I knew I was getting close to the banquet room for the JDRF annual meeting when I spotted a used ACCU-CHEK test strip on the carpet like a breadcrumb in the forest.
I was reluctant to go; reluctant to make the commitment. As it is, there are not enough hours in the day.
Walking through the doors was sort of surreal. It was like a plumbers' convention. Only they weren't plumbers. I snaked my way around the room looking for a place to sit, taking in the throng of diabetes chatter as the people talked shop.
Snippets of conversations zipped into my ears and blended into others.
"So I says, honey, you got to get a freakin' pump!" coming from one table.
"You get ketones?" from another table.
"I just curl up my toes and do this," a young girl explained to another girl, scrunching up her face to show how she deals with site changes.
I planted myself there - intrigued by a girl Charlie's age and a father who spoke my same language.
I was fixed on them as if they were aurora borealis.
"You going to eat the whole roll? Alright, why don't you put in, eh, 20 carbs."
A scraggly-haired surfer boy with tubing hanging out of his jeans glided past me and out of the room.
Fascinating. It was planet diabetes.
To the right of me at the large round table was a man studying stem cell research at Rutgers University with a grant from Schering Plough. To his right was a long-time diabetic and the brother of a man who was researcher for the JDRF's artificial pancreas project. And to his right sat the man and his daughter.
Paul Strumph, chief medical officer of JDRF, was a great guest speaker. In a show of hands, he beat out the whole room with having diabetes the longest - 42 years.
"When I finished high school, blood-glucose meters came out," he said.
"When I finished college, A1c testing began," he said. "My doctor said mine was great."
"It was 13.2."
The people at the tables read brief biographies of the eight nominees for the chapter's board of directors and placed their votes.
I stood when my name was announced amidst light applause.
I'm really looking forward to this opportunity. It's just the jump-start I needed as Charlie's Angels begins its fifth year of fundraising for a cure.
