DC Day 3 - May 9

 I forgot to take my picture in my third outfit. 3 outfit days are why I did not pack enough for the conference.

Outfit 1 - Conference daytime (skirt: Loft, Shirt: Westinghouse, shoes: Famous Footwear)
Outfit 2 - Evening reception with NEI (dress: Lazarus in December 2002 for $9.99 at the Lazarus downtown that no longer exists. I mean the store downtown isn't anything but also Lazarus isn't around. Shoes: Famous Footwear (2nd time I wore them.)
Outfit 3: Jeans from Express, Blue shirt and white cardigan (like here or here)

I feel like a million bucks in my dress. I don't know why. I feel like it looks better than it photographs.  This is only the 4th time I've worn this dress. At least it was only 10 bucks.

After I got back from the reception, I realized I forgot to put on my fancy necklace. I actually wore a necklace with a small charm but I'm not sure if I had it on yet in the photos above or not.

There were a few morning sessions then right at the beginning of lunch they wanted all the Excellence Award Winners to go to the stage and get their awards while everyone else ate. Last year during the awards portion of the conference, they called everyone up one by one.  This year they just did this during lunch and then had them all stand at one point during the awards ceremony.  What bugged me is later I learned that 1 of the 4 sessions got out late so a ton of people missed the photo. A ton of those people were my friends so I was sad for them. They do a lot of work to get an award and then don't really even get recognized for it.  I guess since they gave 50 awards this year it would have taken awhile but still I feel there should have been some more recognition for them.  So I got my lunch, sat down, and said I was going in to sneak a photo while they took the official one. Everyone gets lined up and then those in charge look at me. Apparently I was the official photo. Oh boy what pressure. I didn't have my longer lens on. I didn't work to try to get settings better to make the picture coloring turn out better. Sigh.  Then after I took the photo (or the 5 that I took hoping I'd get a decent one), I was asked to take the photos during the awards ceremony when all the chapter and individual awards were given.  I don't know how I became important all of a sudden.

All the Westinghouse people are wearing blue Westinghouse shirts.  We should take up more of the picture, but so many of our guys were late.

Rob is proud of his Award!

Rob is tired.

During a morning session I talked to the Past President and we figured out where to meet and when to have our Westinghouse group photo taken... during afternoon break.  Then I texted everyone that I had been texting about the shirts and told them about the photo and hoped they told their friends. I was worried I didn't have everyone's numbers but I had a good portion and probably told 20 of the 30. I felt like that was good and everyone else should see us congregate and show up. It kind of worked well. I wished we didn't stand on steps and have the photographer down lower. Nobody ever looks as good when they are looking down.

I believe there are only a few people I don't know, which is pretty good considering we are from 5 sites (or more if you break up all the Pittsburgh locations.

Windsor

Charlotte

Columbia

Pittsburgh

PAR (I think. Can you tell these are the people I don't know?)

Excellence Award Winners from Westinghouse

Officers from Pittsburgh

After another session (or was it 2), it was time for awards.

There were a ton of awards given, one of which included the New England Chapter Achievement Award that our Windsor Chapter won.

One special surprise award went to one of our very own executives with Westinghouse.

Past President receiving an award

After the Awards Ceremony, there were Regional meetings. Only the chapter Presidents had to attend so I was in attendance while the rest of my chapter got to go back to their hotel.

The sessions were to end at 6. I was supposed to walk 2 blocks, change, and walk 6 blocks to get to the reception by 6. You can see how that timing doesn't work out right.  I hurried back to the hotel and ended up ruining my heel in a grate.  I made it to the reception by 6:30.  I did talk to some people. I wanted to talk to the CEO but he is one fast walker and I could not catch up with him the few times I spotted him.  Just like last year at the reception, I was one of the very last people to leave.  This year some coworkers updated me on where everyone was going after so at least I wasn't totally out of the loop.   I ended up leaving the reception at 8:30. It was originally supposed to end at 7:30.  A little after 7:30, I heard someone say they were serving drinks until 8:00.  At 8:20, I happened to look around the room and noticed not only were all the other tables clear but all the table clothes were off. The buffets were all broken down. I guess we were supposed to leave.

After the reception, I walked back to the hotel with Mallory. We heard a car honk while walking. Mallory insists they were honking at me but I don't believe her.  No other cars were on the road and nobody was walking through an intersection that could have been honked at but I still don't think it was me.

We changed and then headed out.  We had to walk about 10 blocks to get to the bar that everyone else was at.  We stopped for "dinner" first. We got to Pot Belly's at 9:57 and they closed at 10. Their hoagies are awesome. This was one packed bar. It was packed with everyone from our conference.  The bartenders were not used to it.

Here's a story I heard about later but I did see the bartender wearing the glove when I eventually went over to try to get a drink.  I may remember the story slightly wrong too but still the main parts of it are right.
People were having such issues getting drinks. Nobody felt like they could get the bartenders attention.  Someone was served a beer in a cracked glass. When they were getting a new one, a girl got up on the bar to get his attention to get a drink. It scared him, he dropped the glass. The glass broke but also the beer thing broke and wouldn't shut off. He had to run in the back to turn it off back there.  He comes out of the back wearing a rubber glove. While he is making drinks, my friends sees it filling with blood. He stuffs napkins in there to try to sop up the blood and he keeps making drinks.    I saw him probably an hour later and he had on a glove that didn't appear to be bloody. I also heard that at times he was swapping out the gloves.  Too bad I didn't see it. Seems like it would have been fun.

Later when I'm about to order my drink one bartender knocks over some glasses and one breaks into the ice bin. I had to wait longer while they cleaned that up.  What a night for those guys. What a night.

I left around 1:00.  Others left at 2 when it closed.   I walked back with a few people that were also staying in my hotel so I wasn't walking alone at all. They wanted Pizza but places weren't opened so we went to bed.  I wasn't hungry but was going to join them because I hate missing out on any potential fun.

After I got back to my hotel room, I felt the need to upload pictures and put them on facebook. That took forever with the hotel internet so then I was up until 3 trying to do things with the photos.  Staying up until 3 was not the smartest thing but when I start to do something, I want to get it down before I move on to something else. Tuesday morning, we had to be at breakfast by 7:30 to have a pre-job brief by 8:00.   At least I went to sleep early the other nights.  I went out 1 night late. Others went out 4 days. I'm too old to go out every night. I'm almost too old to go out at all. Or maybe it is that I'm responsible. Responsible sounds better than being old.  I always complain at conferences when people skip sessions and then go out and party so I wanted to make sure I was there so I wouldn't be a hypocrite.  When you go to a conference do you attend all the offered sessions? When you go to conferences do you tweet using a conference hashtag?  I do but I was one of only 5 or so that did. Last year there were maybe only 3 or 4 that tweeted so I guess it's an improvement.