Convening

I presented a workshop at a conference this last weekend that was interesting and strange. The parts of the conference that I really enjoyed were:

• clown-doctors
• in-house AV
• the trees (although they made me sneeze)
• the response to my workshop

The things that I was more challenged by at the conference were:

• getting up early to get there
• people who use "education" as a bad word
• in-house printing services that mess with my bank account
• over-use of words like "development" and "performance". Specifically those words, actually. If they used more words like those words, maybe I wouldn't be as bothered by the over-use

It was nice to get to check one more major thing off of my meta-list. But now I must look forward to another conference. Not one that I am presenting at, but one for which I am the go-to girl for everyone that is. I don't want to spend too much time complaining about the last-minute problems that are coming up, but I probably will anyway. The things, specifically, that are troubling me are:

• people who don't properly assess their AV needs
• people who don't respond to emails
• people who respond to long chains of emails with one word, such as "ok", "fine", "good", etc.
• people who get called to jury duty

Things that make me optimistic:

• my blood pressure isn't as high as it was this time last year
• I have two paid assistants who are taking things on that would otherwise raise my bp
• it can't really go that bad...

This week I get to cross one more big thing off my meta-list for the fall and then my mum-in-law comes into town for almost a week. I'm actually looking forward to this, which is strange but good.

My glasses broke today after two long years of service, and since I don't have backups I'm just wearing them around held together by scotch tape. I kid you not. It's hot.

One last and very sad development in my life-- despite me harassing most people I know who live in my borough, my bellydancing class got cancelled due to low enrollment. I hope you're all happy. Now I just jiggle alone.