I am heading to San Antonio, Texas later this week for the annual National Eating Disorders Association conference.  This will be my first time, and I am really looking forward to it.   NEDA is a wonderful organization, and I want to leverage the expertise at the conference to learn how I can become an advocate to raise awareness (and funds) in support of those affected by eating disorders within my own community, which has woefully inadequate options for treating EDs in adolescents.    I am also looking forward to meeting many ED moms (and dads) in person.   Online support was such a critical component when my own daughter was very sick; and I anticipate a kinship among the other parents that are able to attend the conference.

I also have some more selfish reasons for attending:  I relish the idea of a few days in a warm climate and a few days away from ‘it all’… my usual hustle and bustle of work and family concerns.  I truly enjoy having a few days off my personal grid doing something out of the ordinary.  It was either this or a tennis camp.   I suspect my husband will also enjoy the relative peace and quiet for a few days… just enough to miss me!

The only other time I went to San Antonio WAS for a tennis camp a few years ago.  John Newcombe has a tennis camp just a few miles out of town — newktennis.    It is run by a couple of high energy Australians, who got me to try Vegemite; (which is truly HIDEOUS stuff).   There I was–a Midwesterner in Texas, at a camp run by Australians, attended by a largely Canadian group of tennis nuts.   Life is funny sometimes -Eh?

Who knew it would be that easy to tie in a tennis story to my pending trip — A two for one!