3-1-11 6:10 pm Conventions, Slumber Parties for Grown-Ups

We watch Anne have them: Sleep-overs. Her anticipation appears far more enjoyable than the event itself, especially from the next day's vantage point. In the end we feel sure she'll never want to do it again, what with the fatigue, the schedule changes, the compromising, and everything she must make up - chores, instrument practices, and sleep. Oh does she pout, and drag, and clearly suffer. She seems capable of one thing after a sleep-over: curling up on the couch with a book she might or might not have the energy to actually read. And the next Friday we receive what can only now be labelled "predictable" request: "Can we do another sleep-over?" It must be the networking. With whomever she has a sleep-over, the next week is full of fun recesses. She's got a buddy in her social back pocket, and everyone wants that.

I recently returned from CCIRA, a literacy conference held in Denver. Like Anne with sleepovers, I have a love-hate relationship with conferences. I want to go. When we're there, (three or four of us usually go together) sure we compromise, sure we sometimes struggle to find balance, but we help each other out, even on diminishing amounts of sleep. And then the eventual, the dreaded always occurs. We return to catch up with the daily demands of our previous commitments: family, jobs, laundry. It's enough to turn one off to this sort of activity. And then we keep in touch, those of us who go. We reconnect in between conferences. We collaborate. We capitalize on the social networks and the shared experiences of the conference. It supports us socially, and in the end I believe, economically.

Now there's another conference I want to go to for Cognitive Coaching SM. It costs way too much, and I'd likely be going alone. Who knows how those problems might resolve themselves? That question unanswered leaves me with an emotional pout that would put Anne to shame. I want the fun. I want to make new connections. I want to resource accumulation, the economic and social capital this sort of time and money investment return. It's about more than the fun. Knowing what I want is the first step...