It's Hard work, but someone has to do it!

There's nothing like a cross-section of women away from their respective partners, children and homes to share a glass of wine, a meal and lively conversation. This is my experience this week, every night with a group of thirty women (well, twenty-eight women and two gay men) as I am immersed in my companies Design Intensive program at their corporate headquarters here in Connecticut.

For most of us the luxury of time away from our responsibilities at home far outweigh the intense course load. Most of us have lovely king-sized beds, masses of pillows and fresh crisp bedding to retire to nightly, no meals to prepare, no laundry to fold, no homework to help with and the camaraderie of like-minded women to share drinks, meals and stories.

On top of all that, we spend the days being inspired by all things beautiful and creative. This could actually be defined as a "working holiday". My most difficult task is fitting in an hour a day in the hotel gym, which I am managing. OK, so I miss happy hour, but my liver will thank me for that.

The great part is, and this is a secret, is that our spouses and kids think we are "enduring" the week without them, working and missing them and wishing we were home, when the truth is, the majority of us are getting a much needed break from the reality of our daily lives that require an outrageous amount of break-neck multi-tasking and planning to run even close to smooth. It's almost like when Martha Stewart went to prison. It was like a holiday from her crazy life, where she was able to find time to work-out daily, spend relaxing times creating craft projects with her fellow inmates and getting a solid 8 hours of sleep per night. She came out of prison looking and feeling refreshed and fit.

I am not recommending white collar crime to get out of the drudgery of housework and parenting for a few months, but let's face it, there isn't a woman out there who doesn't need a break now and again. I have proof - 28 of them right here, representing several American states...

and one Canadian.

That would be me.