Conference in Baltimore

The day after the Toronto After Dark Film Festival finished, I went to Baltimore for a one-day conference on living with metastatic breast cancer that was sponsored by the Metastatic Breast Cancer Network (MBCN). When I booked the trip I didn't care so much about the conference itself; my whole reason for going was to hang out with my friends.

I was able to take an earlier combination of flights to Baltimore which meant that I could have a nap before the evening's get-together and dinner. One thing I loved about this particular hotel was the sheets on the bed. They were the softest, smoothest, most comfortable sheets I've ever slept on ever in my life. We all raved about these sheets because they were so awesome. It turns out that they're Comphy microfiber sheets and they can be purchased for home use. Ian doesn't love smooth sheets but I'm going to buy these anyways because they're so amazingly soft and comfortable. Even though they were polyester microfiber, I didn't sweat or feel hot at all; they felt and breathed like the softest silk.

We ate at the hotel that night and although the food was great, the service was terrible. Our server didn't ask whether the 14 of us wanted separate bills and gave us one ginormous bill that we couldn't divide because we didn't know what was taxed at what rate. she was cranky throughout our service and when we asked her to separate the bills she got really angry. She took 45 minutes to separate our bills out for us and she wasn't separating them that whole time; she went for a walk and was talking on the phone.

The conference itself was much more informative than I thought it would be. I figured that I'd hear information I'd heard before but they actually talked about new-to-me things. They talked about cutting-edge treatments in vaccines, for example, and how they worked which I knew nothing about.

At lunch on Saturday we took a photo of us all. Notice the boots I'm wearing - they're the Frye Veronica slouch boots that I'd wanted. Yes, I bought them! They're so comfortable and gorgeous.... just like all of the women in this picture.

Baltimore MBCN 2011 conference group photo
I'm in the tie-dye top in front (wearing the great boots).

I left the conference a bit early because I was still really tired. Although I'd planned to get up around 6pm, I someone called to wake me at 8pm and I rushed out to dinner. I was so happy they waited for me! We went down to the Fell's Point area for Spanish Tapas and then the yummiest gelato and sipping chocolate. We hadn't known that Fell's Point was the main area for all the bars and stuff and we hadn't thought about the fact that it was the weekend before Halloween. We were pleasantly surprised to see all those people dressed up for Halloween. Watching costumed people walk by is an interesting pastime although it would have been more fun if they weren't all drunk.

As great a time as I'd had talking and catching up with people, I was really tired after being away from home for so long and I wanted to get home. My flights were delayed and I freaked out a bit but I made it home safely. I've spent the week catching up and relaxing and I think I'm finally mostly normal.