Summer Plans.

I’ve been babbling for awhile now about all the places I’m going this summer. While I’m very excited about it all, I realized that I have absolutely no idea what anyone else is doing this summer. I remember when I was in high school and college, discussion about summer plans were pretty much non-stop the two weeks before school got out. But now, being a working girl and all, vacations are sort of randomly placed throughout the year.

Despite this, I know some of you have to be doing something cool this summer. So on the eve of my return to Oregon, I’d like to hear from you: where are you going? Who are you going with? What are you planning on doing? And most importantly of all: you wanna buy me a shotglass?

The picture of Portland (with Mt. Hood in the back) that I have as my laptop’s background.

On Tour.

I’ve mentioned during the past couple of weeks that I’m going to be doing a lot of traveling this summer, but I finally think I have some dates nailed down and I can finally start posting where I’m going to be and when.

I’m not posting any actual locations because, well, I never post exact locations of where I’ll be unless I’m going to a diabetes event. But with 2,000 people attending Friends for Life, if you try anything funny, someone will notice. Trust me. Have you seen the number of athletes coming to this thing? They’ll kick your butt.

Saturday, June 21 - Philadelphia:
Join me for lunch in one of Philly’s suburbs!

Saturday, July 12 - Boston:
I will be attending the 1st Annual New England Diabetes Meet-Up, hosted by Bernard. Visit the TuDiabetes event page for details.

Wednesday, July 23 - Orlando:
During the Friends for Life conference, we will have a blogger/TuDiabetes dinner. Even if you are not coming to the conference, you are still welcome to come to the dinner if you live in the Orlando area.

Sunday, August 3 to Monday, August 4 - Washington D.C:
Help celebrate my 23rd birthday with dinner and then hang out with me on August 4 at the CWD Quilt for Life showing on the Mall. (The birthday dinner might possibly be in Arlington, but the Quilt for Life showing is definitely in D.C. Please let me know if there is a location preference).

Saturday, September 27 to Sunday, September 28 - Bethesda, MD:
I am attending CWD’s Focus on Technology conference. I won’t be doing anything unique for bloggers because there is simply not enough time in the schedule, and I have to drive home immediately after it ends. However, I’ll be there and I look forward to seeing anyone who would like to come!

If you are in the area and would like to attend one of these, please leave me a comment with your email address or you can email me directly at amblass [@] gmail.com.

My First Trip to the First State

Rehoboth Beach is, uh, really far. Although Mapquest told me how far Rehoboth Beach is from where I live in north Jersey, I was absolutely convinced that it was wrong and was closer that it really is. My advice is to always believe Mapquest and to plan accordingly. But even though it’s not that close, the extra fifty miles was completely worth it.

The weather could not have been better. It was sunny, with just a hint of puffy white clouds dotting the sky in the morning before clearing out to solid blue. It was small group of us that congregated in Rehoboth Beach - Heidi from D-Log Cabin, Katie from TuDiabetes and her husband, and Betty, a longtime member of DiabetesTalkfest, and her husband and myself. We met at a cafe just off the main boulevard and chatted about our experiences with diabetes, life on the East Coast and the upcoming diabetes conferences (anyone else going to Friends for Life?). Afterwards, we headed to the beach and strolled up and down the boardwalk, chatting while we checked out stores and stopping at benches to test our blood sugar. We also talked about the reason we were all there: the impact that meeting other people has on our lives and our self-esteem in handling this disease and how important it is to educate others through blogs, social networks and events.

So many people have said how meeting others with diabetes and how seeing people opening test their blood sugar or bolus for lunch changes the way they see their own diabetes. This is why it is so important for me to have these meet-ups or attend diabetes events and encourage people to come too. This summer I’ll either be attending diabetes events or hosting my own and in the next couple of days I will be posting the dates and locations for all of these.

