Maybe Next Year

I won't be attending the National Flute Association 38th Annual Convention next month. I wasn't able to save the money I'd need to fly to Los Angeles and spend almost a week in Anaheim. And last July I spent three weeks in the same hotel for the Episcopal Church's General Convention.

Today Summer 2010 issue of The Flutist Quarterly showed up in my mailbox. The Summer issue always the Schedule of Events for the current year's convention. Of course, I looked. During the first scan, I saw only three workshops I was interested in attending, primarily Zara Lawler's Saturday morning workshop "Interdisciplinary Performance Basics." Zara's workshop at the 2009 convention was a real eye-opener for me, and I regularly read her blog. As much as I like Zara's work and would love to take the workshop, it alone still isn't worth the expense of attending the convention in California.

Each time I looked through the schedule I found something else that interested me. Worth the expense yet? Maybe, but I don't have the money. It took me a long time to get myself out of debt, so I'm not going to participate in something I can't pay for up front. So unless someone hands me a rather large check in the next week, I won't be going to Anaheim.

So, I have some incentive to save for next year's convention, which will be in Charlotte, NC. Is it a coincidence that I'll be in Charlotte in February for network meetings for work and for the National Association for Episcopal Christian Education Directors Annual Conference?

And if I'm going to be down there, maybe I'll rent a car and make the drive west to Asheville and visit Biltmore.

Time to start saving and planning.