Postcard from Denver...

Voila.  My hotel room.  I forgot my camera.

Thank you MacBook photobooth!

Oh, I love the west.  I feel at home here...the air is just the right recipe of closer-to-the-sun oxygen and crispness, the sky (when it is not snowing, as it was yesterday) is blue.  People are friendly--oh they are friendly.  I'm not saying people aren't friendly in Boston...it's just a different kind of friendliness.  The kind you have to scratch the surface a little to find.

I know we're pretty much settled in Boston and I definitely know its good points, but there's a part of me that is always holding its (my)breath and crossing its (my) fingers that we someday wend out way a bit westerly.  The truth must be spoken and there it is.  I just feel so at home here.

So far I've attended some great sessions. One of my favorites was a symposium on child development research/programs in Africa.  Fascinating...they are being very mindful about developing a canon of child development research generated by African scholars and researchers and reflecting the realities of their setting and culture, rather than importing paradigms and assumptions from the west (but still learning from its lessons).  And another great cross cultural program comparing the interactions of infants and mothers (and the maternal beliefs) in Italy, Netherlands, Korea, and the US.  Next I'm heading to a symposium about attachment relationships in extreme environments like orphan settings and street children.

Lots to think about.  I have to balance my own personal parenting questions with my "scholarly" pursuits when choosing from the HUNDREDS of talks and sessions.  Oh, my.

What are those "scholarly pursuits"?  That is the question.  Also, "what are you going to do with that degree?" a question I both get from others and ask myself all the time.  Hmmm.  It's evolved into a combination of infancy/early childhood studies, international programs, and especially helping children in extreme environments.  Somewhere along the way I found a little niche doing program evaluations and creating trainings for programs like those. I don't know where it will lead.  Sometimes I'm afraid to try because I might fail. Sometimes I'm afraid to try because it might go well!

 But, I do know this.  

I love jumping on the bed in my own little hotel room in Denver.