It wasn’t until I started attending diabetes events that I really became passionate about diabetes advocacy and felt motivated to make a difference. For most of my life, I didn’t like talking about diabetes any more than I need to and I didn’t face any discrimination or additional health issues that other people with diabetes face. But being around others with diabetes made me realize that this disease affects us differently and with each new person I meet, I meet another reason to speak up, to educate and to advocate for a cure.

So to Heidi, Katie, Betty and the dozens of other people I have met and will meet: Thank you.

Heidi, me, Katie, Betty and John
(kudos to Katie’s husband Charlie for taking the picture!)

MadLibs Interview

From a random stranger, dreamsofmist:

1. What do you think of Harry Potter?
Don’t hurt me, but I’ve never read the books. Well, I read the first book right before the first movie came out, but since then, I haven’t read any of the books. I’ve seen all of the movies though and I like them, but I’ve never been really into the franchise.
2. When did you last have a nice relaxing sleep?
I always sleep pretty well during the weekend, because I can sleep in. But the last time I really slept well was probably last Christmas when I was at my parents. My apartment makes some pretty odd noises. Footsteps, old pipes, televisions still on at two in the morning…. oy.
3. Love or friendship? Why?
I think friendship. Mostly because it’s the only thing I’ve ever known. I’ve never been in love, so that makes me a pretty big fan of friendship.
4. What did you have for breakfast?
Well, I attempted to have sliced bananas in milk but the banana wasn’t very good so I ended up eating a muffin and some strawberries.
5. What’s your favorite song?
Honestly, I don’t have a favorite song. I really like a lot of Moby’s songs. I can listen to his records on repeat for hours.
6. How would you react to a complete stranger commenting on your blog?
I love it! Complete strangers are just friends who haven’t commented yet.
7. Whom would you most like to meet (in terms of celebs)?
Oprah. She has such influence in the world. I think it would great to meet her and not only tell her my story, but also hear some stories from her. Besides, who wouldn’t want to meet Oprah?

From Molly:

1. What do you think of eating salad without salad dressing?
I don’t think I would like it very much. I’m a big fan of salad dressing.
2. When did you last test your blood sugar?
Lunchtime.
3. Splenda or Equal? Why?
Neither! Sweet N’ Low! I suppose I would choose Splenda, since I hear it’s healthier.
4. What did you have for breakfast yesterday?
What’s with the breakfast questions? Haha. Yesterday I skipped breakfast, but then I had some fruit and a cookie during a morning meeting.
5. What’s your favorite sweatshirt?
Actually, I don’t wear sweatshirts most of the time. I’m a huge fan of hoodies though. I have about five. I like my green hoodie from Express and the flower-pattern hoodie from Macy’s.
6. How would you like to have the power to become invisible?
I think it would be fun for awhile but then I would get lonely. It would be a nice super power.
7. Whom would you most like to ride on the ferris wheel?
This is a hard question! If I had a boyfriend, I would say him, but since I don’t, I would probably say my two best friends from high school. Hopefully I will this summer when we go to London. I really want to go on the London Eye while we’re there, even though I hear it’s ridiculously expensive.

From Aaron:

1. What do you think of CGMS?
The CGMS is an awesome idea but I wish it was more accurate and easier to get. The fact that there are so many errors make me less inclined to fight for it.
2. When did you last watch TV?
I’m watching TV right now, actually. Home early from work, so I’m watching Star Trek: Voyager.
3. Diet Coke or Diet Pepsi? Why?
I drink Diet Coke, but I like both. My dad always bought Diet Coke because it was cheaper. I’m just used to it. I have to say, I absolutely loathe all derivations, Coke Zero or Pepsi One or any of that other “no-carb-yet-not-diet” soda is gross.
4. What did you do with it?
I drank it.
5. What’s your favorite sport?
I hate sports. I’m not a team-player. Haha. I’ve never been very athletic, but I like things like ballet or yoga. Not team sports. I get anxious having to perform in front of people or impressing people.
6. How would you tell your boss you don’t want to work late?
“Tom, I’m going home.” No, seriously, it would probably be something very similar.
7. Whom would you most like to share a cab with?
A rich person so they would pay the cab fare.

