Eureka!

Life is a series of trade-offs, I suppose. Granted, my job is stressful at times. And I do have to read and respond to e-mail in the evenings and on weekends in order to stay caught up. But all of the long hours, stressful personnel situations, and mountains of correspondence seem worth it when I get to have a day like today.

I did have to get up especially early and endure a fruitless search for gourmet coffee before my 7:15 a.m. arrival at the conference. But after working for five hours or so, I got to come back to the hotel, take a hot bath in the huge whirlpool tub, read a book, and take a two-hour nap. Then I had an amazingly delicious meal at DeVito's (again... sorry, Alisa) where I enjoyed a wonderful salmon with pesto, side of homemade spaghetti and bread, and finished with coffee and raspberry white chocolate cheesecake, all placed on the ol' work credit card.

Brent (my coworker) and I did have to be back tonight for a couple of more hours, but we really didn't talk to anyone, so he read a book for class and I read a trashy novel.

Now I'm tucked in and ready to get up at the crack of dawn again tomorrow. But we only have to be there 'til 10 a.m., then it's off to Branson for a bit of shopping.

Yeah, my job is cheesy. And everyone wants to be me when I'm eating cheesecake and taking naps. But nobody wants to deal with the problems.