I spent about an hour this morning before my work day officially started logging checks for Escape 08. I was traveling on business over the weekend and several checks arrived here while I was gone (including one piece of certified mail I have yet to retrieve from the post office). During the process I came across several lovely handwritten notes from listeners around the country. In some envelopes I found little more than a check-no registration form, no memo, no record of who the check was for and whether it was a double deposit for a single or a single deposit for a double. I’ve had to do some investigative work during this process and I’m at the point now where I need to determine whether everyone who has registered has actually sent in a deposit. Since we now have a waiting list for the ocean view rooms, this is critical data. We have 135 people from 23 states traveling from as far away as Montana, Washington, California, and New Mexico. Even Kelly is coming from Prague!

As I looked at my desk this morning, checks, paper, and bank forms piled high, I couldn’t help but notice this one sticky note. It reminds me of why Manic Mommies is so important. We’re not building schools in Afghanistan or Pakistan like Greg Mortenson (nod to my book club and the lively discussion we had last night about Three Cups of Tea), but we’re building a community of moms we can all call our own. Twice this week I received emails from moms who had met new friends via our private group on Big Tent. Both stories involved families who were relocating-probably one of life’s most stressful experiences. I’ll write more about them later.

Now if only someone would leave me a check for $20,000 at a random speaking engagement. Imagine what we could do!