Boarding, Baby and Boards

I went to North Carolina last week for the weekend. I'm on the board of Delta Pi Epsilon, the Business Education research organization and we had our meetings in Greensboro, North Carolina.

That was the official reason for the trip.

But everyone knows that there was another reason for that trip and her name is Riley. I stayed with my kids in Winston Salem (only a 30 minute drive to Greensboro) and had a few hours each day with Riley.

I was fascinated with my children when they were born. I loved holding them and interacting with them. Eye contact, silly peekaboo games and stupid noises were my stock in trade. Riley is a bit young for that yet but I'm practising. She was a joy to be with and I think that joy will only increase as she gets older.



The Board meetings were very interesting. We are in the midst of great change in our profession and for this organization and I feel privileged to be able to be a part of all of this change.

I had to fly through Toronto on this trip and the weirdest thing happened on the way to the meetings.

I made it through U.S. customs and was on my way to the gate when I encountered a roadblock. Yes, a roadblock in the middle of the concourse. Men were asked to line up on one side and women were to line up on the other. We were then called out, one by one, to be investigated, patted down, interrogated and generally looked over by Mounties! I hope the fellow who patted me down enjoyed it as much as I did - my goodness he was thorough.

Men to the left and women to the right was disturbing in and of itself but when they separated two elderly people it was more than disturbing. The man was clearly dependent on the woman and became distraught and confused when the men's line started moving faster than the women's line and he lost sight of her. A little reverse profiling here - or maybe just some common sense - would have been appropriate here. They did need to be 'investigated' but in this case they didn't need to be separated. Blind bureaucracy!