Last Thursday morning at 3am, myself and two co-workers headed to Chicago for a conference about Dissociative Identity Disorder (formerly known as Multiple Personality Disorder). The conference was good. Of course, there were some unusual "experiences" along the way. Here are the highlights from each day:
Thursday: We took the Amtrack train to Chicago because it saved a lot of money and we thought it would be fun. Turns out that depends on your definition of "fun". If having a stewardess whop you with a pillow to the head and having loud announcements that breakfast will be served at 6:30 am after just falling asleep is your idea of fun, this this is for you! It was a 12-hour ride to Chicago and overall very exhausting. We arrived in Chicago at 3:30 pm, checked into our very nice hotel room, and had a nice dinner out.
Friday: Conference day. The presenter was Richard Schwartz. For those of you that completed the MFT program at Friends, he is THE Schwartz from our original Nichols and Schwartz text. Pretty cool, I thought. He spoke about Internal Family Systems and we were hooked. It's a great model and if left me wanting more....hence the three books I bought :)
Friday was my favorite day. I had left instructions with those at work that if I received a letter in the mail to call me immediately as it was likely to be my test results. Leasha called on Friday and told me that I had PASSED MY EXAM AT A CLINICAL LEVEL and am now a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist!! I'm VERY excited!!
Saturday and Sunday: More conference...some sessions were great, others not so great. Overall, I'm very blessed to have been able to go. It's was most exciting that the conference was in Chicago!! One of my favorite cities although I wouldn't want to live there---I'm a Kansas girl through and through! We did some shopping at night and ate at some terrific restaurants. Walked about a million miles which was a great balance to all the yummy food we splurged on!
Monday: Attended part of a session and then packed up to head back to Kansas. Highlights of the trip back: kids smoking pot in the bathroom, no Amtrack staff in sight during the majority of our 12-hour trip, the lady that smacked one of us in the head with a pillow was working, and two people making out next to us.
Needless to say, if I was to write a full Amtrack review, it would not be good. Not only did we have some pretty gross encounters, Amtrack has absolutely no security measures. We were never asked for ID's except at the very beginning of the trip to Chicago, none of our luggage was scanned, etc. I now take back any bit of frustration I have had in the past with airlines and their many security measures taken.
