Dear Mom,
I want to go home. I’m currently seven hours south of the ole homestead at the Turtle Survival Alliance conference in South Carolina. I get to spend the next three days learning all about countless species from experts the world over. Turtles? Yes. Studying up on them? Absolutely! School’s my jam! At a conference where I do not know a soul? (insert needle-scratch) Ummm. People? I don’t do the whole human thing very well. I am shy, a little weird, and I have the social skilz of an octopus, minus the tentacles. Did I have tentacles when I was born, Mom?

This is me. Trying to blend in, or maybe just outright hide. My Patronus is an octopus.
I stepped out of the car into a city that smells of an odd mix of excrement and brackish water, and I was ready to turn around and go home. The brackish water I get. I’m right here on the coast. But poop? Why? Why the poop? I do not understand! I’m in the heart of the historical district. Is it historical poop? Maybe?
The hotel is a shack. Three room suites, valet parking, a mezzanine, thick walls where I can’t hear the neighbors scratching their bed bugs, maybe not even bed bugs. A shack. I will suffer through. But one of the bars of soap was already wet when I opened it, and that creeps me out more than a little. And everything from the soap to the lotion smells exactly the same.
Our opening event was at the South Carolina Aquarium. I had never been. It was all kinds of amazing. Let me show you.

There’s, like, this whole ocean and stuff!
I did make two friends right off the bat, Mom. Want to meet them?
- Plain old regular alligator. I dont hold that against him, though.
- Albino alligator
And there were other cool things.
I found a drug store on my way back to the hotel, and I thought I should get some snacks because food is WAY too expensive here. $12 for hotel breakfast is way more than I want to spend. But I am a jinx, and as I was buying my stuff, the entire computer system shut down, and I had to stand at the register making awkward small talk with the cashier and manager for ten minutes. Ten long, painful, awful minutes. Come and get me.
The TV is broken. At least the one in my bedroom is, and I don’t want to go to the living room. That’s too much trouble. I mean, the TV comes on, but it only gets crappy channels. There were these two pink people who were walking through the jungle. Did I mention they were nekkid? Why were they nekkid? I go hiking all the time, but always with my clothes on. Don’t these people know there are insects and other things you don’t want close to the tender parts? Am I missing something?
The alarm went off, and I’m still typing my letter. But I will get out of bed. I will. Eventually. I can do this, Mom. I can learn good stuff and make new friends and eat all my snacks so I’m not spending a billion dollars on breakfasts. I can do this. I can.
On second thought… there are two beds here. I should go try out the other one.
I’m the same. I love conferences but I’m so introverted I spend a lot of time in my room. My last conference hotel didn’t do room service and I had to swim through a crowded lobby bar to pick up some food. Argh! 😉
I can relate to the swimming through people. There are two elevators and about 300 people. The halls are maybe 8ft wide with display tables on either side. UGH!
What a dump. Your hotel/shack, I mean. You should definitely find yourself some real food to eat, but aren’t you being given a per diem whilst learning on company time? Pay whatever, for the convenience of not getting anxious!
I think South Carolina just historically smells poopy. Sorry you’ll have to endure that in your dumpy suite in your shack. Learn a bunch, though!
It is a dump. No masseuse has been here to visit yet, and the televisions are only, like 36″.
So how was the other bed? 😉 I really like your new friends — they’re my kinds of buddies. I don’t understand that TV show either, although my hubby likes watching it. I keep telling him that it isn’t good porn if all the fun bits are blurred out.
My mom and sister found my letters from Girl Scout Camp and they sound just like yours. Ha!
Lots of “Bring me home! It smells like WET DOG?”
I think your unknown creature is an isopod – you said it’s like a giant roly poly bug? I think that’s it but don’t quote me on that!
Yeah, it looks like an isopod. Wish I could narrow it down more. It was HUGE!
Huh. I just googled it. It’s a Giant Isopod. That fits, I reckon.
Those things are cool in a creepy sort of way!! Not sure I want to see one up close and personal.
We feel for you. So many dreadful things to put up with and all that new knowledge to try to squish in your brain 😀 Not sure about the poop smell though…
Oh.My!