More conference bullets

• Mom's surgery is over and it went well.
• Brother called at 3:30 and said they were were still waiting.
• Surgery lasted from 4:20-6:30.
• Dad called at 6:40 to tell me everything went perfectly, according to the doctor.
• Brother and Dad are waiting in her private room. She's still in recovery and should be seeing them in another hour or so.
  
• I'm tremendously relieved that it's over and very grateful that it went well. I hope recovery goes as perfectly.
• Thank you for the prayers and thoughts.
  
• Friend said something like "Think of the conference as an event designed to distract you from worrying."
• This made me frown as Friend isn't normally all "embrace the universe for it cares for you."
  
• Maybe Friend needs to vacation more often so she is more optimistic and zen-like.
• Then again, it kind of freaks me out.
  
• Friend, as usual, ended up being right.
  
• Brother just called.
• Mom's back in her room!
• When Brother and Dad stepped out so the nurses could get Mom settled, she was concerned and told them not to leave the hallway.
  
• They promised they would not.
• Brother said she's concerned that they did her knees wrong.
  
• She wanted to keep her old knees so they could be reinserted if these new ones are somehow unacceptable.
  
• The doctor said they didn't do that.
  
• OK - back to this conference.
• About this talk length issue, folks. It's not cool.
• I am convinced that the problem is that nobody practices.
• I know many people say they don't rehearse.
  
• That's fine.
  
• But know how long your talk will last.
  
• If you don't know, you need to run through the slides to get an idea.
  
• Seriously. Just once. To get a sense of if you're running about 30 minutes or if going through everything would take closer to 2 hours.
  
• There were breaks included so the time could be made up, but lunch today should have been 90 minutes.
  
• It was closer to 40.
  
• I find that mildly disrespectful.
  
• It's not just that you don't find me important enough to run through the talk so you're aware of its length.
• It's that you put the important stuff at the end, then can't get to it!
  
• I want to hear the important stuff!
  
• Some of the talks were brilliantly done.
  
• Others could have used Black Knight's advice.
  
• There were cookies in the afternoon. I'd just heard from Brother and didn't want any.
  
• Same semi-reasonable sandwiches today! For crying out loud.
• I was a bit flustered that I was interested in nearly everything presented today. I wanted a break, but didn't want to miss anything.
• Luckily, tomorrow is completely irrelevant to me! So I can get some work done in preparation of heading home next week.
  
• I'm ready to go home. I've talked to everyone a lot, but I still feel wrong about not having been there. I wish I'd been there. I want to be there soon. So Monday will bring about the start of what I'm sure will be a difficult week as Mom begins recovery, but I'll be tremendously relieved to finally start participating in this process.