From Bernard:

1. What do you think of French movies?
They are weird! Very interesting, and I like them a lot, but boy are they crazy. I remember watching a French movie in high school where a man becomes obsessed with his half-sister or cousin or something like that, only he didn’t know. It was just weird.
2. When did you last eat a chocolate pudding without guilt?
Wow, that means I have to remember when I last had chocolate pudding… I have no idea… But I don’t remember ever feeling guilty when eating it.
3. Apple pie or ice cream? Why?
Ice cream. It comes in more flavors.
4. What did you about moving across the US?
Ack! Bernard, incompletely question! Leave a comment and tell me what this is supposed to be an all edit it.
5. What’s your favorite ocean view?
My favorite ocean view so far was when I went to Mendocino, California a couple of years ago with my friend Annie.
6. How would you like to be US president for a day?
Sure! I’d overturn the veto on stem cell research and give more money to research.
7. Whom would you most like to kick?
I don’t really dislike anyone, so I have a hard time thinking of anyone I would really want to kick. There are people I find annoying, but I don’t really think they deserve to be kicked. That’s a little too mean.

From Penny:

1. What do you think of me?
I think you’re very sensitive, just like me. You’re also a very good mother, and very sweet and caring.
2. When did you last drink a regular soda?
Weeks ago. I have no idea when, though. I think maybe when I was in Boston, but I’m not sure.
3. Sweet or sour? Why?
Sweet. I love candy. I have such a sweet tooth.
4. What did you eat for supper last night?
Spaghetti and a salad.
5. What’s your favorite car?
A Mercedes-Benz. I have no idea why. I’m not even sure they’re really that great of a car. I never liked BMWs because they always seemed so boxy, but Mercedes were nice cars that looks a little more sleek. So I’ve always wanted one.
6. How would you tell someone they are dying?
Wow. That’s a tough question. I think I would talk to some of my friends who are doctors first and see if they had any suggestions.
7. Whom would you most like to meet (that is alive and well)?
Well, I said Oprah already so I’ll skip her for this question. If I was going to meet someone else, I think I would want to meet Natalie Portman. I’ve been a huge fan of hers since I was in high school and I think it would be great to finally meet her.

From Jillian:

1. What do you think of pointy toed shoes?
I like them, as long as they aren’t too narrow. It’s really shoes with high heels that annoy me.
2. When did you last hear live music?
In February. I went to see The Magnetic Fields in NYC.
3. Boxers or briefs? Why?
Whatever floats your boat… It’s not like I’m wearing them.
4. What did you last take a picture of?
I took a picture of my friend Gayle at her 30th birthday party.
5. What’s your favorite scent?
I love vanilla. It’s so soothing.
6. How would you react if a random person offered you a free hug?
Depends on if they looked like a crazy person or not. I remember in college a group of students would stand outside the student union and give hugs. I never went up to get one but I thought it was a fun idea. Makes people smile.
7. Whom would you most like to meet that you only know from the internet/blogging?
Of course, I would love to meet everyone from the O.C., but if I was to think outside the box, I would like to meet Veronica Belmont. She’s well-known in the tech circles and she seems like a really fun, smart lady. We actually know a few of the same people, so perhaps I will someday.

From Autumn:

1. What do you think of automatic faucets, soap dispensers and paper towels?
They ANNOY me SO MUCH. Ugh. Why can’t I be trusted to get my own soap and paper towels? Are we no longer smart enough to do that? I mean, seriously.
2. When did you last visit a theme park? (Disneyland, 6 Flags etc)
The last time was in July 2006, when I was at the Children with Diabetes conference.
3. Perfer to sleep in or get up early? Why?
Neither, actually. I try to get up around 10 a.m. on the weekends, which gives me a couple hours extra, but it’s not so late that I don’t get anything done during the day.
4. What did you plan on getting a degree in your 1st year of college?
Journalism. I never changed my major. I’m completely serious. I’m probably the only college student I know that never changed her major. I added to it with Religious Studies and Non-Profit Management, but I stayed in the J-school all four years. It’s probably why I ended up graduating a term early.
5. What’s your favorite pair of jeans?
I don’t really have a favorite pair. Most of my jeans are new so I like all of them.
6. How would you go about talking yourself out of a speeding ticket?
The only time I “talked” my way out of a speeding ticket was at two in the morning on the way back from a bar. However I was around the corner from my house and the police officer actually shined a light diretly on it, so I think the fact that I was already pretty much home made him a little more lenient.
7. Whom would you most like to have play you in a movie?
The only celebrity that I think looks remotely like me is Thora Birch. We’re about the same height, have the same hair and skintone. I also thinks she’s a great actress so I would be happy to have her play me.

