Day at the Capitol

Yesterday I went to the state capital to introduce myself to a group of medical suppliers and lobbyists that were having a meeting there. It was put on by MAMES (Midwest Association for Medical Equipment Services). They wanted to meet Ms. wheelchair Minnesota and say their congratulations.

Last Saturday my sister came to the door and surprised me. She had flown home from California (she's in AmeriCorps) for six days and didn't tell me. I was very shocked to see her, especially because she had been telling me all week that her and some of her teammates were going to the beach. She even texted me a picture of the beach saying she was there, but it was really from one of her teammates. Very clever!

She ended up driving me to the capital. When I got there, I went into the meeting room and introduced myself. Then I was introduced to everyone else in the room, who were all from different supply companies. Then I spoke telling everyone a little bit more about myself, my situation and what my plan is as Ms. wheelchair Minnesota. They were all very pleased to meet me.

After the meeting, my sister, nurse and I went on an hour long tour of the state capital. I had never been there before and thought it was really interesting. The tour guide took us all sorts of places and explained the architecture, artwork and designs. He even talked about all the different marbles that were used to build it.

During the meeting, I was told that all of the funding has been taken care of for me to go to nationals in Grand Rapids, Michigan the first week in August. This is great news! Also, there were many requests for my appearance and speaking. This included Duluth, Minnesota in May or June and Nashville, Tennessee in September. I'm not quite sure about the latter yet; I still have to figure out how to get to Michigan. Duluth might be interesting to stay there overnight because it would be like a trial run before I spent five days in another state. I don't know yet, we'll see.

Also when I was there my coordinator, Anne, received an e-mail from a local newspaper saying that they want to do an interview with me. It is the Lakeshore weekly of Minnetonka. They e-mailed me 10 questions that I'm to answer and send back by tomorrow and they will put it in the paper next week along with my picture. This is the first news coverage that I've gotten since being crowned April 11. We're hoping to get lots more!

Other than that, schools been going well. I'm looking forward to the end of the semester in the middle of May. After that it will be mostly doing things for Ms. wheelchair Minnesota, like making appearances at different events and speaking to different organizations. I know I keep saying it but I'm so excited for this opportunity and ready to dive right in. I'm sure this summer will go by very fast.

Jenni