Chicago

Well, I had to go to Chicago for a few days. I am the president of the East TN chapter for a professional society, so every year there is a chapter leaders meeting in Chicago. It is a fun meeting, gets you excited and motivated. It was the first time I had been away from Reese over night.

While the conference is good, it is very busy and hard to get a chance to leave the hotel. I got to Chicago Sunday around 3. I got to connect with an old friend that lived across the street from me growing up on Frago Ct. in California. Him and his wife picked me up and took me to a great dinner and for a tour of the city. It was a nice night...but that was my Chicago experience. Starting Monday morning I was in meetings all day and never left the hotel again until I got on the shuttle to head back to the airport. I was really proud of myself. The hotel gym was beautiful and I highly recommend the Intercontinental. I was an amazing hotel. Since I knew that I wasn't in control of my eating (all meals were catered) that I better hit the gym. I worked out Sunday night, Monday morning, Monday night and Tuesday morning. I tried to do cardio and some weights each time.

It was actually fairly easy to be dedicated to working out. I had no distractions. I went to bed early every night, slept good and had time to relax. I actually read a 400 page book in those two days as well. For any of you Nicolas Sparks fans, I recommend "Safe Haven", it was one of his better books because it was suspenseful as well as romantic.

Tuesday night I was home and hit the pavement running. I had to work Wednesday and Thursday, Thursday night has a meeting, Friday had a CPR class, Saturday a garage sale...in a nutshell its been nuts! I have friends from California flying in on Thursday and will be visiting for almost a week. It will be great to see them both. So, I have slacked on my blog posts but more will be coming soon. My next post will be an actual update on how this journey is going.