A Visit To Indy and a Diabetes Meetup

It was great to meet up this past weekend with Jillian, a fellow Type 1 D-blogger (@Jianop on Twitter), who is from Denver and was visiting Indy for a conference.

Every August, Jillian comes to Indy for the annual Drum Corps International (DCI) World Championships event. This time, it was several months after she'd started diabetes blogging over at Push My Buttons To Turn Me On (clever name!) and so Jillian reached out to a couple of us who live in Indy and might be around for a D-meetup.

As it turns out, both Cherise Shockley (@SweeterCherise on Twitter) and I were able to meetup with her on Saturday morning for breakfast at the highly-recommended Cafe Patachou in downtown Indy.. I had a blast, being able to see these two awesome ladies and chat for a couple hours... about everything from jobs, hobbies, diabetes tech and trends, along with the mysteries of Bob Evans, avocados, and the allure of darn good omelets and cinnamon toast.

We also talked about our interests in writing and sharing more non-diabetes, and thanks to Cherise's suggestion I'm planning to do that more often here. I love going to visit and experience new places, especially those that serve up good coffee, craft brew, or just have some interesting historical story. So, that's what will plan to explore more here -- maybe with a D-twist, but not necessarily. Thanks for the prompting, Cherise!

I also loved hearing how Jillian's been involved for 4-5 years in coordinating an Adult Type 1 group, similar to what we have here with the Indy Adult D-Community. She has a network of about 200 D-peeps (wow!), and that group meets up at bars, restaurants, or coffee shops at a set time at the end of each month -- something I think would help to do here in Indy. I'm interested in exploring how we can strengthen and expand this local D-community, and am currently working with the area educators, endos and pump reps (among others) to connect more of together. My big concern right now is how much infrastructure is needed or wanted, and whether I'm interested in putting more energy toward that. Regardless of how we move forward here in Indy, I was fascinated to hear how Jillian's been coordinating Adult Type 1 meetups for years now, and we shared stories about ways we can take some ideas back to our own local communities but also work more together. And who knows... maybe there's a place for the Diabetes Community Advocacy Foundation (DCAF) to fit into all of this... such fun and exciting possibilities!

This was an awesome three-person meetup that came together thanks to Jillian's visit to Indy, and I am hoping to have the chance to see her at some point again before long... maybe at next year's Friends For Life conference or her next trip to Indy in a year.

Glad you reached out to connect and meetup, Jillian, and can't wait to keep more in touch through the DOC before the next in-person meetup chance comes our way!