A Hotel Room, a Live Event, and a Little Bit of Pride

It's Sunday night. I'm on my own in a hotel room up in Washington, IL...two hours away from home, my puppy, and my hubby. This was not where I was expecting to be for the next three days, but I'm thrilled I'm here!

A week or so ago, I entered into a drawing to win a seat at the Escalate LIVE conference on a blog I follow called Pay It Forward. I'll admit, I completely forgot I even entered my name into the drawing until Friday night. I just happened to check my email and noticed a message in my inbox from Leigh Caraccioli. 

Here is what it said:

We had a winner for the Pay it Forward giveaway from Dane Sanders for the Escalate LIVE seat in Washington, IL and she is already attending. She wants to pay it forward and offer her spot to the next winner.....

WHICH IS YOU!

Needless to say I was shocked...but ecstatic! I have to give a huge THANK YOU to Zeena Greg at Photography by ZG, who was the original winner and the reason I am able to attend the event. This will be my first official photography conference...ever. I've watched several online seminars/conferences, but I'm so excited to finally be able to attend one in person. So here I am writing this on a Sunday evening because I'm guessing I'm not going to have time to write tomorrow. 

I am honestly proud of myself for making it up here all by myself. I don't travel much, and when I do I'm never alone. Almost all of my little journeys include Ryan. He is in my companion, entertainment, and most importantly - the driver. Especially if we are going to a bigger city - Ryan is driving. Period. I just can't handle big city traffic. I get all nervous and stressed and we probably would never make it to where we need to go.

The other reason I'm proud of myself for being up here is that - okay I'm going to be completely honest - I'm somewhat co-dependent.  Okay fine - I'm almost completely co-dependent. I started thinking about it yesterday and this is the first time in probably 4 or 5 years that Ryan and I have been apart for more than 24 hours. I don't know if it's a good thing or a bad thing that we spend so much time together. All I know is that I feel complete when I'm with him. Content & happy. And when I don't see him throughout the day I miss him and I can tell he really misses me too.

So I'm here and I'm excited (& missing Ryan a little bit already). I'm ready to learn as much as I possibly can from these amazing speakers, and to make a bunch of new friends with the other photographers attending. Wish me luck. ;)

Have a wonderful Monday. :)

P.S. If you haven't answered my poll from Friday's post - I'd greatly appreciate it!

Contact Me | Visit My Website | Join the Facebook Fan Page | Follow Me on Twitter