T-Minus 8 hours and counting

OK, it's 10:38 a.m. in DC. I'm on a 10-minute break from the last speaker I'll have today. I'm cutting the last segment of the seminar to catch my 2ish p.m. flight to DIA. I figure I'll be home around 6 p.m. local time. I am obsessively watching the pot.

Which is not to say that this hasn't been the best seminar I've ever attended -- it is. I've loved every segment of it. I learned when to be wary that a leaf with a twig poked through it might be a land mine. I know who Clausewitz is now. I have a cursory understanding of the current draft of the Army's new counterinsurgency manual. I got to chat with a 4-star general for more than an hour. This has been an amazing week in terms of professional development.

It's been fun on a personal level, too. I thoroughly enjoy the company of the other 12 members of this seminar, which includes the former dean of my journalism school. I had a great dinner out with my sisters-in-law. I accidentally had dinner at the restaurant where my father-in-law proposed to my mother-in-law. I got to lay in bed after an alarm -- not a baby monitor -- woke me up.

But I slept so well last night because I was knew tonight my sleep would most likely be interrupted. Almost every segment of the seminar has required at least a 5-second break to moon over my Riley screensaver or play a short video clip of her with the sound turned off.

I am a junkie getting my fix so I can make it through the day. So that means my addiction is manageable, especially considering the fact that I am now nine minutes closer to my girl.