another one bites the dust

Another NCSL conference has concluded, much to my relief. It was a good conference - I had a lot of really good conversations with some of the state legislators. My complaint is that the last 2 weeks before a conference, of all the last minute prep work, are so tiring that I'm half-dead by the time the conference STARTS. And ya know, all the "last minute" stuff does NOT have to be last minute. It's only that way because I can't for the life of me get my bosses on the ball any sooner. It's also why - Mom, make a note for next summer's reunion - they go hysterical (not much of an exaggeration) if I suggest taking any time off within the last month or so prior to the conference. Early July - like the weekend of the 4th (what's wrong with an Independence Day reunion?) would be MUCH MUCH better for me.

Anyway, I can actually be human again for a while and work normal hours. The warm weather is here to stay - it was in the 60s last week and jumped up to 72 yesterday. Time to go outside! Last spring/summer, we didn't take advantage of much in the area during the summer. We plan to change that this year. There's so much free stuff that there's not much of an excuse to miss it. Adam has 2 weeks left of class. The dean still hasn't signed off on his early graduation - we don't know what the deal is because his profs all cleared him. The deadline for summer is next week, and if he can't graduate early, there's no point in taking summer classes. So if he doesn't get an email from her today, he's going to go to her office to talk to her.

Nathan, congrats on your play. Jared, great pictures of Brooke!

My car story, since I haven't posted it yet: well, the first time I drove was with Sam. He made me drive home from the church building. Sam was also the first person to take me onto the freeway. (I'm noticing a trend here in "who taught the Palmer kids to drive.") My biggest driving story was when I got my Dodge - my first stick shift - when I was 24. Ryan Hall taught me how to drive it in the Wal-mart parking lot in Mac around midnight one night, and the next day I drove to school in Salem. Fun stuff. A month later, I had everything figured out except how to get moving while pointed up a hill. I drove to California for spring break with Sarah and Marianne Swafford, and Windy Webb, and we got lost in San Francisco. We finally found Hwy 101 weaving its way through the city - that was what we wanted. I turned a corner and was pointed straight up one of the steep hills, with a stoplight at every intersection. We hit them all RED. By the time we got to the top, it had been about 17 lights and I'd pretty much figured out how to get going in 1st gear on a hill. Good times. I wrote a column about it at Western and it got a pretty good reaction.