C is for Cookie

This week I've been at a 2 day conference and then yesterday had meetings from 8am until 2pm. Needless to say, I'm a little over taking in information and need some time to sit and actually let my brain figure out how to deal with it all. My brain did figure out a few things about how to deal with conferences, however, which up until this point I have been unable to truly accept about myself.

1. Eat the cookies at break time and don't feel bad about it. It is not humane for a person to sit through hours and hours of being talked at without having some sugar to get them through the day. Sandor and I are doing a detox (thus no sugar or starches) so I felt even more guilty about having a cookie than I normally would, but at some point during the day I realized that while there are certainly times in my life where my self restraint is an asset, eating a cookie during a 2 day conference when I know that I'll be a crankypants without it, is really not that time. Therefore I have finally come to terms with the fact that I love cookies and my life will just need to deal with it!

2. Do not feel as though you are wasting your conference fee money by going to talks that don't necessarily have to do with your job, but that you think would be interesting to go to. On Wednesday afternoon the last two talks I attended were first - the tearing down and recycling of the old Cooper River Bridges and second - water response for the tsunami and Katrina. Clearly neither of them have anything to do with my job, but they looked interesting and by the time you get to the end of your second day the talks need to be pretty darn interesting to hold your attention. So, I left the session that had to do with my job and went to those talks, and man was it worth it! It was a nice reminder that saving estuaries, while important, is not the center of the universe - and every one can do with a good dose of reminding they are not the center of the universe...specifically after they have had a cookie and are feeling able to hear that message.

3. Conferences, while useful, need to be taken as nothing more than what they are. Take what you can out of them, don't worry about what you miss, and move on with life! There is always a trade off at this big conferences with concurrent sessions where you feel like you have to be in 3 places at 1 time to get the most out of the day. In the end, you get what you get and you forget the rest, so stop worrying that you are going to forget the important stuff. If it's important enough to remember, you'll remember it (or at least write it in your notes to remember it later).

So, for anyone getting ready to go to a big conference there is my advise, and really the advise probably works just as well for a normal day in life - eat a cookie if you want to, listen to things that are interesting rather than only thing you think relate to your job, and don't worry about missing out on things - there is plenty to catch in this crazy world of ours!