i got my swim trunks and my flippy-floppies

It's over! And, I'm pleased to report that it went awesomely well -- there were no disasters, no even minor fires, and many people told me that this was the best sales conference they had attended in several years. Perhaps they were just being nice -- but I go by the rule that people may lie to you and claim they liked something, but they usually don't go to the extreme of effusive praise if they didn't really enjoy it, so I want to believe them.

However, as a result of all of this, I'm totally utterly exhausted. I only slept six hours last night (and those were not the best six hours of sleep I could have had), then had to get up, pack, check out, schlep my stuff to my car, and make it to the conference ballroom by 7;45 to do last-minute checks, rehearsals, etc. before everything started at 8:15. The content continued until six p.m., with a couple of short breaks and 45 minutes for lunch, and so there really wasn't much downtime. But, I'm so happy that it went off well, and I felt appropriately recognized for my efforts even if that recognition was all verbal and not in the form of cold hard cash. The verbal was good, though, and came from a lot of people whom I really respect, so it was all excellent.

Now, though, I'm going to go to bed. I went to the bar with the management team after the event concluded, and spent a couple of hours unwinding there, but sleep is really more important than anything else right now. I'm going into the office tomorrow for my performance review, but I fully intend to leave early so that I can come home and make family time dinner for my friends. Please welcome me back to real life -- hopefully things will be a bit more balanced in the days and weeks ahead!