too many deadlines, too much craziness in the world

So a couple of weeks ago, I was running (and I do mean running) my org's annual meeting. There was a tiny break and now I'm back running to get caught up and get ready for the org to move to new, smaller, cheaper digs on Union Square.

The craziness is the news. Everytime I read the headlines or see/hear the news, I feel like ripping my ears off and my eyes out. People killing each other or just being as insane as they want to be. The whole "Mosque at Groundzero" circus, the "Anchor Babies" the "Terror Babies", the head-long dive to the bottom in our political culture.

Sometimes there's only one thing you can do and Nezua shows you how.

(hat tip to Jessamyn who posted this on FB.)

at the conference

Among other things, I coordinate our organization's yearly conference. Or at least I have for the last two years. It's sort of devolved to me as the organization has bled staff over the last couple of years. When I went to my first Summer Meeting I'd been working for the Federation for a couple of weeks. The admin guy had just quit and there were four of us. I did the registration and stumbled my way through the week

The next year there were seven staff and everyone was doing something for the Meeting. There was a lot of overlap and some confusion, but it all worked.

Last year we were down to four staff and only three went to the meeting. All the on-site responsibilities were mine. Which has pretty much been the same this year, only we're down to three staff and an ED who's leaving at the end of the month.

This is a meeting for Federation members, the state-based LGBT advocacy organizations that do a lot of the local heavy lifting for changing laws and ordinances for localities and states. I understand a lot more about this work than I did three years ago.

on the road

Over Monday and Tuesday I was in three, no four, different airports. Oakland, Atlanta, Cincinnati, and Baltimore. Atlanta has a nice MLK exhibit in one terminal I rushed through. Oakland has nothing to eat after ten o'clock at night. Cincinnati has a Peet's Coffee and seems to remember a past life as a hanger. I was a zombie by the time I got to Baltimore. All I registered was the heat and humidity and the long walk to the baggage claim.

I have loved flying, hated flying, feared flying, but this trip, it's just work.