My Weekend Away

I got back yesterday evening after attending a weekend Bravewriter conference in Wichita Falls, TX. Three of us went - one lady I'd never met, and M2. It was a great weekend! No kids, no stress, good coffee and good conversation, book stores and pleasant meals out, and the conference, of course. I really enjoyed the time away, and the conference was a good experience. I came away from it freshly inspired to teach BW to write not only competently, but (hopefully) painlessly.

I also learned how to say midwifery, which brought me gads of pleasure. I had always assumed it was pronounced like midwife with an 'er-y' on the end. Turns out I was wrong. It's pronounced like whiff. Go ahead, say it out loud. Midwifery. Fun, isn't it? I won't even tell you how many times I repeated it under my breath throughout the weekend, you'd probably think me crazy.

There's really not much more going on in my life right now...I've registered for school and only changed my mind on what classes to take once. Sadly, that's probably some sort of record for me. I've been known to change classes up until the first day. Of course, there's still time for that. If you haven't guessed it yet, I have a commitment problem - I still haven't figured out what I want to be when I grow up, so I tend to waffle a lot when it comes to picking classes. But as of today I am all registered, and I'm just not going to think about any of it until January, when it's time to buy my books. I'm going to spend the next two months focusing on BW, MM, the upcoming birthdays and holidays, and our tenth anniversary. That's really quite enough, thank you very much.

So I'm off to research tenth anniversary gifts. I've already warned my husband that I'm expecting something good this year, and that he'd better devote some time to figuring out a decent gift for a change. A gift worthy of the ten years we've been married. My husband is of the 'wait until the last minute and then buy her a pillow at 11 pm on Mother's Day' persuasion. I'm mean seriously...a pillow? He said he couldn't think of anything else.

I personally love gift shopping. I love trying to find the right thing for someone. And I know that it's all supposed to be about making someone else happy, giving from the heart, totally selfless, blah blah blah. But I will admit there is a little part of me who feels like if I make this big effort to find a great gift, it would be really nice if the people in my life would reciprocate the effort. Doesn't have to be an expensive gift, just thoughtful. See, I'm not asking much, right? You'd think I'd asked for my own island. Which would not be a bad gift, come to think of it. Expensive, but I promise you it would be deeply appreciated...providing it's a tropical island. I don't like the cold. And it doesn't have to be big or anything. A couple of square miles is fine, really. You know, big enough for a house, a small staff, some nice beaches. A guest house or two for visitors. In case anyone's wondering.

But anyway, MM is on notice that this year it's important to me, we've discussed spending limits to keep things under control, and I've outlined my expectations to him. He has no excuses this time. I have faith he'll figure something out this year. Wish me luck.