Thanks, Mom and Jack, for posting your guesses to my previous blog. 

To continue my NOLA story, on Sunday, a coworker and I took a tour of the Garden District and got to have brunch at Commander's Palace, a 5-star restaurant in New Orleans.  We had some very unusual, but delicious, food, including turtle soup.  And before you ask, let me tell you that it does include turtles, but ones that are meant for this - not the kind in your local pond.  Our time there included songs from the traveling jazz trio that they feature each Sunday during brunch as well.  (Strangely enough, one of the musicians from this trio was playing with a different band back at the airport when we left NOLA.) 

That evening was the opening reception for the conference and it was quite a sight!  We were bussed to a place called "Mardi Gras World" that appeared to hold mardi gras floats, and possibly hold events as well.  As soon as we got off the bus, we were instantly greeted with sounds of a fantastic marching band (i love marching bands!) and numerous people in mardi gras costumes.  As we walked down this long carpet through what looked like part of a warehouse, on either side of us were enormous floats used in the mardi gras parades.  Once inside, there were various food stations, drink stations and live entertainment.  We were left to mingle and wander the place as it was quite large.  Afterward, we met up with another coworker, her friend, others I didn't know and the tv reality celebrity I alluded to in my previous post.  I met the season 4 winner from Bravo's show Top Chef: Stephanie Izard.  We went to a pretty well known restaurant for some late night food as the reception only had finger food.  I did not talk to her a ton that night, but did ask her a few questions without trying to be some weird fan.  It was interesting to see her eat though because instead of just enjoying food like most of us, you could see her thinking about the flavors and trying to figure out how it was made.  Afterward, my coworker and I continued our evening at our third and final reception for the night. 

On Monday, we headed to sessions all day at the conference, a couple of which were great.  Then it was on to that night's festivities.  We headed to a chapter reception for the midwest, and then I was off to an extravagent dinner hosted by one of our vendors.  It was a 6 course meal that was absolutley delicious, but so very rich - 1) appetizer course (too many to remember), 2) soup (I can't remember), 3) fish (something I was not familiar with, but my favorite course of the night), 4) sorbet (pear sorbet served with pear vodka), 5) steak (pepper crusted filet) and 6) desserts (trio of Devastation Chocolate Cake, creme brulee, and my favorite of the three, a praline crepe).  After this, I was headed to "Party with a Purpose" where the ticket price benefits a local charity.  Upon arriving, I got to talk with someone I met the previous night for a while and discovered that she and her fiance live less than a mile from Jack and I - small world!  But after a while, coworkers arrived with Stephanie and she hung out with us the whole time at this party.  She was a lot of fun and very laid back. 

Tuesday was my last day at the conference so we headed to some sessions, wandered the French Quarter for a bit and then headed to the airport.  Once we were at the airport, I was on my way back to the gate after taking a quick walk and ran into Stephanie again.  She ended up coming to sit with our group while we all waited to board.  Again, very laid back and friendly.  Upon arriving back in Chicago, I was greeted by some bone chilling temperatures and my husband who picked me up from the airport!

I have pics of Mardi Gras World and of us with Stephanie on my phone, but until I learn how to post pics on our blog, they'll have to wait.  I hope to learn that from Jack soon. :)

As usual, I am a little behind in blogging.  I really like blogging, but sometimes, life just gets in the way. ;)

In any case, about a week and a half ago I left for New Orleans, LA for a work conference.  Quite often the joke amongst speakers at this conference is that it is a meeting for meeting planners; a meeting to learn how to have better meetings.  Ironic, right?! In any case, it is in a different city each year and I was excited to get to go back to New Orleans.  This conference has something going morning, noon and night and every minute in between.  There are sessions through the day, sponsored luncheons, then receptions, parties and networking events in the evenings.  The tough part is almost deciding what NOT to do in order to not collapse.  The conference started early this year with an optional program that I have now participated in for the past two years, called Hospitality Helping Hands.  It is where anyone who signs up and pays a fee gets to do local community service for that city and the fee goes toward that organization.  This year there were three possible projects from which to choose: 1) cleaning up a cemetary (which sounded a little creepy to me), 2) cleaning up City Park or 3) helping to renovate homes for the St. Bernard Project.  I decided to participate in the St. Bernard Project.

I cannot even begin to tell you what a great experience this was.  This was a project started by a couple who after Katrina felt that they needed to do something to help.  They switched their lives, moved to New Orleans and started restoring just one home.  Soon, they were working on multiples and now they have over 160 home renovations complete with another 34 in progress.  Families can apply to the program and if they qualify based on the state of their home, St. Bernard Project will renovate it for them. 

For the house where I was assigned, we had two volunteers from Americorps, along with about a dozen other confernece volunteers, who taught us what we needed to know and oversaw our work throughout the day.  After some introductions, some quick stretches, we got some general information on our project that day.  We were then split into 2 groups where one was to install insulation in the ceiling and walls and the other was to install drywall.  I was on the drywall team and I came home from NOLA with a new skill.  I learned how to measure, score, and install drywall, along with the tricks to cutting out spots for outlets and shaving down the edges when it ends up just a bit uneven.  I also learned that there is a right way and a wrong way to install it based on the seams - thankfully, we had a good group who knows how to follow directions, so we followed the seaming rule.  At one point during the day, some of the family who's home we were renovating came to visit us.  The husband could not make it, but the wife, her daughter and her granddaughter all visited with us.  They said that they only got the call this morning that we were there that day, otherwise they would have made us something and brought it over.  You could just see how incredibly grateful they were to see people who care helping them and to see that they were going to have their home back.  Clearly we cannot renovate a home in one day, so we only had a piece in the project, but by mid-February this family should be back in their house.  And to think, this was only the first day of my trip!

Afterward, the sponsors of this volunteer program hosted a quick reception where all the volunteers in their dirty clothes get to go to have snacks and drinks.  That evening, my co-workers and I attended a dinner called the "Ragin' Cajun" where they dump large amounts of shrimp, crawfish, corn and potatoes onto newspaper covered tables and you eat with your hands.  There are, of course, cocktails as no party at this conference is without them.  This is the second year I have gotten to attend this dinner, and although it may sound strange to you, it is DELICIOUS!  And it is also kind of fun to see everyone in a relaxed atmosphere eating with their hands.

I don't want to make this blog any longer, so I'll fill you in on the rest of my NOLA trip soon.  I will put this teaser out to say I met and got to hang out with a reality TV star multiple times throughout the conference.  Leave your guesses in the comment field :)