Convention is over

Some left yesterday, others left early this morning after having been dosed with multiple mugs of coffee, some will remain a couple more days. So it is more or less over. Things will gradually slip back into routine. Am I pleased? I think I may have already intimated that conventions and other such large-scale gatherings are not at all my scene. I tend to crawl into my shell. The noise deafens me so that I cannot even hear the person the other side of the dinner table. I am embarrassed because I cannot remember some of the names, or cannot tell people apart. Gatherings between the meetings are about socialising, about small talk, and I don't do small talk - I long for proper relationship and not just a meaningless, yearly brushing of shoulders. Thankfully there is always plenty of clearing up that has to be done, to occupy my time and energies.  And so, once again, convention has come to pass.