Oscars Party vs. Fibro

A couple of weeks ago I won tickets to the sanctioned Cincinnati Oscars event through our local ABC news station: WCPO! I was so excited to go! I spent a week making my dress (40 hours...14 hours on the beading alone!) and figuring out what I was going to do with my hair. I was tweeting like crazy and working up to the last day to get my dress ready.

Sunday afternoon came, and I was tired. So tired and achy. I had to keep telling myself that it was going to be fun and I literally talked myself through getting dressed and putting on those 4 inch heels! I was excited to go, but I was hurting so much.

We went to the Hilton in Cincinnati and had an absolute blast! The first part of the evening was a silent auction in a huge, beautiful ballroom with appetizers and an Elvis impersonator. "Elvis" was really good! The food was pretty tasty, too.

The room from the back.

I started getting tired of standing after we'd been there for about half an hour. But we still had 45 minutes until we could go upstairs and sit! We went back to the lobby area and found seats...with the other 75 year old ladies! :-)

Our table.

When we went upstairs for dinner, we realized that our seats were at the WCPO table! We got to sit with the chief meteorologist (and his wife), the director of sales (and her husband), a reporter (and her husband), and another reporter (and his son). They were all so nice! I sat next to Karen (the sales director) and we talked all evening. She was fantastic!

The food was so good, too! We had an amazing salad, short ribs, and banana cream pie. I loved it!

Dinner!

Josh had a competition the very next morning in Louisville, so we had to leave the party around 10pm. I was kind of bummed out that we had to leave, but I was hurting like crazy by that point and the ride home is just a blur.

Looking back on that evening, I think there are things to learn for girls with fibro who need to dress up and go out:

• Wear a comfortable dress. I made sure my dress wasn't too tight and the fabric that touched my skin was soft enough that it didn't hurt. 
• Find shoes that look amazing but don't kill your feet to the point that you can barely move the next day. I did not do this well. Four inch high stilettos are gorgeous but so incredibly impractical! Ouch.
• Nap ahead of time. I didn't do this because I was working on my dress and my hair. I was ready to go home by around 8pm because I was so tired and already hurt so much. Make sure you have enough stamina to get through the evening.
• Do NOT have anything panned for the next day. Anything. This is, again, something I failed at. With the competition in Louisville the next day, I had to be up by 5am and on the road by 6am. It was horrible and stretched me way too thin. I'm pretty immobile today, which is less than ideal.
• Have fun! Parties like this don't come around too often, and if you've decided to go to something like this, make sure you have fun.

In the evening of Party vs. Fibro, the party won! :-) I had such a fantastic time at the party and met so many wonderful people that even though I've hurt for 36 hours straight, it was worth it.

Josh and me!

"Be the change you wish to see in the world." --Gandhi