Finally

O.k. so I'm back from my extended absence. On June 4th I left Jacksonville for a work conference in Wheeling West Virginia. From there I flew straight to Denver for one of my best friend's wedding. Talk about a wild ride....so wild that the adventure was wrapped up with me so seriously ill that I should have been hospitalized! Now, three weeks later I am on some nice pain pills and beginning to recover from everything so I figured I would check in on my blog. I'm not even sure where to begin. I guess we'll start with the conference.

The Conference:
It was an IAAM conference, International Association of Assembly Managers. Each member of our huge 4 person event staff has been through this program, me being the final one. It is a week long "school" that is held in the mountains of West Virginia at a resort that resembles the one on Dirty Dancing. It is a two year program that certifies you in Public Assembly Facility Management. Everyone that I work with has raved about this opportunity, two of us go each year, one first year and one second year. I got to go with my friend Pam whom I party with anyway so I knew we would have fun. However, I had no idea how much fun we would really have! Let me just say that the "Library" is a sports bar and that the instructors are the last ones to leave at 2:00 a.m.! This "school" is a huge party/networking dream. I met so many awesome people there and can't wait to go back next year. Plus, if you've read KitKat's blog - I am the coworker who almost lost her job a month ago, fine, I just made some amazing contacts and am really not worried about finding another one.

The Wedding:
At 3:00 a.m., still drunk and partying I loaded my suitcases on a tram in Wheeling West Virginia to head for the Pittsburgh airport to fly to Denver for a 10 a.m. bridal shower. Need I say more about that flight. At 9:50 a.m. my mom whisked me from the airport straight to the bridal shower - I looked like I had been run over by a bus, was completely hung over and had not slept in 40 hours. In this condition no one should be forced to walk into a Stepford type situation with smiling, bubbling faces, white sun dresses and mini pastries. Once I was released from my duties there I finally grabbed a couple hours of sleep before the wedding madness began. We had so much to do - nails, toes, hair appointments, etc. Just as we had all walked down the aisle we heard a crack of thunder and the sky opened up, it started pouring rain. I found it quite amusing and the bride was calm about it so it turned out alright. We simply and smoothly moved inside to the reception area and started the whole thing over. All in all, despite the raspberry dress and shoes the wedding turned out to be beautiful and very fun.

The Illness:
The morning after the wedding I woke up at 5:00 a.m. with an excruciating pain in my right lower back. I told my parents that I thought my kidney was failing and they laughed at me calling me a hypochondriac. The pain intensified each day but I killed it with my handy loratabs. Finally Thursday night after going to a comedy show I started feeling really weird. My roommate thought I was just really drunk, off of my 2 drinks that night? I started getting delirious and sweating profusely, a 102 degree fever. My whole body ached and I couldn't move. Needless to say I didn't make it to work the next day and went to the doctor. She looked at me like I was insane and asked me if I had any idea how serious my condition was. Apparently the back pain that began 6 days earlier was a severe kidney infection that usually required hospitalization! Who knew? My doctor, who knows me pretty well unfortunately, understood my resistance to that idea and gave me some strong antibiotics and recommended a shot to jump start the process. Let me just say, for the following 3 days I barely moved and definitely didn't leave the house. Ladies, take care of yourselves if ya know what I mean. This kidney infection was the worst pain I have ever experienced in my whole life!