2006-05-13

trip report pt. 1 @ 1:24 p.m.

I want my life to always be the way it was for the past four days I spent working the meeting/conference in New Orleans.

I must admit that I was more than a little apprehensive about this trip for a couple of reasons. Normally this is a conference for the network of institutes, but this time it was preceeded by an open forum meeting for the members of the collaborative regarding the enhancement grant that 5 states got. It was deemed an open meeting because all 18 applicants were invited to participate. Which meant that my state funders would be accompanying me in addition to 2 local participants. Thankfully, the head guy had to bow out due to obligations of his real job (i.e., instead of the getting in my freaking way as they are wont to do), but his doppleganger was still slated to attend. These people make my life very, very difficult and the last thing I wanted was them hovering over me watching my every move and making certain that I didn't embrarrass them.

For example, when we attended the kick off meeting in NC last September, I realized that they aren't accustomed to being grantees and don't know what this circuit is like. These research and foundation folk that we non-profit peeps are used to dealing with are very laid back and like to be shown a good time. They didn't get that. Not only did I get told that I needed to kiss more state butt when I presented since they're the funders of the main project (although they had never actually heard me present), but at a wonderfully uproarious dinner where I was sitting next to one of the head foundation chicas I was told that they "could hear me across the room and needed to tone it down a little". This was the same dinner after which a few different folks came up to me the next day talking about how wonderfully infectious my laugh was and how it made them want to laugh too whenever they heard it. But whatev. This annual conference is a huge love-in for the institutes and partners and everyone relishes the contact. I felt bummed that I was going to have to be silent and low key.

Additionally, I was concerned about the city, of course. I needn't have been. It was heaven. Tuesday saw a thankfully uneventful flight into the city and I peered from my aisle seat as we descended. All I could see was a great number of houses with telltale blue tarp of roof repair. Not knowing exactly where to find the 9th Ward from the air, I couldn't locate it. The cab ride was quick to the hotel in the Quarter as it was a low traffic time of day. But to see the damage yet to be repaired to the 'Dome...well, silence fell in the cab. the reminders are there, of course. I stepped out of the airport into incredibly oppressive humidity, so much so that it was reducing visibility with the haze it caused, which I absolutely adore.

We were scheduled to have a networking dinner with a selection of four restaurants on the list. Of course my control freak bunch ensured that we all broke up for maximum coverage and had lists in hand for who needed to be contacted for whatever topic needed covering. I picked where I wanted to go based on the menus and let the chips fall where they may. They came very close to having me contact the organizer to find out who was going to be where. Gah. I was able to avoid flying with them, so I didn't even see them until we all met down in the lobby to hoof it to our respective points. And even then, didn't even really talk to them because I'd started a conversation with another particpant from New Jersey on the elevator ride down and then got caught up in the swirl of seeing people I dug again, cheek bussing/kissing, hugging and squealing in genuine delight. The petty little girl in me wants to say I saw PFL (Perfect Funder Lady/state funder for the uninitiated) looking on from across the room in a mixture of disbelief/amazement and perhaps a smidgen of jealousy. Did not see any of them again for the rest of the night.

I will take this moment to indulge myself in a very rare moment of self-aggrandizement. I am consistently amazed and always chortlingly pleased when I can walk into a room pf public health policy/research wonks and cause a flurry of "ohmihgod, HI IT'S YOU! -SQUEEEEEEEEEEEEE-" and get rushed. It makes you feel awesome...like a VIP. And the best part is that it has nothing to with the fact that I'm a performer. It's all about my work, personality and presentation. My. Hard. Work. Being recognized for it. Yeah, dammit. Anyway. Back to your regular programming.

Dinner was good, got grouped with some of my favorite people and made friends with new ones. Eunice fron Northa Carolina was the bomb. It's amazing how easily I can swing back into a Southern accent and I couldn't shake it for almost the entire time I was there. After dinner, the brown coalition of three strolled Bourbon Street. Me, 'Cilla from the DC association and Doc B from the funding foundation. We hit it off at the very first meeting back in September and glom onto each other whenever we meet. The last time was December's APHA in Philly, so it'd been awhile. Something in the air made me want to come clean, so I asked 'Cilla:

Can I tell you something in all serious confidence?