A Brilliant Non-Post Post.

Don’t you love it when people give you a way to update your blog without really updating your blog? Thanks to Penny for this new meme!

Ladies and gentleman, family and friends, co-workers and random strangers… Fill in the blanks below with your creative suggestions and post in the comments section or send via email (amblass [@] gmail.com). I will answer your questions - no matter how insulting or intrusive! - tomorrow afternoon. It’s like a MadLibs interview!

Give it a whirl. Could be fun…

1. What do you think of ________?

2. When did you last ________?

3. ________ or ________? Why?

4. What did you ________?

5. What’s your favorite ________?

6. How would you ________?

7. Whom would you most like to ________?

Leaving On a Jet Plane.

The third JDRF Blogger Round Table is now online and this month, we’re talking about my favorite subject: travel! Traveling with diabetes can be an arduous experience, especially when the goal is to get some R & R, but the nine bloggers on our panel (some of the OC’s best: Amy, Kerri, Scott Strumello and Scott Johnson, Allie, Sandra, Manny, Bernard and Gina) have some great tips for packing, road trips, warm weather and handling the infamous… Airport Security. Cue scary music.

I consider myself a seasoned traveler (I hit a record of eight states just last year!), and I’m continuing my Lemonade Life Summer Tour 2008 with stops in London, Orlando, Delaware, Washington D.C., and hopefully Philadelphia and Boston… not to mention my trip next week to Oregon for my brother’s high school graduation! Wow, I’m tired already.

Summer is the universally accepted season for travel (not that I’ve ever let a little thing like rain, sleet or snow stop me!) so most of us are probably gearing up for our vacations. Hopefully this blogger round table session will be useful for you and your family as your planning your next vacation. If you see anything that isn’t there, however, please feel free to drop me a note at amblass [@] gmail.com or leave a comment and let me know what’s missing. I’ll include any extra tips in my personal travel entries.

Bon voyage!

I’m Kind Of Weird…

Well, technically no one picked me to do the Ten Odd Things About Me meme, but a couple people tagged “everyone” so I’m claiming those. Here are some random things you may or may not know about me. I’m also not tagging anyone, because I’m pretty sure everyone’s been tagged by now. But if you haven’t been tagged, feel free to use me as your excuse.

1. I have some odd eating habits. I love to eat kiwis with the skins still on - I like the fuzzyness. I also like to eat the tails of cocktail shrimp. Nice and crunchy. I also have to thank The Parent Trap remake for introducing me to Oreos and peanut butter and I owe my obsession with ketchup and Ranch dressing to my best friend K.

2. I sleep with a sound machine. Between the weird noises my apartment makes and the footsteps and television blaring from the apartments around me, the only way I can fall asleep is with a sound machine to give me something to focus on. I have it set to “rain,” which is a sound I got used to falling asleep to after growing up in rain-soaked Oregon.

3. I really like popcorn. I have a bit of an unusual passion for popcorn. Movie theater popcorn, air-popped popcorn, kettle corn, low-fat. I’ll even eat stale popcorn. I’ll eat pretty much any kind of popcorn, though I’m not a huge fan of white cheddar popcorn, the kind that comes in those air-filled black bags at the check-out counter at grocery stores. You know the ones. They make me ridiculously thirsty and they make my fingers sticky. So I try to avoid it.

