Pigs CAN Fly

My flying pig

Prior to writing this blog the only song I could think of almost every day was "it's the most wonderful time of the year".... yes the Christmas one. Now I am aware it is June but it is my busy season meaning dance recitals and convention. Here I am on Sunday evening and HALLELUJAH- I survived. Hooray for optimism and singing happy Christmas Carols when stressed!

Not only is the actual convention a HUGE event but then we had record numbers once again with some 450 people coming together for one event that me- (just me) is in charge of. I figured out a long time ago that if you do the prep work ahead of time life will be easier. For the last three weeks almost any night I could I would work anywhere from 8pm to midnight or to 3am doing prep. This is stuffing envelopes, printing signs, touching base with sponsors or speakers or just doing any of the other normal parts of my job that don't go away when annual congress comes around. Yes my title might seem fancy as an executive director but the reality is I am here to serve my association, optometry and my doctors and often that means being the janitor, mover or whatever needs to be accomplished.

Sometimes you do just need to work because all of the other anxiety, nerves will keep you up as well.
Did I cover everything, what did I forget (you always do) and what will go wrong (something always does)? I forgot AV for entire room this year and my printer broke. Luckily all were easy to solve but meant some early mornings to get caught up or come up with a plan B. During the convention I usually work 18-20 hour days and am lucky to get 5 hours of sleep. The conclusion is we had another wonderful, successful conference and I feel damn good. So good in fact that I had to stop at the grocery store on my way home to get dinner for everyone and I saw a little statue that had a flying pig and I bought it for myself because I thought "I could do that or make that happen". Maybe I do it the way my little 3 year old says, "look Mom it's a pig with a Butterfly on his back".

At one point during my conference my board surprised me with a bouquet of flowers and thanked me and said my passion and determination made them believe I could probably get the president there if I had wanted. (Anyone know any Trump impersonators for next year)? As I walked up there and was presented with some flowers I couldn't help but laugh and start doing my best beauty queen wave because the whole thing was so awesome and I thought damn it I'm going to be myself and I feel like Ms America right now. Lesson learned don't work a day in your life because YOU should be truly passionate about what you do and be yourself, Ms America, flying pigs and all!

Love
Alyssa

PS- you know why I love Utah my amazing, incredible single Dad husband brought babies up Saturday for the carnival and all my doctors were so wonderfully kind and hilarious to them running around the last hour of education. Utah loves families and I love Utah!

PPS- someone tell my board to get me a tiara next year!!!