HUMILITY ON THE ROAD
Sunday, Jun. 12, 2005, 3:29 p.m.

QUESTION: Can I stop talking now?

WHAT I LEARNED: Spelling can sneak up on you.

I am back on Suburban Island after a weeklong trip to Ontario for a conference. My daughter went with me and aside from having to work, work, work - it was a lot of fun. I did have to speak as a member of a panel at one of the conference sessions. I wasn�t nervous about it but it was a lot of stress because it�s only natural to want to do your very best in these situations. I think that when it was all said and done I did a pretty good job. Can you believe it kids � one of the two topics I presented on was blogging. Everybody is digging it these days. I thought it would be an interesting topic way back last year when I was asked to be part of the panel but it really was a hot topic this summer. The session was so popular that it was sitting-on-the-floor-room-only and there were lots of folks who couldn�t even get in to the session.

It turns out that sometimes work and the rest of my life do intersect perfectly. I got to talk about one of my favorite subjects within a professional setting, work out of town and experience a bit of Toronto, and bring my daughter along for the ride � something I have been able to do with my daughter for many years now. Well, she didn�t come to the program � she went shopping. That�s okay though because I told my daughter that the price she had to pay for coming on the trip was to be my audience while I ran through the presentation a few times. Poor thing. She earned the shopping trip and a few choice purchases too. What kids get stuck doing to help out their parents. She did inform me that it was a more interesting topic than usual. I am glad I could oblige.

We were both happy when the talk was done � as scintillating as the topic was - and the weight of presenting was lifted off my shoulders. What a relief. There were still all sorts of things to be done during the conference but the hardest part was done for me.

There was one little glitch though. Oh, there is always something that keeps us humble in life in these little moments of glory we all experience. I believe it occurred because of the general state of exhaustion I was operating within for the whole week prior to the conference. I was sick that week with some kind of respiratory infection and asthma flair but I really couldn�t stop working because I just had too much to do before I left for the conference. I only got 3 hours of sleep in the 2 days before we flew to Toronto. We didn�t even go to bed the night before we left. I had been working like crazy for weeks and the pace just seemed to accelerate the closer we got to takeoff time. In between all the office work, I was doing all the other things a mother and wife is supposed to do. Grocery shopping � sure. Laundry until 4 AM � sure. Homework assistance � why of course. Oh, and I guess I�d better pack.

There was only one little error I made in my presentation, which I believe was probably the result of my crazy schedule and the effects of sleep deprivation. I was talking along with my slides � over 20 of them in all - until I came to the one that showed a list of different types of blogs and gave examples. I was discussing those blogs and bloggers � the celebrities, the teachers, the businesses, the non-profits and even the political blogs � mentioning in particular that during the campaign Bush and Carey both had blogs. Did you catch it? Oh, how soon we forget. Mr. Kerry would be pretty bummed and I wouldn�t blame him.

This is just another example of how spellchecking can let you down and life continually provides us reasons not to get too stuck up about ourselves.

And how was your week?

FOR MY TOP TEN LIST OF THINGS I DIDN'T KNOW ABOUT CANADA PLEASE STOP BY SPRITOPIAS and read my guest entry.

9 comment(s) | previous | next

Add the Isle to your D-Land favs | Visit Little Island - the Suburban Blog
Visit Perfect View - The Scenic Webcam Blog