convention
Wow, I don't even remember what all I've done in the past month. The closest thing to the last time I posted was the NFB convention. I got in the cab at 4:30 with Al Spooner and Kinsey and went to the smaller terminal in Minneapolis. I got separated from the group but I eventually found them again going to security. Dee set it off as usual, so they had to check her. On the first flight from here to Wisconsin, the one flight attendent kept insisting that I needed to sit in row 10 because "that is where people with service dogs sit," and "she doesn't look very comfortable all stuffed under that like that." I told her four times we were fine, and she even mentioned it again as we were deplaning. After we got to Dallas, we had shuttles arranged to go to the hotel. Some airport guy kept trying to grab us and put us into shuttles, but we had to stay as a group. It was pouring by the time we got out. Check in was fast, and Michelle, Ginny, and I were roommates. It took me awhile to find the room, because the hotel has an atrium in the middle, so the hall is broken into three branches, and we were in 388. After dropping off stuff and finding the relieving area, which was outside the first floor door, thank god, I put Dee in my room and went exploring with my cane and sleep shades. The hotel is huge with an atrium on one side and the tower on the other with a series of carpeted ramps connecting the two. One of the assignments was to find the presidential suite under shades, so I did that. I met Melissa Riccabono and Dr. Maur. Then, Michelle, Greg, Jen, Charleen, Nick, and I went to the media Grill. I wasn't very hungry, so I just ate some wonderful cream cheese icecream with a brownie and fudge suace. After that, I sold some karaoke tickets and went to bed after 1 am.
Saturday, Michelle and I slept till after 10. Someone from BLIND, Inc. called me and wanted to know if I had been grocery shopping. I said no and wandered over to the tower. I was sooo glad to buy peanut butter and jelly along with grapes and soda. This saved me from having to spend a lot of money on hotel breakfast or snack food. Before we shopped, we went to El Phoenix, a Mexican restaurant. I ate tacos and flan; I love flan, and I haven't had it for a long time. We went back to the hotel, and Michelle and I went to the craft show. It was kind of sad; there were only like five tables. I bought a lab pin for Jen's graduation present, and Michelle bought a card.
I don't remember what I did for the rest of the afternoon, but after 6:30, I was marshalling and selling karaoke tickets near the elivators. I was the first talking sign, since I was near the atrium elivators, and I had to direct people towards the tower. I accidentally forgot to give Dave Galscol a ticket after I gave him change, and he forgot too, since he walked away. By 9:00, they called us all in to turn in our ticket money and go mingle. I just happened to get there a couple minutes after David. Charleen said his story sounded believable, but she just wasn't sure. I started telling her I forgot to give a ticket to someone, and he was right there.
We sang the karaoke song. It went ok, except we started singing four too soon and had to wait for the next line.
You found our training center and decide you want to go
You ask your rehab counselor but she just says no.
She makes excuses and policy noise
You check the regulations and find informed choice.
You gotta fight for your right to BLIND, Inc.
You want independence and confidence too
Training at our center is right for you
Excuses you're given they sound like trash
Your counselor says they got no cash.
Ridiculous!
You gotta fight for your right to BLIND, Inc.
The rehab law says you can choose
Training at our center is right for you
Your rehab counselor can't remember what you said
You want to get your training at BLIND, Incorporated!
You gotta fight for your right to BLIND, Inc.
Such corny lyrics, but peo[ple seemed to think it was funny. Al asked me to speak, so I said how I was resisting training but now that I am close to the end of college, I need to be able to travel well for inturnships and grad school in a new city. I was also the ticket person at the door, and the cane can help me tell when people were trying to come in without one.
That was a long night. Afterwards, David and I went to the media grill, since I had not eaaten dinner before karaoke. I had a steak burger and fries, which were good.
