I'm really looking forward to my twentieth year at the Charleston Conference! It's hard to believe I've been coming to this conference for that long. Every year there are things that are so much the same and yet every year is also different.

I miss the social atmosphere of the early years when we used to go dancing - the clubs are long gone, so it's not possible even if I could still stay up that late.

The shopping and restaurants are still fabulous, although that too continues to change a little each year. I miss Le Midi, the little French restaurant that used to be on King Street. I also miss the restaurant the name of which I forget now that was in the place where Sticky Fingers is and has been for what seems like a long time. "Fred" the kitchen store bit the dust year before last which was a disappointment.

The first few years the App State folks stayed at the King Charles Inn before the Francis Marion was renovated and re-opened. Lenore Dudley and I stayed at the Days Inn also a time or two. I finally settled at the Francis Marion and have stayed there continuously now for what seems like forever, with friend Lauren Corbett. The Swamp Fox restaurant gets our business for both breakfast and late night, time and time again. Not to mention Port City Java for coffee!

Lauren and I have established a number of traditions, including a pilgrimage for "Crispy Flounder" at Garabaldi's and Saturday lunch at Justine's.

I love to shop along King Street on Wed. afternoons and try to make it to the market on Saturday, even if it means ducking out a little early from Saturday sessions. I always get some Pralines or some Benne wafers for the folks back home, and sometimes a little Christmas shopping is completed, and most certainly I buy myself something fun. One year it was sushi pajamas - year before last I dragged back to the hotel with a rubber welcome mat with the traditional low country pineapple motif.

Of course, the last few years I've been heavily involved with the skits, which has been a lasting pleasure, yet also some pressure! Thank goodness I can drive to the conference so I can drag all manner of props to Charleston for these skits. This year I am bringing a stretcher borrowed from the ECU Theater Dept! How all this came to pass I cannot really recall, except that Katina asked for skits and we delivered and then it took on a life of its own.

Some things never change. At the upscale shoe store, Bob Ellis, we always gawk in the window at the latest designer shoes. Late at night walking down Meeting Street we laugh and point at the keys embedded in the concrete along the sidewalk in front of little lock shop.

The sessions often inspire. The networking is always fantastic. The reception food feeds my soul. There are people not there now I miss, but I look forward to meeting new people, and connecting with the regulars.

This will be the 1st year at the Charleston Conference that I'll be representing a new place of employment. What will that be like?
Somehow I don't think things will be all that different. I know one thing - I love the Charleston Conference and it's like home to me.