This past week involved quite a bit of travel, starting with a few days in Charlotte and ending with a legal conference in Washington, D.C.
Between office meetings, dinner with Noah and Carly, reconnecting with someone who helped me early in my career, and several flights in just a few days, it was a full week.
Then I came home Saturday and discovered Holly and Sam had added one more surprise to the schedule: Luna officially has a new little buddy.
Andrew and I flew to Charlotte on Monday morning, and I spent the first part of the week working from our Charlotte office.
I had several meetings with attorneys, worked through some issues at the firm, and handled the normal things that are easier to accomplish when I am physically in the office.
I stayed at the Drury Inn next to the office, which has become my usual place when I am in Charlotte.
The location makes everything easier because I can stay close to the office without adding much additional driving to an already busy schedule.
Monday evening, I drove up to meet Noah and Carly.
We usually meet somewhere between Charlotte and High Point, and Salisbury has worked well for us.
We also tend to end up at a Mexican restaurant because all of us like Mexican food, which makes choosing where to eat pretty easy.
It was a good chance to sit down and catch up.
I talked with Noah about school, Carly about her job, and both of them about what the next couple of months look like.
As everyone gets busier, I appreciate those opportunities to simply sit down over dinner and hear what is happening in their lives.
The only downside was having to drive back to Charlotte afterward.
Next time, I may just stay in Salisbury for the night and make things a little easier.
That gave me one evening at home with Holly and Sam before I had to leave again.
Thursday morning started early because I was heading to Washington, D.C. for the Great Legal Marketing conference.
It was definitely one of those weeks where I felt like I was constantly packing, unpacking, or heading toward an airport.
I was involved with the program years ago when I was first building my firm.
Ben Glass, who founded it, shared a tremendous amount of information and knowledge that helped me during those early years.
He is now beginning to step back and transition more of the organization to his son, so I wanted to attend the conference and have an opportunity to see him.
More than anything, I wanted to say thank you.
When you have been in business for a long time, it is easy to focus on where you are now and forget some of the people who helped you when you were trying to figure everything out.
I have learned a lot from him over roughly the last decade and a half, and I was glad I had an opportunity to reconnect.
The conference itself was also worthwhile.
There were vendors, speakers, and plenty of opportunities to meet other people in the legal industry.
Even after running a firm for many years, there is always something new to learn.
Sometimes it is a major idea you can bring back to the business. Other times it is simply a conversation with another attorney or business owner that causes you to think about something differently.
Either way, I enjoyed the conference and came away with some useful ideas.
The books were from the Dungeon Crawler Carl series, which I have talked about before.
Apparently, the series is spreading through the office now.
I ended up carrying the books with me so we could get them where they needed to go.
I suppose that is another unofficial responsibility that comes with traveling between offices.
Sometimes you are carrying business materials.
Sometimes you are carrying fantasy novels.
I remember when every hotel bathroom had those little individual bottles of shampoo and conditioner.
Now, most places seem to have switched to larger dispensers attached to the shower wall.
It probably makes much more sense from a cost and waste standpoint, but I still miss the little bottles.
When I was younger, it almost felt like you could collect them from different hotels if you did not use everything during your stay.
It is funny which small changes you notice when you travel often enough.
While I had been traveling, Holly and Sam had been looking for a companion for Luna.
By the time I returned, we had a new Boston Terrier puppy.
He is still very young, extremely cute, and already creating plenty of disruption around the house.
Fortunately, it seems to be the good kind of disruption.
Luna and the puppy have been spending a lot of time playing together, and Luna seems to be having a wonderful time having another dog around.
We have also been spending more time outside with both of them, letting the puppy explore the backyard and get comfortable with his new home.
Right now, "Little Buddy" seems to be taking a strong lead.
Sometimes you bring a puppy home thinking you need to immediately choose the perfect name, but then a nickname starts getting used over and over until it becomes difficult to imagine calling them anything else.
We will see whether Little Buddy sticks.
For now, he seems perfectly happy regardless of what we call him.
We have started getting more of the decorations out, including some ghosts in front of the house, and there is still more to come.
Halloween has always been a big holiday for us, so there is usually no shortage of decorating.
This year, however, we are also adjusting to having a puppy running around while everything goes up.
That should make the next few days a little more interesting.
This week involved a lot of time on airplanes and in hotels.
I spent the beginning of the week working in Charlotte, had a great dinner with Noah and Carly, and then traveled to Washington, D.C. for the Great Legal Marketing conference.
It was especially meaningful to reconnect with Ben Glass and have an opportunity to thank someone who played a role in helping me during the early years of building my firm.
After all the travel, though, the biggest change happened back at home.
Luna now has a Boston Terrier puppy to play with, and our house has become a little louder, busier, and more entertaining.
After spending most of the week traveling, coming home to a new puppy was a pretty good way to finish it.
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