The Conference

I arrived at the conference at my seminary today. I got here a little later than I had hoped, but in plenty of time for the first lecture. Daughter has called me 6 times. She's doing well, and I suspect that she won't have to trouble me as often tomorrow. At least I hope she won't.

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The lectures have all been wonderful. I've heard three today, plus worship, plus a panel discusssion. I haven't missed any of it. It has reminded me how much I miss being stimulated intellectually. In worship I sat there with tears rolling down my face. It has been almost 9 months since I attended worship where I could just sit in the pew.

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On the drive, I was having trouble staying awake. Since I got here, I've been wide awake. There are tons of old friends here. Why is it that after 20+ years men look pretty much the same and all the women look old? I've been reading lots of nametags today, and fortunately they gave us all big nametags. I'm feeling very old. The campus has changed so much that I didn't recognize it when I drove through the gates. There are lots of new buildings and old, familiar buildings have been totally remodeled and are now used for different purposes. They've renamed a number of the main buildings. I've actually had to ask for directions today.

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My closest friend and I are staying at a conference center on another campus about 1 mile away. We chose it because the rooms were cheap-- less than $90 a night with taxes. We don't have a room-- we have a suite, complete with a living room with a sofa bed (which K volunteered to use), a bedroom, two TVs, a refrigerator, and they even have complimentary mouthwash among the other little bottles in the bathroom.

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It's going to be very hard to head back to reality on Wednesday.