Back from Chapel Hill

I was at the University of North Carolina over the weekend, invited to speak from the parent perspective at their 4th Annual Eating Disorders Conference. A brief overview:
  • Rented a snappy little car on Friday morning, and with the liberal use of GPS and XM Radio, enjoyed a gorgeous 4 hour drive south through the fall foliage.
  • Gas price range observed: from $1.99USD to $3.70USD standard unleaded.
  • Arrived to the hotel only to find a wonderful someone at the desk writing me a note and bringing me a cupcake and sweet potato scone by way of welcome: THANK YOU, DOREEN!
  • Went over my slides for the next day while waiting for my friend, Nancy Zucker (of Duke and "Off the CUFF" fame) who picked me up for dinner in her zippy little car.
  • Enjoyed a fantastic dinner and conversation with Nancy, trading ideas and collaborations, then we got terribly lost trying to find the hotel again - as I remember I was going on and on about the word "anosognosia" and we took it a bit too seriously!
  • Bright and early to check in with tech staff at the Friday Center who went above and beyond to solve my PowerPoint issues.
  • Recognized T.J. Raney purely by voice after only knowing him from AED conference calls this past year.
  • Learned loads from Dr. Cynthia Bulik's presentation updating the audience on research. I will post on this later.
  • Fascinating work being done to adapt CBT couples therapy when a partner has an ED.
  • My bit was scheduled for after lunch, giving me the advantage of a well-nourished audience.
  • I enjoyed doing the presentation. My title: The Secret Life of Parents: The other 10,050 minutes of the week. (In other words - what goes on outside the 50 minutes we're there at a clinician's office)
  • Had to wing it when my presentation notes got swallowed into the viewer halfway through...
  • Doreen made a pivotal guest appearance during the Q&A. Did I mention what fun it was to meet her in person and have her as part of the weekend?
  • Met lots of really interesting and interested people - will be talking about some of them in later posts.
  • Out to dinner with T.J. and Doreen. A full circle of topics around pizza - and a dissertation by the waiter on the group dynamics of dessert.
  • Left the hotel this morning at dawn to be home in time for my husband to leave on HIS business trip.
  • Said goodbye to the cute car, and to husband.
  • Made lunch.
  • Blogged.

Comments

  1. WOW I hope the next chapter includes "slept".
    You and Nancy obviously didn't have too much to drink or you wouldn't have been able to say "anosognosia" let alone go on about it.
    Glad that you had a good time and very much looking forward to hearing about the people you met and the things you learned

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  2. Yay for zippy cars and GPS and nice people and CUPCAKES!

    I'm glad you survived, and I can't wait to hear more about it.

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  3. Dang, Laura, I want to know how you get so many more hours in the week than I do! I feel totally shortchanged.

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  4. If anyone gets the chance, watch Laura give a talk and meet her. She's as down to earth as you imagine. I thoroughly enjoyed her (your) talk and meeting! My only wish is that we had an extra few hours to discuss with practitioners the 'magic' of what goes on at home. Given the questions that people sitting near me had, I think they'd be interested in hearing more, too.

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