I took the red-eye flight home from Reno. While it’s true that I can sleep almost anywhere, I remembered that doesn’t necessarily translate to good sleep. However, the three hours I logged in on my sofa yesterday afternoon…now that was good sleep.

The national conference was good. Like anything else, you can make it what you want it to be. It can definitely be overwhelming and exhausting, but I wanted a kinder, gentler experience this year. :rolleyes: I didn’t try to cram in a ton of workshops and then lots of late nights. Quite frankly, with the three hour time difference, it would’ve killed me. As it was, I was hard-pressed to keep my face out of my dinner plate after the literacy signing.

One of the highlights of the trip was whitewater kayaking Wednesday morning on the Truckee River. Definitely fun–once I got the hang of it. Definitely different from a sea kayak. They were inflatables and I swear to you, for the first part of the trip, my butt seemed to be a rock magnet–as in I got stuck on every rock available. :crazy: Another great moment was when my editor, Brenda Chin, won the Pasic Editor of the Year Award. She definitely deserved it!!! That was very cool.

While the conference was good, the venue was sort of weird. There is something almost surreal about where we were in Reno. The Hilton is out by the airport and there’s nothing there. You couldn’t walk to other restaurants outside of the hotel. No shopping other than what was in the hotel. Just lots of KOA camping so people could camp and gamble. Weird city. And every morning one of my suite-mates and I would go running along a running/biking path that follows the Truckee River. Lots of homeless people. It was disconcerting to run past people sleeping in the bushes. It’s just not part of my usual suburban experience. HOwever, the most disconcerting person we met while running wasn’t homeless. He was a big, muscular guy who had on sweats with the hood up and was wearing gloves — fairly odd combination considering we were running in shorts and tank tops.

I haven’t looked at my photos from the conference yet, but I’ll try to download them and get them up in the next week or so. I’m changing out suitcases and we’re leaving for Florida today. I’m working on copy edits but hopefully I’ll get them finished on the drive down. Okay…off to pack…again :hehe: