Today is day two of me being out of town at a conference. I'm only an hour and a half from home, but it might as well be a million miles away. I'm staying in St. Paul rather than driving back and forth - if I had to do that, I probably would have bailed on it. Professional development isn't worth that mind-numbing drive.

Alex is having a rough time with Reed. I don't know if Reed's recent behavior has anything to do with me being gone; I don't think it does because last night was the first night I was away. When I talked to Alex yesterday afternoon, he said that Reed had a rough morning - he had been slapping his friends at school. Reed is not normally aggressive at all, so this was a surprise. His teacher thought he might need a nap, and she must have been right because he slept for two hours and woke up a new man. When Alex talked to him and tried to understand what the problem was, he couldn't get much useful information out of Reed - all he got was "I need..." and then couldn't understand the rest of the sentence. Later on when Alex was trying to get Reed to bed, there was a meltdown because Reed wanted to sleep in his clothes and Alex wanted him to wear his pajamas. Alex forces issues that I usually wouldn't, so this discussion apparently went on for about an hour before Alex finally gave in and let him sleep in his clothes. This morning, there was an argument about Reed wanting to take a car to school. Alex was actually late for work over this one. I wish he could understand that not everything is worth the battle - if he had let Reed take the car to school, the teachers would've distracted him with something else and then hidden the car until we came to pick him up. I keep wanting to call daycare and check on him, but I can't do a thing to help any bad situation I might hear about, so it's just not worth it.

I went out with some friends last night - we just went to a little place right by my hotel, but it was a nice time. It was good to get out and do the networking thing - talking with old friends and colleagues, discussing work situations and the such. It's nice to remember what my life used to be like - and also to remember why I like my life now. I used to have to do a fair amount of travel - and now I don't. Being away from home is good for a day or two, but that's pretty much my limit - I'm glad I don't have to do it more often.