Chenille Saunders (my daughter) and I went to NMX together. Going to a conference to learn something new can be a wonderful experience especially if you make it a point to network and make new friends. Have lunch with them or invite them to join you for the parties. For me making friends and contacts is the best part of attending a conference. It is the part that you can’t do learning online, you can only do it in person.

Samela Dingus is a new friend that we made. I was so impressed with her goals. She had them completely detailed and she could tell you concisely what they were. She is fulfilling a need for dancers over 40 that are no longer being employed in dance and giving them a new outlet for their talent. What a wonderful woman she is.

The Costa Concordia cruise ship sinking was a terrible tragedy for the passengers, cruise line and could be for you too. Don’t go running for the mountains because the ocean now feels unsafe. The statistics show that cruise ship travel is still one of the safest modes of vacationing.

If you allow the images and stories from the media to activate your fear and over ride your good sense then you will never travel. You won’t be able to watch movies, TV, the news or read a newspaper without coming unglued about all types of vacation disasters.

I just watched “When Vacations Attack” yesterday. It was showing a fishing charter in Alaska that had an explosion in the engine room and sank. The people survived but just barely. I am planning on going on that very fishing trip in Alaska this summer. Even though I am a seasoned traveler it still unnerved me.