My life right now is work work work

We have our annual conference next week and pretty much every little bit of my free time is spent doing conference stuff. I’m excited to be learning what I’m learning both because they whole thing will be my deal next year so I better freakin’ learn it and also because I want to do that grassroots open adoption support conference (more like a gathering). I realized to get sponsors, I’d hit businesses that would appeal to families that weren’t adoption related like family-friendly destinations (the kind of places first and adoptive families might want to hook up for a visit), kid-friendly restaurants, scrapbooking and other memory making sorts of businesses, etc. So that’s one theoretical problem solved!!

(Speaking of open adoption, you gotta go read Jenna’s thoughts on the AAC conference particularly because of an attendee who spoke directly to Pennie and Jenna. I will let her share it so you will just have to go click!)

I can’t wait until this conference is over so I can go back to thinking about other things because right now I’m living and breathing (and dreaming about) conference communication projects (brochures, programs, annual reports!) and when I finally crash and can’t work anymore I want to get as far away from my keyboard as possible! But the best news I had today is that our boss is gonna let all us worker types have our own hotel rooms, which is music to this introvert’s ears! I LOVE my co-workers (it’s the luckiest group chemistry this side of Cheers casting) but I’m going to want somewhere to sit by myself and cry at the end of the day just as a matter of course. Plus it means if insomnia hits I can read without bothering anyone. Or take a hot bath at 1am to try to go to sleep.

Really there are only two sadnesses about the conference: 1) I will miss my kids and husband but especially my kids especially the smallest because we’re leaving Monday and not coming back until late Thursday; and 2) NO WIFI AT THE HOTEL. I know! It’s brutal! It’s inhumane! And we didn’t find a close-by free wifi spot either, not that we’ll have time to go there anyway. If I was a smart little writer girl, I’d bring my laptop and write but instead I’ll bring my laptop and not write and instead watch bad television and play Tumblebugs, (which I own, I’ll have you know, because I find those three color games very soothing) and decompress from spending all day with lots of people in rooms without windows. I’m excited about the conference just to see it all happen and I’m even more excited for it to be over although I bet I sit at my desk and stare blankly at the wall for awhile trying to figure out how to work again without feeling frantic. We have a lot of ideas though — things we want to do when we have time to do them — and there’s some everyday work that is coming hot on the heels of the conference so I’ll be plenty busy just not CRAZED like I was last week and am right now.

I’ll tell you something useful Julia told me a few weeks ago. She said this whole work/life balance thing? A total myth and anyone who tells you different is lying. She says it’s always a shifting, moving deck and you just try your best to stay upright. Right now Brett’s doing all the cooking, the house is a terrible terrible mess and the kids have way too much screen time. That’s what it’s taking to keep me on my feet and so that’s what’s happening. Do I feel guilty? Oh yeah but I’m training myself to remember that this is just how it is. (And when it shifts the other way and the kids need me more, I feel guilty about work — it’s always something.) So I’m telling myself it’s like when the babies are little and no one’s getting enough sleep and you prioritize then let the rest go. The way I see it, not having enough time is part of most human’s conditions and there are those with a surplus of it just like some people are blessed with more money, better health and houses where the dishwasher always works. But for most of us it’s a rollicking game of catch-as-catch-can. No wonder I like Tumblebugs where I can line everything up and move onto the next level. No wonder I find it so soothing (considering how nuts the rest of my life is).