Recovery

An excellent Extravaganza experience was marred for me by the presence of flu-like symptoms that appeared as soon as I left the house to get to the airplane.

Thursday morning, as I was about to leave, I thought, "Hmmmm....I have a little tickle in my throat." By the time my plane landed at LAX, I was miserable. I hadn't eaten since 6:30 that morning, so my stomach was empty, I was sweating (but still cold), my head hurt.

I pushed through the illness to try to do much of what I intended. Another highlight was at the car rental. A long time ago, I signed up for the Avis Preferred membership. It doesn't cost anything, and you can bypass the lines most of the time. However you also get called out as an elitist in front of the rest of your fellow renters. When the shuttle bus pulled into the lot, the drive announced, "The first stop is for preferred customers only. All regular reservations will be the next stop. Mr. InLayTerms, your car is in B1...It's a silver Mustang."

I was the only preferred customer, and my luggage ended up at the bottom of the pile, so I made a huge production getting off the shuttle to my silver mustang. I could feel the glare of the other passengers.

Now to the Extravaganza itself...my agenda is often to make a list of people with whom I want to connect. That's what I did this weekend. I got some face time with folks that I can only see once per year. I made some connections for TNP, Lutherans Concerned, and for my college. I also got to hang out with old friends. I went to workshops, which is new for me. In the past, I've led workshops, but I don't often attend any. This time, there were some workshops that I wanted to attend, just so I could get some face-time with the leaders. In all cases, it paid off. I also got some good information.

I got off site a few times, which was refreshing. Hotels are so expensive and the quality of your experience is so sterile, that sometimes you forget that there is a real world out there. I had at least one dinner and breakfast off site. Both of those were very helpful.

I'm home today, trying to get healthy again. I hope I can go back to feeling full again.