Wow what a day!! As many of you have probably heard via Twitter, Facebook and oh maybe the news, Virginia experience a 5.8 magnitude earthquake around 1:50 p.m. today. Everyone here is ok, but the whole natural disaster (?) through a wrench in my day.
The actual quake was very bizarre, but really not frightening at all. After hanging out outside for a good 15 minutes, we were allowed back on our building. By the time I was satisfied with reading a few news articles on the incident, we were sent home. Now all I have left to do in survey the damage…
Yup, one picture frame fell down. I was very amazed considering we live pretty high up in a high rise apartment. I think I may have been safer in the three story building at work, but no complaints here!
I am just so glad I am not sitting in traffic… the only problem with DC is once the government lets everyone go home, the roads become a nightmare. Let’s take one disaster and make another!
But enough about the DC Shake-Up and more about the Healthy Living Summit.
Unlike many of my fellow runners, I opted to sleep in Saturday. I worked hard all week and really needed the break (and sleep). This was the first trip in a while where I think I got more sleep than I normally do during the week. It was so nice!
After a filling breakfast, I decided to attend the session on Budgeting for a Health Lifestyle (anyone surprised) with Lauren. As a budget geek, I found this session very interesting. I knew a lot of the information she presented, but liked hearing her take on different aspects of the process. Lauren was very knowledgeable and I am very jealous of her full-time job!
After the session, I took the opportunity to buy Tina’s book Carrots N Cake and get it signed. It was so nice meeting Tina in person. She is exactly what I imagined. I am about half way through the book and I can’t wait to finish it and give a full review.
Next, I attended the session Rising Above Negativity with Brittany, Julie, Courtney, and Heather. Thankfully, I have not been in the situation of having to deal with negative comments on my blog. It was interesting to hear bout their experiences with negativity on their blogs. As much as I hope I never have to deal with negativity, I now feel like I am armed with the right attitude and knowledge.
For lunch, I enjoyed two fantastic vegetarian Great Harvest sandwiches, quinoa salad and traditional salad. I am usually not a Perrier fan, but it felt nice to enjoy some sparking water.
Lunch was followed by the keynote speaker Dawn Jackson Blatner’s session on the Flexitarian Diet. I found this session so interesting that I hope to post specifically about it later this week ;).
After lunch I attended Monica’s session on Blogger Safety. This topic has been on my mind a lot recently. I love sharing my life with the world, but have realized that some things are just not meant to be posted on my blog. This session was a great reminder that there is a big world out there.
I ended the day with Katy’s session on Monetizing Your Blog. It is amazing how much Katy knows on the topic. I took away a lot of great information from her session, but also realized that I truly love blogging as a hobby.
The evening was occupied with some roommate hang out time. I got really lucky that I was sharing a room with Theresa, Mindy and Keelie. We went and saw the Liberty Bell (for good measure) before heading to dinner at Continental.
The food was delicious! I ordered the Cheesesteak Egg Roll and a side of Broccoli. There was more than enough food, but I was perfectly fine eating it all by myself.
After our meal, we headed down the street to the Franklin Fountain. I was too full from dinner so I decided to enjoy the conversation and evening. Both Keelie and Mindy’s sundaes looked so good. Confession: I may have had a little food envy!!
Well friends that is it for day 2. I promise to be back with another update later this week on Sunday (the last day of the summit)!
