Just a little SENG-over

You know how when, if you go out of town, you come back further behind than you thought possible? Like you’re gone four days and suddenly you’re four weeks behind? It’s some kind of screwed up time-space continuum, as though you’re being punished for leaving in the first place. It also seems to happen when you’re sick, adding insult to a great deal of injury. Zombie Flu did that to me once already this summer and I was almost caught up. Then I went out of town for four days.

And it was worth every minute of the next four weeks I’m probably going to spend trying to get caught back up.

Tom and I attended the SENG conference in Orlando this past weekend. We joked that it was our “romantic getaway,” that our only chance for a couples’ retreat was to a conference where we’d hopefully figure out how to parent our intensely complex kids. Amazingly, we managed to have both a romantic getaway AND learn how to parent our intensely complex kids. We started with a leisurely lunch and nap by the pool, filled our days with incredible sessions, and ended the weekend with deep conversation, again by the pool. I’d say that it’s pretty obvious life would be greatly eased by having a pool, but right now, in Chicago, IN JULY, I am wearing jeans, a sweater, and slippers, so I think a large body of water in my backyard would more likely be an ice rink than a pool. We did, however, reconfirm that we want to someday retire someplace where nearby water does not freeze.

Over the next several days I plan to write more about the SENG conference, and why you need to move heaven and earth to attend next year’s conference in San Jose. But right now I’m still digesting all I heard and experienced and learned; at our last pool conversation I told Tom I was juicy with information. Yes, charming mental image I’m sure. I will say, though, that Tom and I are more relaxed and confident than we’ve been in years. Years. I don’t know if it’s due to what we learned, or if we just needed time away from our kids as a reset button, but we’re feeling better than we have in a long time.

July 18-20. San Jose, California. You really should go.