TheMommyBlog

For, what? Twelve hours? It's better than the six I had planned, but due to circumstances I've cut one city our of my next trip. I figure that a ninety minute appearance at a conference in Chicago shouldn't take three days, so I'm doing it in 36 hours instead. Those of you who have been reading a while will be amused to hear that I've been asked to speak about Life After Grants Management.

[Insert laugh track here]

I now have time to see the kids (yay!), do some laundry, pack a veryveryvery small bag and ditch the duffel full of bowling balls I've been hauling around since Wednesday, and get to the airport by noon. Spared Phil having to get up at four to take me back to the airport too! While waiting for my bag last night, I was staggering with fatigue and signed, "You may as well leave me here; I only have to be back at five a.m." I could have stretched out in the Odd Size Luggage Corral.

I'm sorry I won't get to stay longer in Chicago—I so rarely get back to my hometown—but I need to be home, especially since it's spring break for the kids and their dad has been a trooper, keeping them for a long stretch while I was on the Johnson & Johnson Love Junket.

The side trip to CT to see my aunt was wonderful and comforting; she is really doing much better than I'd feared. She's a better housekeeper than I am, and has taste to beat the band. I loved seeing Litchfield again, and was disappointed not to be able to find the Bantam Theater they once owned, or Cathole Road where my brother and I spent part of every summer while growing up. I drove up and down long, winding, pothole-ridden roads through horse country before giving up and heading back on 84, but that was nothing compared to the three-ring circus that is Newark Airport Rental Car Return. Good gravy with lumps in it. And I managed to leave my leather jacket in the PT Cruiser they gave me. Must call.

After coffee.

I'll be back in touch Wednesday!