Jolly Pirates and NaturalMammas

              Today I drove to Allentown, Pennsylvania to attend my first writing conference, cleverly titled "The Write Stuff."  It was an 8 hour drive, so I set out with the essentials:  2 Jolly Pirate Donuts and a cup of coffee.  For those of you not from the Huntington area, Jolly Pirate Donuts is an amazing local donut shop that uses boxes that look like treasure chests for their large orders.  This makes sense to me because I've always thought that if I ever own a real treasure chest, I will fill it up with donuts.  And Cadbury Creme Eggs.

              I recently lost most of the music on my iPhone, so I had to make my own fun along the way.  I played some "getting to know you" games to break the ice with myself.  For example, I asked myself, “what are your top 5 favorite smells?”  I came up with the following:

     1.     New tennis balls

     2.     Tire stores

     3.     Puppy breath

     4.     How it smells outside after it rains on a hot day

     5.     Freshly cooked brownies

Feel free to disagree with my list.  Except for tennis balls.  That one is not debatable.

I stopped in Hagerstown, Maryland for lunch at Chick-fil-A.   I disagree with Chick-fil-A’s politics, but I love their chicken sandwich and the way their staff talk like airline attendants.  “Your total comes to $5.85.  It will be my pleasure serving you at the window.”

            The highlight of my drive was when I received a rogue text from an unknown number informing me that some girl was “talking about her periods and naturally her menstrual cup again.”  I wrote back for clarification, and it turns out that the text was, in fact, not intended for me.  I did some serious Googling after I got to my hotel room, and discovered that the menstrual cup is the “award-winning revolutionary alternative to tampons and pads.”  They have fun brand names like “DivaCup," “NaturalMamma,” “MoonCup,” and “The Keeper.”  I am all about caring for Mother Earth, and my apologies to the cup divas reading my blog, but carrying Aunt Flo around in an internal chalice just isn’t for me.

            After arriving in Allentown, I put on my business casual attire and headed to the lobby to register for my conference and attend the first lecture.  The speaker, Marie Lamba, did an amazing job talking about the recent changes to the writing and publishing world due to e-readers and an increase in independent publishing.  After Marie’s talk, there was a reception for all of the conference participants.  I met several very interesting writers, several of whom are already published.  The conference continues tomorrow from 8-5, and after it’s over I am driving to Philly to spend a couple of days with my good friend from college, Sara.  At 3:00 p.m. tomorrow I am scheduled to pitch my book to an agent.  I am nervous and excited.  I will write about how it goes, even if it ends up being a disaster.  Wish me luck!