YAPC::NA is quickly approaching and I am experiencing my usual mixed-up feelings of trepidation and excitement.  The thought of speaking always fills me with dread. I know I will be fine once I start but thinking about starting does something odd to my brain and I fear I won’t remember any words. I spoke on Wednesday night at the Windy City Perl Mongers and they would never believe that I could be without words.  I easily spoke for over an hour on The Perl Foundation.  I only have 20 minutes at YAPC so I will need to be less loquacious.  I really enjoyed meeting the Mongers in Chicago.  They were incredibly welcoming, appeared to be interested in what I was saying, and asked lots of questions that allowed me to babble at length.  There is no doubt that I can be passionate about the work we are doing at The Perl Foundation.

And I’m excited because JT and his team have put so much effort into YAPC::NA that it’s going to be an amazing conference.  There is so much happening that I have no idea where I’ll get the energy to fit everything in, but I’m certainly willing to give it a go. I have been in America for over a week so at least I won’t be jet lagged at this conference.

This is my 24th YAPC and over the years I have made many good friends in the Perl community. I love the hallway track and I’m looking forward to the conversations.  There are some regular attendees who can’t make it and I know I will miss Jesse Vincent and Yaakov Sloman.   But soon I will get to see Shawn, Casey, Matt, Rik, Jacinta, brian, and so many others that I’d be here for some time if I tried to list them all!