Professional Conferences

It was a good conference--some very interesting papers and productive professional conversations. But I'm gradually getting clearer on how I crash when I get home from professional conferences because all the parts of me that aren't welcome there have built up so much pressure. I feel like the task of this part of my life (I am 47) is to find some integration of the different parts of my life. But I don't know if that is possible in a professional setting (I don't feel it is appropriate in the classroom, except in very subtle ways). I have one friend I talk to about personal stuff, beyond that I have a very clear sense that people don't want to know. Last year there was a more personal discussion on another society's women's group's listserv after 9/11, but then it wasn't mentioned when we got to the conference.