Quite frankly, I’ve needed adequate time to recuperate from the last two weeks. I was finally able to break through the snow fortress that was D.C. after their massive snowstorm, only to find that it had miraculously transitioned into a subtropical climate. On the second day of the conference I was even able to take a quick jog through the National Mall and gaze into the Capital Reflecting Pool and up at the Washington Monument. It was quite the early morning experience.
The conference itself was invigorating on both personal and professional levels. Notably, it was the first time in three months in which I felt capable of actually doing this job, and not feeling like I was just shy of the learning curve, struggling to learn terminology and logistics. It served as a forum where private industry leaders and members of government, including National Institutes of Health (NIH), FDA, Health and Human Services (HHS), and Congress members sought to legislate current practices and devices within orthopaedics. Not only was I asked my opinion, I was able to formulate several based on clinical data and literature, and state them semi-coherently! And, I got to meet some pretty interesting people; Congressman Jindal, former Senator Durenberger, and Senator Bill Frist were in attendance at some point during the meeting. I left feeling elated and ready to conquer any work issue at hand.
Except… the trip back was quite the ordeal, as I was delayed about 5 hours after already bumping up my flight time. The plane had to stop and refuel in Rockford, of all malodorous places possible (what is that smell, anyway?) I made it home just in time to get a few hours of sleep before a committee meeting in-house that I had been planning since day 1 of my job. Needless to say, there were a lot of stressful factors leading to this particular day. It went without a hitch, thankfully, and 3 hours after that meeting I was back on a plane headed southwest to St. Louis to see Aaron for the weekend. Emotionally it was exactly what I needed, as we celebrated a belated Valentine’s day and didn’t schedule much in terms of an agenda, as I’d been overloaded with many of those lately. The weekend was nice, romantic, sweet, endearing, and a string of other sentimental adjectives strewn together. By the time I made it home on Sunday night it was very apparent that I was very worn out physically. For the last 8 days or so I’ve been in a dazed, somewhat lackadaisical, sometimes cranky mood that can only be attributed to sheer tiredness.
I’m just starting to get back on solid ground again, a little more clearheaded, so hopefully I’ll be able to recount all these ever-so captivating tales of life. :)
posted by Sheila @ 2/27/2006 11:38:00 AM
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