-pause- Sure.

I may not be long for this world.

And then proceeded to tell her about my interview at month's end. Her eyes got wide and then she expressed honest joy for me. You so need to get out of your current situation, she said. I asked her would it be wise to mention the same to Doc B and she vehemently concurred. I said

Can you take your foundation hat off for a minute?

Oh, girl it's been off for hours.

He, too was quite pleased for me. I said I told them because I didn't want this to be the last time we ever saw each other without them knowing. They scoffed at me. hee. I was in bed before twelve, I think.

Wednesday dawned. I hopped out fo bed, threw on my workout clothes and headed up to the roof to work out. Did almost a mile on the treadmill which included 2 solid minutes of continuous running, thanksverramuch. Couldn't find any 10 lb weights to finish plus I was running out of time, so I scooted my sopping sweaty ass back down to the room to shower then dashed downstairs for the 8 AM networking breakfast and welcome. Grabbed a glass of juice and sat down with Cilla and Doc B. Originally had sat with one of my local peeps, but changed my mind. At some point in the AM, my most fav person from the DC org snuck in as we were settling down for another session and the whisper squees from us both as we surreptitiously (we hoped) nabbed and hugged each other were truly intense. I LOVE THIS WOMAN. -girlcrush-

This note is from my paper journal I kept while there: people are fucking rude. discussing my grant project products during an official networking break with Doc B. Guy from Wash. state runs up and just starts fucking talking. figures. he's now out in the lobby having some political discussion that's so loud that staff had to get up and close multiple doors. asspump. Doc B continued our conversation in a deliberate manner that agreed with assessment when asspump left. then my contigency HOLLERED for me after I'd handed him a flow chart to help him better understand our product when he said he needed visuals, so I had to leave him standing there. just to meet the freakin' consultant we were having a meeting with the following day and see if I wanted to go to dinner with them (read: you ARE going to dinner with us). i hedged a little. i'd much rather go with other folk, not them. does anyone in the room think that I could actually be talking to someone about my WORK?? GAH.

Lunchtime. I sat with my coworker and the two local peeps at a table set for 10, I think. Then serendipity occurred. I'd saved a seat for Doc B but he had to sit with the publications director for the grant project, so the seat next to me was open. Who should come to occupy it but one of the bigwigs from the CDC who'd told the group earlier during a session that they wanted to have an informal meeting with some of the collaborative participants at the CDC next month to ascertain how our work could help them? I turned to him and asked him to tell me more about what they wanted, then promptly outlined an example that made him get all excited. Slipped him my card on the way out. Networking 101 in action.

My roundtables went well, except for someone from the other DC org trying to hijack it. Bitch.

I was able to nab Girlcrush for a private conversation. Asked her if she was available 5/31 because I'd be in DC and would she like to have dinner with me and a friend? She was, very much so and then I told her why. Woman actually got a lump in her throat and teared up; she was that happy for me.

Went to dinner with the crew but ensured that I would meet up with Doc B later. Loved the consultant, great lady, funny warm and open. Called Doc B from the hotel bar where I was with my co-worker and one of the local peeps and 3 kamikazees later we struck out to meet his friends from Oklahoma where he had done his MPH and PhD work. We walked all the way down Bourbon St. where we found them in NOLA's oldest bar (circa 18th c. no less). They immediately endeared themselves to me by trying to search their brains from where they might have met me before and then realized it was from my impromptu gig at the Napoleon House last year. Endeared because they did not see a Black Woman and automatically assume it was me. A fuzzy navel and a purple slushy drink called a Voodoo later, we staggered back to the hotel, but not before some very risqu� pictures in front of street signs.

True story: the bartender came up to us and told us to use our inside voices. At a bar with open doors to the outside on Bourbon Street in the middle of the night in a town that never sleeps. Seems he thought we were driving away patrons and they were slow and he wasn't making enough money. We all agreed that if we'd been less trashed, we'd have given him what for. At that point we all but ceased tipping.

This has gotten extraordinarily long. I'll break it up into two entries to save your eyes.