portland

The short version:

What an emotional rollercoaster of a weekend. I think I hit the extreme of every possible emotion...from annoyance to fury to utter despair to gratefulness, back to despair, to relief, to paranoia, to exhaustion, to panic, to joy, to pride, to utter exhaustion. I need a hug.

The run-down: I made it to Portland and back, manging to sprint a few miles in Chicago's O'Hare airport (worst airport EVER) when flights were delayed and cancelled, trying to get at least 10 people without hearts to give me customer service before hyperventilating and bursting into tears at a ticket counter, spending 3 uncomfortable hours curled up on a too-small couch in Pheonix, driving through the rain with a non-functioning GPS system in Portland, fighting with security guards to let me into the venue so I could get my badge...

to coach my 13 year old protege to a bronze medal in sparring (big breakthrough for him!), my teammate to a bronze (also a big breakthrough), run around coaching my tBOS teammates (including a huge win for Liza against an old rival!) and winning my own matches.

So I suppose alls well that ends well...but...it came at a price.