Spent about 10 days away from the office between attending SHRM11 and going on vacation with my family to Colorado, so here are my takeaways from those 10 days:

Vacations: Only rich people go on vacation – or at least how I like to go on vacation – it’s crazy expensive.  Here’s a conservative run down on 5 days in Colorado for my family of 5:

• Flights – $1250
• Hotel – $750
• Rental SUV – $450
• Food – $600 (included one trip to Cheesecake Factory as the “big” night out! That’s how Team Sackett rolls!)
• Entertainment: $500 (Breckenridge Fun Park, Cave of the Winds)
• Shopping: $700 (mostly my wife, but that isn’t normal – it’s usually for me, she deserved it after having the boys by herself for my SHRM trip!)
• Total cost: $4250 roughly

$4000+ dollars for 5 days!  That seems crazy to me, I mean that could have paid for 6 months of community college to one of my kids! And the best part of the whole trip – watching my 7 year old son get completely engrossed in looking for gemstones in a fake panning for gold setup – cost – $8 (he could have done that all day).  I want someone to tell me how people go on multiple trips per year – I have people I know that do this 2-4 times per year – and my only conclusion is the must make way more money than I do!

Vegas: 5 days in Vegas seems like 3 months.  The time change doesn’t help – going from EST to PST kicks you in the butt, but the energy surrounding Vegas just sucks the life out of you after a few days.  I don’t understand those people who love Vegas and want to return again and again – you are not my people. Give me a calm lake on a warm day with a sanding beach – and those are my people.

Connections: I’m always open to meeting new people and look forward to it.  This social media thing gives me a chance to meet people I normally wouldn’t and I continue to be pleasantly surprised and amazed at the people I meet.  Last week I got to have dinner with Ryan Estis and Michael Long, we were brought together by Smartbrief’s, Mary Ellen Slayter – who is completely awesome herself.  Prior to meeting both I would describe Ryan as this Marcus Buckingham-Man-crush-wanna-be, pro speaker, probably doesn’t really get HR type. Michael was the faux HR superhero The Red Recruiter, who seemed bigger than life to me with the whole red shoes thing and seemingly trying to save the world one recruit at a time.  A funny thing happens when you finally get to me people in person, your perceptions sometimes get blown away – that is what happened to me.  Ryan is what I want to be when I grow up – but for the simple fact we are the same age – although he looks 10 years younger than I.  He gets it – not just HR – but business – if you have a change to see him speak you have to check him out.  Michael is that guy trying to save the world one recruit at a time – and that’s completely awesome – he has “real” passion for what he does and it’s so refreshing to see that in a person.  Both were as down to earth people who you’ll ever meet and we talked and laughed through the entire dinner. Thanks Mary for the setup!