4. I’m five foot eight. Apparently this is tall, as I’ve had a few people remark to me how tall I am. I am also, for the record, twenty-two (almost twenty-three!) as several people have also remarked to me how I seem older. I used to think that was really cool, but I think this summer might be the summer when I stop thinking that looking older is cool and start thinking that looking older kinda sucks.

5. I hate having my knees touched. I know that posting this on the Internet is a very, very dangerous thing and I swear to God I have no qualms with kicking you in the balls and screaming if you even pretend to touch them. But this list is supposed to be about weird or unusual things about me, so there you go.

6. I named my first car Buffy. True story. When I bought my car, I thought about naming it because we had christened my dad’s car the Groovy Mobile. My dad suggested naming my car Hal, but I thought naming it after a psychopathic computer that killed the crew might be sending the wrong message. So I went with Buffy, because my mom and I both thought Sarah Michelle Gellar was adorable.

7. I’m a Trekkie. Hardcore. Conventions, dressing up as characters (I was Captain Janeway for Halloween when I was 12 years old) and I even collected autographs. I know a ridiculous amount of Star Trek trivia, bought Star Trek books and went to the opening day showing of Star Trek: First Contact, which I have seen about twenty times.

8. I don’t like shoe-shopping. I’ve never been the kind of girl that has a “thing” for shoes. I find most cute looking shoes to be terribly uncomfortable, and it’s hard to find cute shoes that don’t make me come home with red welts and tears.

9. I took French for six years. I started when I was in seventh grade and went all the way up to my senior year in high school. Despite all that, I speak French very, very poorly. Reading is not too hard, but I’m terrible at speaking. It would probably take me five minutes to pull together a simple phrase.

10. The alternate choice to “Allison” was “Kirsten.” My parents still have the list of possible names for me in my baby book. My middle name, in case anyone is wondering what the “m” in my email address stands for, is Michelle.

Get to Know The Other Me

I don’t talk about my “real job” very much on this blog, and by “real” I mean the one that gives me a salary, a 401k and full benefits. I very much consider diabetes advocacy as my job, but I get paid only for specific jobs, and it doesn’t have any of those necessary perks like health insurance.

Earlier this week I conducted my first non-diabetes interview for a blog about public relations and social media called Social Media Explorer. The interview is about my double life: one as a PR professional who pitches bloggers, and the other as a blogger who gets pitched by PR professionals.

The interview does touch on my life with diabetes, but not in the typical fashion where I talk about finger pricks and insulin pumps and low blood sugars. This interview is more about our community and how as a blogger who happens to write about diabetes, I feel about being pitched and some of the tactics that PR professionals are starting to take in order to build relationships with bloggers. I hope you’ll check it out. Also, if you have been emailed by PR people, I invite you to share your thoughts about what they do and don’t do well. I often feel that I am in an echo chamber of proper blogger relations, so it would be great to hear from a new audience of bloggers who may not have had a chance to share their opinions on being pitched to promote a product or event on their blog.

Edit: Hello to all the new people coming from Social Media Explorer! Welcome, welcome.

I joked that I am like Superman, which is why the picture of me with Superman is featured. Now if only I had a cape…

One-Fifth

Last Saturday, I watched Number Twenty on my 101 movies in 1,001 days challenge. That means I am one-fifth of the way done with that challenge and I still have more than two years until the challenge is over. Although two years sounds like a long time, if you look at my list, you’ll see that there is a lot of other stuff on my list that I still need to finish!

I finally got around to updating my NYC Restaurant list, though I’m pretty sure I’m leaving one or two out. There is also a Thai place I went to in Queens with Scott and Jon but I don’t remember what it’s called (Scott! Help!). It was yummy, too. The 101 movie list is still sorely outdated as I have way too much catching up to do, and with all those movie links to do… it might take me awhile. I also have three movies from Netflicks waiting for me at home.

