L-R: Kane, me, Cree, Garrett

No exploding tires, no big catastrophe this time, don’t worry.

But I had it in mind to write a great review of what happened at SOBCon08, and then I thought—especially in light of all the great reviews being posted out there—would that really be helpful? Would it help you to hear about the things I did, the food I ate, the people I talked to, and the sights I saw on my trip to Chicago this month?

No, not really. It probably wouldn’t. (Other than to give you social proof that SOBCon is great, and you should really go next year if you’re even at all curious.)

So, what would benefit you?

1. I had a great time. Now you can be happy for me (thanks).
2. It was a great catalyst for a number of decisions I needed to make, and you’ll be hearing about the fruits of those decisions very, very soon.
3. It reinforced for me the importance of friendship, community, and why it’s so great to go to events like this.

Because the information I heard was great, but it didn’t make as large an impact on me as when I went last year. At SOBCon07, I had been blogging about three weeks… so the information presented blew me away. Everything that anyone said was so helpful, so new, so eye-opening.
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This past weekend I attended SOBCon08 (the Successful and Outstanding Bloggers Conference) in Chicago, and today I had planned to write all about it. There were some fantastic messages shared, I made some great new friendships, lots of new connections, and had a blast with everyone I met.

Of course, writing about it was what I was going to do today, but… on the way home from dropping off my rental car, we had a tire blow up on the interstate. Knock on wood, we were fine, although the wheelwell got a bit ripped up when the tire’s tread flew off.

And, knock on wood, even though there were a bunch of cars around us, there were no collisions, no problems (except ours)… everyone was fine.

And, knock on wood, the tire actually still worked! The tread blew clear off, but the rest stayed on and inflated, so we could actually limp along in the shoulder until the next off-ramp. (And no, it wasn’t a retreaded tire… the guy at the tire shop said that what happened really shouldn’t have happened. But, of course, it did, so it just goes to show that improbable things actually happen all the time, just in case those of you out there with 100% normal lives were wondering.)

And, amazingly, we were able to drive on the busted-up tire all the way into the next town (over 10 miles), and then into the next town—ours—without incident. Why so far? There’s only one tire place on the way, and they didn’t have one in our size (it’s a truck tire shop, primarily). The shredded tire held its air for one last journey, and we made it all the way to Bob’s Tire Service…

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When Ben Yoskovitz’s Productivity meme went around recently, I wrote a post about the value of clarity. Thankfully, a number of people liked it and found it as useful as I have.

Well, you shoulda been at SOBCon… because in no less than five of the presentations, I found clarity to be a ubiquitous theme.

The Iowa Trio (Mike Sansone, Drew McLellan, and Mike Wagner) talked extensively about knowing who you are, where you’re going, who you’re going there with, and the importance of being intentional with how you’re representing yourself, rather than just letting it happen accidentally.

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I’m in love with someone. Actually, several someones… and my heart is fit to burst right now, I’m feeling so much love.

I’m shocked — I thought you were married!?

I am married, silly. And I love my wife the most. But I’m also in love with Wendy. And Phil. And David. And Liz. And Jonathan, Kammie, Ben, Peter, Sean, Christine, Lisa, Lucia, Lisa and Chris, Ari, Lorelle, Easton, Director Tom, Alex, Mike, Marcus, Terry, Kent, Sandy, Franke, Tony, Michael, Derrick, Drew, Ashley, and Andy.

(and of course I’m in love with Dawud, but you knew that already)

Have you gone off your rocker?

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