While I’ve been incommunicado, I’ve been learning. (One of the things I learned is that learning ranks third on my list of strengths, according to business book number 3,407, after input and intellection.) (No, I am not making this up. If I were, I would have chosen a clearer or more interesting strength name than “input.”)

In terms of professional growth, I have absorbed an uncomfortable quantity of human resources knowledge. I have learned how to make charts in Excel and how to add trend lines to them. My little brain is stuffed to bursting with management theories that, God willing, I will not have to practice on actual humans, being perfectly satisfied with my Two Rules (plus the third), my gold stars, and the fact that baking fixes almost every office problem that exists.

The wider life lessons include such important maxims as Never Tell a Kid You Want To Leave Early, and Face It: You Are Too Old Not To Get Enough Sleep. The best one, however, is the one I just figured out today.

There is nothing I like better, no place I am happier, than home with a chance to write, a comfy sweatshirt, and a warm dog next to me. Now I know what the goal is.