As far as the other items on my list, we all know that I’m now going to London. Then there’s the upcoming CWD conference (one goal is to go to a CWD conference once a year) and I have more blogger meet-ups planned throughout the summer. I might actually reach my goal of meeting ten bloggers by Labor Day! I’ve also found a church that I like, so I’m two weeks into my (at least) six month stint there. I’ve also begun downloading the sermons from my old church, Imago Dei Community Church, off of iTunes and I’m about a month into that.

I would love to hear suggestions from you at home about what I should work on next or how to accomplish them. Do you know of a cool art gallery (#36) or restaurant in NYC (#42) I should check out? How about a place to get a massage (#20)? Are you a diabetes blogger who is in the NYC area who wants to meet me? Just send me an email (#5). If anyone want to surprise me with tickets to the NYC Ballet (#40) or a live taping of a TV show (#47), hook a sister up!

As you can see, I’ll definitely need the next two years to get everything done. But it sure is fun!

Self-Identification

In the past week, I’ve attended two social events from two different organizations. The first was a movie (Made of Honor) and drinks, and the second was a women’s networking dinner. So far I’ve met two dozen girls that live in New Jersey, all of them a little bit older than me (which, at 22, isn’t all the surprising), all working professionals, some of them single, some of them married, and none of them know I have diabetes (technically I told two ladies who I met at the beginning of the dinner, but then I changed my mind and didn’t tell anyone else - luckily they didn’t bring it up again). It was strange spending so many hours with so many women and not having diabetes come up once. I tested in my car and bolused covertly under the table.

For such a long time, diabetes was almost forced into the conversation. When I first diagnosed, all my friends knew because, well, I was just diagnosed with a chronic illness and was in the hospital and it was kind of a big deal. So they knew, and all my teachers and classmates knew because that’s just what you did. When I went to college, sometimes people asked me if I worked, for months my answer was Diabetes Teen Talk. When people asked me what I hoped to do with my degree in public relations, my answer was to work for the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation (I honestly had no plans to work for an agency, and I would still love to work for JDRF in the future). Without even meaning, diabetes became very much a part of everything I did. I didn’t exactly hate this solid integration of diabetes into the rest of my life, but I did get tired of teaching diabetes all the time, as you do.

When I moved here, most of my immediate friends were people I knew because of blogging. My social circle because almost entirely people with diabetes. At work, my boss knew I had diabetes before I even had my interview (the guy from DiabeticFoodCritic is the one who got me the interview, so it was kind of obvious). Which was actually kind of cool because I avoided that whole “So, I have this thing called diabetes… and sometimes I might need to take a break…” My co-workers knew right away, because one of the reason I got my job in social media public relations was because I was the “girl who blogged about diabetes.”

Now, I’m starting to make new friends. And I’m not telling them. At least, not yet. It’s strange. For a few brief hours, it’s almost as if I don’t have a disease. I answered questions about moving from Oregon, about my job, about where I live and what I think about New Jersey. I talked about how cool Hoboken is, I talked about movies I liked, I talked about yummy Indian food in Edison. I listened to the girls tell me about their jobs, their relationships and their hobbies.

I’m not sure what difference the silence really made. It’s not like I wouldn’t have talked about those same things if I had told them I have diabetes. But I think my self-identification, this idea in my head that saying I have diabetes automatically makes someone think I’m sick and weak, has made more of a difference to my self-esteem than anything anyone has actually said. I wonder if all of our concerns about telling people we have diabetes, all of our covert operations, are really just our way of protecting ourselves. We are protecting ourselves from wondering if someone thinks we are defective. Not that people actually think we’re different, or unlovable, or someone they shouldn’t be around, but that we think they’re thinking that. So if we don’t say anything, we have a barricade up. It protects us from the things other people are thinking and the things we think other people are thinking.

I don’t know if any of it’s true. I don’t know what anyone thinks when they look at me. I hope they see someone who does what she thinks is right. Someone who tries to help people. Someone who tries to tries to be strong, and someone who always gets back up when she falls down. Because that’s what I see.

That’s what I try to be.