." A party of 1, I sat on a stool by a stainless steel counter fenced in by wrought iron bars, overlooking the street outside. With no one to keep me company, I enjoyed my meal in silence, writing in my journal, having that oh-so-rare Dear Diary moment (after a quick conversation with Riann over the phone of course).

After walking off the fish 'n chips on SAGE (Why does food always taste better when you don't pay for it? hahaha!), I drove to the Marriott Courtyard 3 minutes away to check in. I've never checked into a hotel by myself before, so it was weird walking into the room by myself; no one spazzing out all over the place, no one to crack jokes with, no one to make plans with...so I knocked out for 2 hours!

When I got up, I took a walk around the block to buy toothpaste and find dinner. I saw a sign across the street that read, "East Coast Pizza." Sweet! I could eat a monster slice of pizza, I thought to myself. I ordered a plain cheese to go, expecting a fat slice in a box and this is what I got: PIZZA IN A BAG. hahaha!
Cile called to check up on me and, after telling her about my day she said, "Wow, you're a grown up!" hahaha! All up in San Diego to attend a conference and having the company paying for accommodations, my meals, my miles and everything in between.

This morning I met up with one of our acquisitions editors, Dan Ruth, and we had breakfast before the exhibition opened. I swear, everyone I've gotten to know at my office is this intelligent, renaissance-type individual who has done it all and is the best at their position at SAGE. I'm so lucky to be where I am.

I left SD at 1:30 pm and got home by 4 pm. My throat's all scratchy and I'm wiped, but that was a wonderful 48 hours I just had...