the midwest pr girl: indiana girls in philly

I'm back from National Conference and have the blisters to prove it. Seriously, the size of the blisters on my feet are obscene and I can't stand without pain...turns out it wasn't a great weekend to break in new pairs of flats and heels. Despite my battle wounds, the weekend was a blast. Amazing speakers like Brian Solis, Mary Henige, and representatives from Warner Bros. left me feeling inspired and ready to do big things in the PR world. Another highlight of the trip was meeting other PRSSA members from all over the country. The energy in the room during chapter roll call was amazing; there's nothing quite like hundreds of type-A PR nerds all crammed into one room. The events, keynote speakers, and learning opportunities were fabulous, but the highlight of my weekend was bonding with my chapter members. It was so fun bonding with such an amazing group of women, and now we have hilarious/priceless (emphasis on hilarious) memories to take with us from the weekend.

Here's a breakdown of what we did aside from National Conference activities...
Friday:
-Arrived in Philly around noon exhausted, jetlagged, running on one hour of sleep and looking like a corpse. Needed coffee injected into my veins.
-Found coffee.
-Saw some essential tourist things like the Liberty Bell and Independence Hall, which made my friend Maggie (fellow lover of all things 'Murrica) and I extremely happy.
-Ate at a giant indoor market full of relatively cheap food from all over the world. We could have spent days in this place wandering and checking out all of the different food stands.
-That night, the hotel that hosted National Conference put on a Gatsby-themed dance/social/event. Things were awkwardly reminiscent of a middle school dance until the IU PRSSA girls decided to take over the dance floor. There were feather boas, snacks, drinks, and three men controlling the music who looked to be approximately 107 years old...so I guess you could say it was the greatest night ever.
Saturday night:
-Watched the world series at an Irish pub and ate/drank way too much.
-Found a bar with karaoke. Everyone there was roughly 50 but there were drinks, live entertainment, and Halloween costumes so can't complain.
Sunday night:
-Tequila bar.
-Maggie and I are babies so after finding pizza (our shared boyfriend), we found cookies (our other love), and snuggled in bed watching a movie.
-Went downstairs to meet up with the other girls, proceeded to eat more pizza.
Monday:
-Crammed in some more last minute sight seeing and checked out the "Rocky Steps" at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, Love Park, and what we thought was Benjamin Franklin's grave but ended up just being a statue of his head (it's the thought that counts).