Conference Day
Friday, Mar. 14, 2003, 8:24 p.m.

Question: How much can conference parking cost?

What I Learned: Bring your own eats.

Getting back to the other day, I should have know after the clinic call that things were going to go downhill fast.

After taking care of the sick kid issue, I eventually was able to make my way to the conference. It is amazing how a side street can evade you when you are hurrying. The next thing you know you and your destination are 20 blocks apart and you are making ill-advised U turns on busy downtown streets.

I was glad to find parking at the conference facility. Okay, it was almost twice the going rate but it was the only game in town. I could use my change to buy a soda. I didn�t need all those dollar bills just cluttering up my purse like that; tempting me to buy soft serve ice cream or hot pretzels at exorbitant prices once I got inside. Lucky for me, because of the sick kid and all, I was able to eat something at home thereby cutting my conference expenses so I could afford the parking with exactly one dollar to spare.

At the conference, I saw many people that I knew. I became certain that my day was just going to be one of those terrible-not-very-good days when I went to introduce a favorite client to a number of people and suddenly found her name missing from my mental database. I could feel it flying out of my head like some crazy parakeet that had escaped its cage and was heading straight for the open window. There was no way to catch hold of it. I had to plead the cumulative effects of the very-bad-day syndrome combined with school clinic induced exhaustion.

Being a mother of three, she understood and had to forgive me.

Later, I arrived home to find my children working on school assignments side by side. If only there was a volume control it might have been a sweet domestic picture of sibling harmony. However, the low level quibbling that is so common among siblings was well underway. Like two little crabs pinching at each other � they were slowly driving each other to distraction. And what about mother? You know, mother who is seriously considering confiscating and taking out of immediate circulation all electronic communication devices in the home so she may obtain a modicum of peace and quiet.

Eventually, my dire threats reduced the din to a nice quiet disgruntled rumble and I was able to go about my business � which unfortunately did not seem to include computer time.

What did I get to do then? Open the junk mail, clean the kitchen, watch an EWTN special, check out American Idol, and clean out my purse. And all that work I needed to do on the computer � well what with all the Idol watching and purse cleaning and such by the time I got my turn, I was too tired to do anything but switch the thing off.

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