Exciting times

#DBlogCheck day has inspired me to take a few moments out of my day to remind myself (and others) how excited I am by all that is going on in the diabetes community and in my own diabetic life right now!

The past few weeks and months have been an incredible crescendo of activity, and one which continues to rise. Friends For Life International Children With Diabetes Conference Orlando 2014 was, as previous years have been, an unbelievable and critical part of my life and of so many others'. I am privileged and grateful to have had an expanded role as faculty of this amazing conference, and to have seen the conference schedule continue to evolve. Much of the rest of this list is a direct result of what CWD has brought to my life. Previous contacts and friendships have evolved, new ones have been made, and all add so very much to my personal life, my professional life, and my diabetes life, and the intersections of all three. In no particular order, and I'm sure in no sense of comprehensiveness, here is what I'll want to remember later from this past year (and apologies for anything/anyone I unintentionally fail to mention):

• Laura, Jeff, Brenda, Marissa, Adam, Connor, Natalie, Jim, and many more of the CWD crew!
• Kerri at SixUntilMe, who published her first book, Balancing Diabetes--so awesome to see in print the names of so many from our community (including me, proudly).
• Scott at ScottsDiabetes and mySugr.
• Chris and Philip from GlucoLift.
• Christel at theperfectd.
• Kelly at Diabetesaliciousness.
• Briley at inDpendence.
• Bennet at YDMV.
• Manny at Diabetes Hands Foudation.
• Bill and Anna at glu.
• Ed Damiano, PhD, of Boston University's Bionic Pancreas project, who sorely needs help raising funds--and SOON so please, PLEASE give here--to help fund the next crucial step of device development for the system that so many people, myself included, fully believe will be a total game changer in how hard we have to work and how well we do in managing diabetes.
• Howard Look and the amazing things happening (all started within the past year!) at tidepool.org. Keep your eyes open for when their products come out publicly. They could use your help with funding too.
• Diana and Korey (and the work that Tamara and I are doing with Korey on a medical school textbook chapter on biopsychosocial aspects of diabetes).
• Heather, Jess, and Pat--their mentorship and support to Tamara and me as we embark on a research journey--and having been awarded our very first research grant, to investigate blog use in type 1 diabetes--more to come on this!
• All of the bloggers who have pledged their support to our research--you know who you are and your help is so greatly appreciated!
• So many families we've met and gotten to know better, both online and in person, and their amazing kids.
• CGM in the Cloud and its explosion in the past few weeks. #WeAreNotWaiting
• The upcoming Diabetes UnConference, Spring 2015. Though I won't be able to attend, I'm looking forward to following whatever posts, tweets, and updates I can, and hopefully to attending its second annual meeting :)
• Diabetes advocacy and, for example, the Strip Safely campaign's actually getting the attention of the FDA.

What a year!  What a great time to be part of this unequaled community! And what a great time (if there is one) to have type 1 diabetes! I cannot wait to see what the coming year has in store.