Greetings from West Virginia

It was many hours ago when my alarm went off at 4:00am and during that time I flew to Chicago, then to Pittsburgh, drove to West Virginia, ate at an old school Dairy Queen, set food in a Kroger for the first time since 1999, met a TON of people, exchanged many business cards, was gifted a can of Skyline Chili and drank one too many drinks (you know, the ones that require drink tickets or bar tabs).  It's been a long day and I preface my blog post with this info so you can go ahead and throw judgement out of the window when you get to the end of the post and think "gee, Erin has lost her edge".  Bear with me, it's been a long day.

I'm not really sure what my topic needs to be tonight.  So far I'm having a great time.  I was lucky enough to meet up with a follow classmate in Chicago so we were able to get to know each other a bit over lunch and then even more so on the drive in from the airport.  My old self would have quickly latched on to the opportunity to never leave her side for the entire week.  This new Erin, on the other hand, let her fend for herself (thankfully, she doesn't seem to have the wallflower problem I've been known to struggle with) and met new people and had a great time.

Have I killed off the wall flower completely?  Now wait, before you get on to me for rehashing the wallflower topic, allow me to explain.   I firmly believe that my biggest weakness is my keen ability to play the wallflower.  I'm not good at mingling, meeting, making friends, etc.  It is a HUGE fall back and I loathe (there is that word again) that I haven't been able to shake it in the past.  However, tonight seemed different.  Hands were shook, smiles exchanged, uncontrollable laughter over some region's common and regular use of the world corn hole happened (because really, deep down inside, we're all 8 years old and that was hilarious) and I didn't once feel timid or shy.  The only time I was reminded of my old wallflower ways was when someone in line at the bar said "this is hard... I'm an events person... we aren't outgoing types".

Huh.  That's right.  As I said last year, we're the observers.  We stand on the outside making sure everyone else is having a great time.

So where does that leave me now?

It makes me feel naked.

But in a good way.  And I'll leave you with that.

Goodnight.