Okay, so here an update for those of you wondering about Porkchop and my trip this past week...
Last Saturday evening, Ben and I came home to Porkchop temoring and panting, both uncontrolably. She was running into things and cowering. Earlier in the day, she had injested medication meant for Lilo, and we had not really thought anything about it. Lilo had been taking it for about two years with no side effects, and it was a common drug given out by vets. Six hours later, when we returned, we came home to the above. We were terrified. We immediately gave her food (she ate with the medicine, it was mixed but their bowl was empty) and water, and charcoal pills to absorb up anything that might still be in her system. Since she wasn't showing signs of improvement very quickly, we took her to the emergency vet in Casselberry (1 hr away). By the time we got there, there was still little improvement, and the vet said that she was likely blind (definitely temporary, possibly permenantly) and was not clear if she would improve. They admitted her to the hospital, placed an IV in her, and began flushing her system of the poison. The next morning, as soon as we woke up, we called. They said she had slowed with the tremors, seemed to be more alert, but still no response to light - in other words still blind. By noon, the vet techs said she had not gotten better. Terrified, Ben and I made it to visit her as quick as we could. We saw signs of improvement, but definitely a bumpy road ahead.
I did not feel like going out of town, not sure whether or not my dog would make it out of this, but had to go, and still needed to pack. I have never had a harder time packing in my life - no motivation to get it done. I had hardly any rest, and what I had was not good - I was tossing and turning like crazy with worry. Monday morning, I had to fly out early, and got up at 4:30am, in order to ensure that I was able to see Porkchop before my flight. We picked her up from the emergency vet and once Ben had dropped me off, he took her to a regular vet. They admitted her for the day, and released her that afternoon, stating she was 100% recovered. Talk about relief when I got that message!!!!!
My flight to Dallas was smooth, although I could not rest - I don't sleep well on planes. Not to mention we were in the last seats of the plane, and cramped as hell. The flight seemed to last forever (just under 3 hours), and we landed (we being me and my counterpart, Paul), in the DFW airport. Dallas was beautiful, and a warm 66 degrees when we landed. We shuttled into the heart of Dallas, finding our hotel shortly after 1am. Training had begun. Rushing to our rooms to drop out stuff off, we hustled down to make sure we didn't miss much.
A few minutes into the hello's and greetings from our Executive team, we were in the team building exercises, and finally meeting our people, face to face. Now, understand that aside from Paul and my manager, Jeff, I had not met any of my 15 counterparts in the Southeast territory. We had spoke every day for two hours a day on conference calls, but no face to face interactions. However, at that point, it was like seeing old family - we all bonded immediately and were so glad to finally meet each other!
The week was amazing, full of incredible training and presentations. We toured our corporate offices, met all the executives, and came home better people then we were when we left. I met our CEO, Ken May, and had an incredible conversation with him about the state of our company. He is an amazingly down to earth man, who is moving mountains to make this a better company to work for and do business with. I can honestly say, with conviction, that I have never been so proud to be a part of an organization.
My position is one of 106 of the most important people in the company right now. We are the wave of the future, and everyone knows who we are. It was incredibly strange to meet people who at some point have probably met all 30,000 people this company employs, and to have them shake your hand and tell them it's nice to meet you. And I don't mean, a superficial shake. I mean, "I'm glad I've finally met you, Annie" (without me giving them my name). It felt like Cheers when I was in Dallas - where everybody knew my name....and they were all glad I came.
So, Dallas was amazing! The city is beautiful and somewhere that I can wait to live. I was able to see some of it by day, a lot of it by night (no comment), and see friends while in town. I had an amazing time. I worked hard, partied harder, and was really glad to touch down in Orlando last night. However...."rumor" has it, we're back there in November - HOLLA!
