How to spend a Blizzard

How to spend a Blizzard


Here in Maryland we got pounded this weekend with a HUGE snow storm, some areas have as much as 30” of the white stuff…. YUCK
Normally, I’d be complaining about the snow, the cold and lose of my independence this weather creates, but I’m not. In fact I found (by accident) one of the coolest ways to get snowed in.
This weekend I attended the Madow Group Social Media Marketing seminar at the BWI Hilton- the original plan at been for me to drive down and Friday morning, come home Friday night , go back on Saturday Am, and come home Saturday evening. Mid week when I heard that the weather service was calling for 24” of snow. I emailed my friend Dr. David Madow who, with his brother and partner Dr. Richard Madow were hosting this seminar and asked if they had an alternative plan based on the weather, he in fact told me I was crazy that we were not going to get that much snow and that the seminar would go on . I decided my best course of action would be to have my friend Joe drop me off at the hotel on Friday morning, and my boss pick me up Saturday night, so I booked a room at the Hilton.
Friday arrived with Gray skies storm clouds looming. By mid day Friday there was a light snow falling. Friday the seminar was great, we worked on Face book Fan pages, blogs, Tweeter, LinkedIn, etc. Friday evening there was this wonderful cocktail party, several of the other attendees were from California, Kansas, Georgia, Florida, etc- same where not used to see the snow, in the course of the 3 hours we were talking and socializing a good 4 inches fell, several of the other attending and leaders started throwing snow balls inside, then moved a full blow snow ball battle outside.
The seminar was amazing- full of great information like how to use PING.FM, and tweetdeck, how to use our blogs to help build business, and so much more. I learned so much that my head is still spinning.
Saturday morning in the midst of the seminar I felt my cell phone vibrate, not being rude to the speaker I left it go. When we broke for lunch I returned the call to my boss who was calling to tell me that he really didn’t think he would be able to make it from Owings Mills to Linthicum to get me as planned and suggested I see if I could extend my stay thru Saturday night.
Since none of the attendees were going anywhere on Saturday night we all kind of met for an impromptu to dinner, which proved to be very fun. A short step outside to see the snow and snowmen a few folks had built on the entrance, and take a few photos. As I was standing outside laughing at a snowman with grapes for eyes. I realized that instead of being upset about being stuck in the hotel, it was actually more fun being with new friends, learning a lot and laughing so hard that I had tears in my eyes, that I should be grateful I was not home alone with just the cat and I watching it snow from my front windows.
This morning, Sunday, my Boss and friend Joe came down to the hotel to get me, they brought Ariel with them (she had been at Joe’s all weekend) she was happy to see me, as I was her. The normal 20 minute drive took about an 45 minutes, there were parts of the Beltway (I-695) that were still very snow/ice covered and very bumpy. When we got to my apartment we discovered that NOTHING had been shoveled or dug out- so Doc and Joe had to dig me into my apartment as they were afraid I’d fall in the snow and mess up my knee even more.
All in All it was a good weekend.

Enjoy this journey- you never know where fun me be lurking.

Love and Laughter

Terry