Week in Review: April 11-17

What a week!

Almost half my week was spent away from home, where I accompanied my co-workers/co-horts/boss peoples to the 137th Annual Nebrask Press Association (NPA) Convention in Lincoln. First of all, we drove there through a crazy winter-like blizzard!! In the middle of April? It was insane! We had to resort to dining at a gas station/convenience store due to the fact that the on-ramp we had hoped to hop over was block by a semi-truck sliding backwards!! Yikes. So, I munched on a 4-course meal of cheesy nachos, mini Nutter Butter cookies, wasabi & soy sauce almonds & an ice cream bar. Blizzard Schmlizzard. Two days later I was shedding my sweatshirt & getting sunburned while attending the Huskers Red & White game at UNL. I just don't get this Nebraska weather.

Anyway, the convention was pretty cool---we attended workshops where we learned about all sortsa stuff beneficial to our jobs. Even how to do slideshows, which I'm pretty stoked to get into.

Miss America also spoke (she's from a small town just an hour away from here) & I also got my pic taken with Olympic gold medalist Curt Tomesevicz, who won in the bobsled event in Vancouver 2010. I think I mighta got a bit too giddy with his medal though.

Susan & I walked around downtown Lincoln & had an awesome time snapping photos & laughing & freezing our bums off. We finally found a rad coffeehouse at 10:30 at night, where we popped in & sipped on hot mint cocoa & cinnamon lattes. 10:30?? Ah, I sometimes miss the perks of a big city. We played "no-rules" Scrabble where words like "zorf" & "weet" & "ipeiduiz" & "xie" TOTALLY count for points. And, even though we didn't keep score, I'm sure I won.

I was kidless & spouseless all weekend. I stayed at the Cornhusker Marriott. I ate really well. There were plenty of jumpy photos. Did you know that in a recent Gallup poll, Lincoln was declared the 2nd happiest city in the nation?? I tried on vintage clothes for an hour straight at Ruby Begonia's.

But, but, but....the HIGHLIGHT of the weekend was the recognition of various newspapers, journalists, photographers, columnists, etc. from around the state. I am SO PROUD to be the 1st place winner of the Sports Feature Photo (class C), where I took a picture last summer of a turtle race at Camp Clarke Days. The judges comments said that they debated long & hard about the "sportiness" of the photo, but decided it was "too good to ignore."

And, and, and...my column "WhiMSy love (in print)" won 2nd place in its class for Best Personal Column!!!! I submitted a column about the wheat harvest & also one about my personal adoption story in the form of a kid's tale. The judges said that "Whimsy" is "a good description of Mans style."

I am SO excited!!

Click HERE for a photo play-by-play.

♥