from the road

first a quick update from the last post:
pittsburgh was good. had a primanti bros. sandwich (cheesesteak with fries and slaw on the sandwich)--not a big ass burger, but good nonetheless. it was a good week with great opportunities to connect with people. especially fun were the random shopping trips (not the mall kind, the "oh crap, we need a _________" so run out and get it kind), and meals with friends. there was even a girls dinner with myself, jamie, lilly and jeannie which was so fun and ranged from laughter to tears and back.

i returned from pittsburgh on tuesday and left on thursday to go to planet wisdom and to the association of youth ministry educators meeting. planet wisdom was fabulous. mark matlock has a great team of folks and this year's event is their best yet. be sure to check it out when it comes to your area. from there i headed north to minnesota where i'm currently writing from. when i arrived i had a couple of hours to spend before meeting up with jay howver to drive from minneapolis to rochester for the ayme conference. since the mall of america (mecca for a shopaholic like me) is only 5 minutes from the airport, i headed there. i should have clued into this becoming an idiot girl trip when it took me three tries to end up in the right lane to just get into the parking garage. on the third try i made it (woohoo!) but didn't end up with much time because of the whole circling the mall on various freeways thing. maybe i'll post the details later because it was kind of funny.

now i'm at the ayme conference. it's quite an experience for a self-proclaimed idiot girl. i feel a lot like julia roberts in pretty woman when she went to the business dinner with richard gere. on the upside, these folks are great and have made me feel so welcome. there are a number of the professors i've worked with through our academic network and it's fun to spend some time with them outside our conventions. it's also been a great view into their world. i'll have to write more about this later but here's a few items for a sneak preview: marketing girl with cute shoes, soul searching, women in ministry, spam (yup, the canned meat stuff) and research methodologies. stay tuned.