There's no place like home

Today I met some amazing people. I did the opening for Michael Patrick MacDonald this morning. Talk about a fascinating guy. And what we each had to say worked well together and it appeared to have a big impact.

I also was able to meet many of the amazing people at the state level -- the Commissioner of Health and Human Services, an articulate and passionate woman -- the first woman to ever hold the position -- who is under 40 and looks 25.... and several department heads -- the important folks who make big decisions. And of course some of the other speakers -- the man who is in charge of the entire criminal justice system for the state of Kentucky, for example.

It is sort of fun to pretend to be in the league of these people -- because if they fly you in you are an expert who knows everything -- thus you are allowed to sit with this kind of people and are expected to converse with them as one of them. It's a rush for sure.

There are also great perks like a king suite at the hotel and having people offer to help you do things... it's just a great time.

Of course, there are the hassles of travel -- the guy from kentucky had to spend 24 hours on planes and airports to get here because of the tornados, and my flight for today apparently has been cancelled but the automated message makes no sense and the wait time for American is over 60 minutes to talk to them on the phone plus their website is messed up.... sooooo that part isn't so fun.

And my high schoolers had their pops concert last night -- the best event of the year musically, and I had to miss it for the second year in a row. Last year I got to watch it on DVD and am hoping to this year as well, but it was sad to be alone in a hotel room while my husband had to sit alone at this event.

Last night I was instant messaging Bart from the hotel after the concert and told him that I wished there was a way to just make a living speaking at conferences. He's always so wise, and i'm not even being sarcasm for FYI (as Jimmy would say). He reminded me that people don't want to listen to people speak who only do conferences. Because all they would have to talk about was the conferences they speak at.

I'm happy to have been here. I'm happy to be heading home. There's something both powerful and wonderful about being away doing this kind of stuff, but it's really true... there's no place like home.