So, where was I?

Just returned from a week in Seattle for a conference. It was great… I learned a lot… I saw a lot of people I enjoy… and I got lots of hugs. It was also exhausting and so even though I arrived back in Waco almost 24 hours ago, I feel like I’m just now starting to gather my thoughts and piece back together what my life was before I left last Wednesday and what projects I was in the middle of, etc. So far tonight I have munched on some ChexMix, watched last week’s episode of Lost (woah!) and considered reading The Shack (which I’m about 50 pages into right now). I think I’ll get to the book next, but I wanted to comment briefly on the other book I read this past week, Twilight.

Now, I know a lot of people have read and LOVED these books, and I’m not in anyway saying that I don’t like it, but there’s something that seems to bother me about the character of Bella. She just… boring and somewhat lifeless. In fact, the only thing interesting about her seems to be that Edward loves/hungers for her.

When I think about this… I can’t tell if it is written that way to make me identify with Bella - as if I should think that I’m pretty ordinary as well, and that the only thing that would make me all that interesting would be if a beautiful man(pire) would fall in love with me? Or perhaps, to mix current pop culture references… Bella is the exception, and not the rule.

In any case, toward the end of the 1st book (which is as far as I have read), she expresses this deep longing to become something she is not so that she can be a part of a certain community. This I’m intrigued by and hope it remains something of interest in the next book because I think that in some ways, this is a universal feeling … this longing to be a part of something. I don’t think it’s just coincidence that the author chose for Bella to be from a family that is disjointed and non-communicative - she was set up, as a character that had no community to start with - of course she wants to become part of the first one she sees and finds to be attractive.

Anyway… thoughts to be continued once I secure a copy of the next installment of the series.

Some of my favorite things I did in Seattle….

1. Dinner at 13 Coins with Jason.

2. Yarn shops, happy hour, Trader Joe’s and late night beverages with Rachel.

3. Dinner at Dinette with my dear, dear, friend Kurt as well as an old friend (hadn’t seen her for 10+ years) Alison. (This was exceptionally wonderful since we three knew each other so many years ago - it felt like an unexpected reunion - each of us so different from what we were once, but still that thread that connected us and brought us back together).

4. Karaoke at Crescent Lounge. (Including the lovely experience of a woman nuzzling her head in my chest while I was singing … Kurt, by the way, was laughing hysterically in the back of the bar at this point).

5. Tons of great professional networking, mentoring and learning through sessions and keynote speakers (Bertice Berry was particularly wonderful). But anyway, you aren’t interested in that part of things.

6. Last afternoon in Seattle on Tuesday, lots of sunshine, multiple americanos and a trip to the Olympic Sculpture Park with Ben (whose company I truly enjoy and wish I could share more often), ending with an evening back on Capitol Hill seeing the nightlife and finally the NASPA talent show, which is always entertaining.

7. Making new friends, (even some fellow twitterers!), and generally enjoying having less structured schedule in my life for a few days.

Now I’m back and honestly feeling a bit melancholy … it’s so much closeness with so many amazing people in such a short time, and then to come home to a big empty house - I hate the symptoms of post-travel-depression.

Sorry if I’ve missed something important that’s happened in your life in the last week. Send me an email or something… internet was not the easiest while I was away and I’m not sure I can catch up on everything I missed.

I’m off to take an AdvilPM, then lay in bed reading. Sweet dreams, everyone.