Back at the beginning of March I took a trip over to Palm Springs, California, for the Society of Women Engineers (SWE) Sonora Region Conference and Career Fair. You see, as the Region Governor, my attendance is required at these conferences and I guess I just can't complain about them being in places like
Orlando, Palm Springs, etc. (Have I mentioned yet that next year's is in HAWAII!!!!????)
Ahem, back to this post...
I know from experience, it takes a LOT of work to plan a SWE Region Conference. I led the planning efforts for the 2009 conference here in Albuquerque. This time around it was no different. I was on conference calls at least weekly, I wrote and responded to a zillion emails, and it was tough. And about five days before the conference, I came down with a heinous case of bronchitis. As in I couldn't even talk. When I finally got my voice back, I couldn't speak a whole sentence without coughing. It sucked...
But I went anyway.
It was 80 degrees and my room overlooked the gorgeous pool:
I stayed inside and rested.
I did manage to make it to the street-fair thingy on Thursday night and got this sweet hand-painted "choo choo" wall hanging for Carter (click on it to see it better - WAY cool - and thanks to Jeannette for shipping it to Albuquerque for me!):
The street fair was REALLY weird. THE most random vendors (lots of fudge for some reason?!). Here's a street shot:
On both legs of my flight to CA, I sat by Canadian women. They were headed to Palm Springs for 6 months (each of them - weird, eh?). I was baffled that so many Canadians would "winter" in Palm Springs. And so I just HAD to snap a picture of this sign:
Even though I was beat, I had some tasty Mexican food with some of my favorite SWE pals. Jeannette (I know, the photo is dark - she told me if I posted the other one she would kill me...):
Jenn and George (are they cute or what?!? Can't wait until their wedding in May 2012!):
Keli and Lisa:
Most photos of me include me blowing my nose or coughing. On two different occasions, SWE pals brought me new boxes of tissues (sometimes being Governor has its perks...):
On the Friday, I took a tour of the Nestle water bottling facility. They wouldn't let us take photos (it was SO cool!), but I snapped a couple pics of the many, many windmills on the ride back:
Palm Springs is about 2000' lower than Albuquerque in elevation, so the climate was pretty similar to here.
Another Governor made it out to the conference. Colleen (on the right) and I just so happened to be wearing the same SWE shirt. Ha!
I made it through most of the event without dying, but it was a stretch to stand at the podium at breakfast, lunch, dinner, and even during my water treatment presentation without losing a lung. But I did. Even got all dressed up for dinner (which, I must say, the keynote speaker was AMAZINGLY inspirational! One of the oldest SWE presidents gave an interview - WOW!).
There were lots of awards and I did a lot of smiling for the camera. Won't show them all, but a couple of my favorites. First up, the "Sonora History Awards." These are scrapbooking awards and my neighbor, Kristin, does the two pages up for my local SWE section. She's taken home top prize for Central New Mexico for two years running! Here's the CNM President, Elizabeth, with the winning entry:
Winning collegiate entry - Cal Poly:
Another really great SWE pal - my Secretary (who takes AMAZING meeting minutes!), Stephanie:
And I'll end with this one - Super Lisa - she's my "Fun Director" for the Sonora Region (unofficial title, of course):
All in all, I had a GREAT time despite the bronchitis trying to do me in. We had over 300 attendees and I'm pretty sure EVERYONE had a great time! Another thanks to Jenn and Lisa for all of their hard work at planning the conference! Let's do it again next year...in Hawaii!!!!!
~kerrie
Here's to a few restful nights caring for Eleanor and also big brother Donnie! Congratulations!
And got to beat the heat (105+ degrees!) by doing some shopping at the mall that was conveniently right across the hot-as-heck-asphalt parking lot! And it was tax-free weekend in Texas, so all of us Governors scored some sweet deals at Macy's on shoes!
I also got to hang out with all of the Society's leaders - the Board of Directors and Board of Trustees as they were being inducted:
Me and some of the big timers - below (and that's my "SWE Boss," Linda on the far right):
Afterward we had a very nice installation ceremony for the new SWE President, Melissa. She received a lot of great gifts from the former SWE Presidents (one at the right and one sitting on the left, in the orange shirt). Melissa is/was a brand-new mommy!
The next day the Governors all had a wonderful dinner together to celebrate the success of the upcoming year:
And then we played and shopped some more!
And I've gotta say, this year in SWE HAS been a success! In just a few months, I'll be in Hawaii for a conference with two of the other regions. How many SWE leaders get to say they've been to Hawaii on the SWE dime?!
I then asked him for a SMILE at least and to be a good sport about it - so here's round 2 (ha!):
And now me, in all my bee hat glory:
Carter wanted to touch it (i.e., destroy it...), but settled for a hat of his own:
While I'm not exactly the ideal tea customer (I'm loud, not exactly proper, and don't own many dresses...), I always have a great time and the food is wonderful! I actually look forward to going each year and eating some dainty foods with the gals. Here's a shot of my tea cup and the beautiful display of goodies:
Thanks to SWE-CNM for another great tea party and thanks to Matt for making the WINNING hat! Cheers!
I stayed inside and rested.
The street fair was REALLY weird. THE most random vendors (lots of fudge for some reason?!). Here's a street shot:
On both legs of my flight to CA, I sat by Canadian women. They were headed to Palm Springs for 6 months (each of them - weird, eh?). I was baffled that so many Canadians would "winter" in Palm Springs. And so I just HAD to snap a picture of this sign:
Even though I was beat, I had some tasty Mexican food with some of my favorite SWE pals. Jeannette (I know, the photo is dark - she told me if I posted the other one she would kill me...):
Jenn and George (are they cute or what?!? Can't wait until their wedding in May 2012!):
Keli and Lisa:
Most photos of me include me blowing my nose or coughing. On two different occasions, SWE pals brought me new boxes of tissues (sometimes being Governor has its perks...):
On the Friday, I took a tour of the Nestle water bottling facility. They wouldn't let us take photos (it was SO cool!), but I snapped a couple pics of the many, many windmills on the ride back:
Palm Springs is about 2000' lower than Albuquerque in elevation, so the climate was pretty similar to here.
Another Governor made it out to the conference. Colleen (on the right) and I just so happened to be wearing the same SWE shirt. Ha!
I made it through most of the event without dying, but it was a stretch to stand at the podium at breakfast, lunch, dinner, and even during my water treatment presentation without losing a lung. But I did. Even got all dressed up for dinner (which, I must say, the keynote speaker was AMAZINGLY inspirational! One of the oldest SWE presidents gave an interview - WOW!).
Winning collegiate entry - Cal Poly:
Another really great SWE pal - my Secretary (who takes AMAZING meeting minutes!), Stephanie:
And I'll end with this one - Super Lisa - she's my "Fun Director" for the Sonora Region (unofficial title, of course):
All in all, I had a GREAT time despite the bronchitis trying to do me in. We had over 300 attendees and I'm pretty sure EVERYONE had a great time! Another thanks to Jenn and Lisa for all of their hard work at planning the conference! Let's do it again next year...in Hawaii!!!!!
[and she said YES!]
We ALL had a great time and I snapped a few photos to capture the memories. Below is a shot of the beginning of the quilt layout (and no, Danita didn't come with the quilt, she was just selecting a few more fabrics to make a few more "squares" for the quilt):
A couple shots of the squares and t-shirts (pre-cut) laid out to make the nearly queen-sized quilt:
(And "my" squares - first time making them! - were the "Pink Ribbon" - for breast cancer awareness - and the "SWEeter Futures Outreach Program" square - top right, which supports the region's outreach program that I helped create.)
A few action shots - me (sitting), sewing; Sarah (left), ironing; and Danita (right), cutting up t-shirts:
Me (left), pinning a few "new" squares that we made that day; Fran (middle), ironing; Danita (right), still cutting t-shirts (she totally had the worst job of the day...)
The nearly-finished front (can see my "Outreach" square better in this shot; it's two above the Pink Ribbon - which is a 3-D square, by the way...the ribbon stuck out! I'm so cool!):
We decided to make the back super-colorful (or like a "circus tent" according to Sarah...ha!):
Working on putting the back on to the front (L-R: Kerrie, Fran, Danita):
Adding in the batting - Fran (left) and Danita (right) pinning it to the fabric:
And it took three of us to stitch the back, front, and batting together - that sucker was HEAVY:
And took three of us to help "feed" it through my machine (L-R: Danita, me, Fran):
And a finished product - Danita, Kerrie, and Fran (Sarah's not in the photo, as she had to skedaddle for a Thanksgiving meal):
I'm not sure of the final numbers, but I think SWE-CNM raised over $500 for this quilt project. I'm bummed that even though I purchased a boat load of $5 raffle tickets, I still didn't win...
