The first 24 hours

24 hours in Denver. Yup, that's right. I started the trip yesterday morning by dumping hot chocolate on my pants...about 5 minutes after leaving my house! Not good news!!! I figured that was NOT the way to start the day and I was right. It was a ridiculous traveling experience. Dayna, my traveling buddy for the week, was pretty convinced not to travel with me anymore...by the time we reached the Calgary airport. Stopped at every check out. Weird seats. Scary government people. However, when all is said and done, our suitcases made it to Denver with us safely and so we're a-ok. We would have had a perfectly good excuse if our bags had been M.I.A though...guess we'll need to find another excuse! Um, Canadian dollar is almost on par and no GST?

Here's the highlight from last night (or at least one of them), when we got to the hotel, Jesus checked us in and my name was on the list! Good news, I can sleep well tonight. Truthfully, it was a hispanic guy who's name was very likely pronounced Hey-zeus and it took me spelling my name 3 times before he got it. Hopefully it's easier to find my name on "the list" the real Jesus has! Ahhh good times!

Oh, here's a new experience for my taste buds. Dayna and I tried Coke Blak today. Some weird thing they've got in the states. It's called a carbonated fusion beverage (whatever that is) with the essence of coffee. Seriously, its some mix of coke and coffee. Quote of the day for me on that one..."my tastebuds are completely screwed up!" Honestly, I couldn't figure it out at first. It's carbonated and kindof coke/caramelly but it tastes like coffee. By the time I got to the bottom of the bottle, I was really enjoying it. I'll need to bring some home to share if I can find again.

The rest of the day has been about good food and great sessions. I went to one session on web and e-recruitment which, for most people, wouldn't be that exciting but was really good for me in my role...I may have to figure out myspace after all. I'm beginning to realize the incredible number of hats that I wear at the college but am also trying to put that into perspective with the size of the college. I'm a small fish in a big pond around here with schools like Perdu represented. Just a country girl from rural Alberta, Canada...and proud of it! Second session on Canadian vs. American enrollment 'stuff.' Good too. I'm pretty darn sure it will be super useful for the rest of my sessions, at least to have that in the back of my mind while I go to the other sessions. Then the final plenary session for the day was this funny, funny lady - a professional comedian with a Phd. They introduced her as Doctor whatever (that wasn't her real name but I don't remember it) but she definitely wasn't like I expected at all. She talked about staying on purpose. Essentially living the life you're supposed to live. Funny how that keeps coming up. She was a Christian, too, and NOT ashamed to let people know.

Overall, it was a good day!

Oh, yes, I'm still sticking to my challenge to look for the things in life to be thankful for. In addition to all of the above, today I'm thankful for chocolate cookies from The Einstein Brothers Bagels that could be confused for brownies fresh out of the oven. Sooooo good. Chocolate....mmmmm.

Anyway, gotta run. Breakfast is at 7am...yuck!