In July, I attended the RWA National Conference in Washington, D.C. Being my very first national conference, I didn't quite know what to expect. No one could have prepared me for the experience!

I thumbed through the conference program with my mouth wide open reading about all the fantastic workshops! How could I attend all of them? Or even all of the ones I really wanted to absorb? Honestly, I can't even tell you how many times I changed my mind. I fell asleep the night before, tossing and turning, and mentally making more changes. **sigh**

What can I say? I went to back to back workshops and at the end of the day headed to my room with everything spinning around in my head. I took notes...but I'm not good at it.

On my long drive home, I couldn't remember much of anything, and even worried that the whole experience had been too intense and not worth the expenditure, especially since I wasn't pitching anything.

Before I left though, I stopped at the recording table and ordered the full set of conference tapes. They arrived just a week ago. Three cd's full of so many workshops it would take me a month to listen to all of them! I put in the first disk and chose a workshop which sounded good, one I hadn't attended. Without the distraction of sitting in a room full of people, and with a tired mind, the workshop fueled my creativity. I am looking forward to learning more about the craft and tools to help my problem areas through the various workshops in the comfort and quiet of my own office.

In future, even if I do attend Nationals, I won't stress about attending so many workshops. Instead I will enjoy the experience knowing I can bring all the workshops home with me.

Thanks for stopping by!