Curse of the conference call

Earlier today, I participated in a conference call for the upcoming MAAC Outdoor Championships. I am one of the coaches on the track committee. It dawned on me that this conference call tends to revolve around various unfortunate news in my life:

--A few years ago, I participated in the conference call from a hospital room, where my then-9-year-old son was being treated for severe dehydration due to the flu. Clearly, my attention and focus were a bit distracted on this call.

--Last year, I participated in a conference call from another hospital room, this one in New Jersey, where my father was being treated.

--About a week later, I had to hop on an “emergency” conference call. This one was on a day when my father was being released from the hospital. It started at that time and continued halfway on my drive from northern New Jersey back to Poughkeepsie.

--And then today, I was my dining room table, discussing meet entries and heat/lane assignments, as my son was on the den couch with a severely sprained ankle he got in modified track practice yesterday. A long night in the ER determined there were no broken bones, just a lot of pain and some swelling.

So yeah. Conference calls are not exactly a thrill a minute most of the time. In my case, they have been pockmarked with some stressful days. It’s called life!