So, after finishing our presentation Thursday, I got back to my hotel at about 8:30 and had a quick dinner of more peanut butter sandwiches, celery and fruit. I was exhausted and went straight to bed, since I had to drive home to State College the next morning.
Friday I was up at 5 am, and on the road to State College by 6:30, after answering a few emails and packing. Breakfast was cheerios (4th time out of 5 days). I was so happy that my cooler kept my milk cold. I’m not sure I could have faced dry cheerios for breakfast with a long drive ahead.
Sustained by coffee, I made it back to town before 10 am, and headed right into the office. I prepped for a meeting, caught up on a few emails and phone calls, and checked to make sure everything was ready for my class in the afternoon. Lunch after my meetings was a nice pasta salad with tuna (no peanut butter for lunch–hooray!!), and I caught up on a few things with Dean Nan Crouter, as we ate.
My class was great–two alumni guest speakers who did a a great job sharing their experiences. It doesn’t always happen this way, but their stories reinforced several of the topics on health care leadership that we’ve been discussing. After a long chat with one of them, I raced home to grab a quick dinner–scrambled eggs with green pepper and some fruit. I added a peanut butter sandwich for good luck, because I was headed to an alumni dinner, and then a church youth group “lock-in”–a sleepover at the church.
At both events, temptations were everywhere. The dinner roll in front of me called my name. The surf and turf with potatoes was mouthwatering. I was warned that our alumni relations director, Abby Diehl, had gone all out on dessert–chocolate fudge cake with a salted caramel drizzle. I did not touch a bite, and I got to share about SNAP with everyone at the table.
After that, the lock-in was easy. The only thing there was candy, popcorn, potato chips, pretzels, etc., etc. I calmly munched my dry cheerios for my snack. It was fun to explain what I was doing to the kids, and we had a good time!
I’ll try to close later today with my Saturday and Sunday.