Sunday morning, I went to the exhibit hall when it opened. After 20 minutes, I decided it was insanely crowded and confusing, so I took Dee back to the room and used my cane. Everyone was so close together and pushing and shoving. I went back and did a tour of everything, not buying, just seeing what was there and getting the layout. I worked the NFB Minnesota table. We sold nut goodies and nut rolls, local candy. I never had one before, and they are good! We also sold word scrambles and tickets for the Olympus recorder. It was not organized well for a totally lind person to sell. The t-shirts were not sorted by size and iit was ridiculous
I went back to the room to get Dee, eat a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, and grab grapes and soda for the NABS meeting. While waiting for it to start, I met a scholarship winner from Puerto Rico. He told me it was his first time off the Island, and he was fighting with his rehab system who didn't want him to go to Louisiana Center for the bLIND for NFB training. His goal is to open a similar center in Puerto Rico. The meeting was pretty good. Someone spoke about new accessability improvements for black board. We heard from Conchita Hernandez and her story about becoming blind and finding the nfb. People from bookshare and rfb&d spoke about recent changes. Dr. Maur addressed the students.
We voted for the NABS officers by passing poker chips to the end of the rows and someone counted to see who had the most votes. The meeting ended at almost 11, so some people and I went to the media grill to eat.
Monday morning, I went to the board meeting. It wasn't very interesting to me, but we had to go to that or resolutions. I went to lunch with someone then went back to the exhibit hall to actually buy things this time. I bought a manicure set, where I found Marie Cobb. She knew me wehn I was a baby, and she taught me to make homemade bread and chocolate chip cookies while I was at BISM when I was 17. She was like, I made your baby shower cake. It had pink teddy bears. We chatted for awhile, and it was great seeing her again. I also bought a Braille tokin that says Imagine and a Braille Keychain that says Life is a Journey. I caught up with a GDB instructor since I wanted to see how Dee was doing in traffic because of her issues after we almost got hit by the bus. He watched us for six blocks or so, and he said she is just fine now!! He likes her behavior and her work initiative! It took about a month to completely fix it, but I'm glad I stuck with it. She was a little dog distracted at convention, so we walked around a bit in the hotel. She sniffed, but she would move on when I noticed and told her to.
I went to the Pennsylvania Board meeting, where I saw Jim Antonacci, Lynn Heitz, Cary Supalo, and Miichelle. I haven't seen them in such a long time. Later, I went to the NAGDU meeting, and it was the 25th aniversary of the organization. Four of the five presidents spoke. This one professor guy was soooo long-winded, self-centered, and borring! I liked Suzanne Wailand, a blind lady in a wheelchair whose dog was trained both at Seeing Eye and South Eastern.
The meeting finally ended at 11, and I got to meet solstice_singer and talk for a few minutes. That was fun. I think I went to bed after that because I was exhausted.
Tuesday started general session, and that got old after awhile. My suggestion is to only have *one* role call of states and mention the fundraising amount then instead of having it again Thursday afternoon. I loved the speakers about education of yound blind students. I work with many kids, and I can relate to the problems and frustrations, even though I am not a teacher. I think I will write more about that later. Tim someone, a bllind doctor, spoke, and that was one of my favorite speeches. Michael Hinkson, the man who survived the Sept. 11 with his guide dog, also spoke. The resolutions took awhile, and people wanted to speak to them which made it even longer.
Other awesome things of the week included having dinner with Dominique and Briley and other people. We went to a burger place. Briley and I went to the exhibit hall, where we looked at the Braillenote Apex connectivity with the Iphone, and we got a free USB hub at the RFB&D table. I also got to meet Deanna with Pascal and we had lunch. I hung out with lots of other people I met before after sessions.
The banquet was ok, but I was freezing since I was wearing a dress. We had dry beef stew, but the chocolate cake was great. Someone from Pennsylvania got a $5,000 scholarship.
Dee did an awesome job for me all week!!! The first day, she was a little nervous and had an accident, but the rest of the time she was fine. She remembered the Media Grill, the corridor to the tower, the doors outside, the general session meeting room, and a few other things. Sunday was the only time I didn't take her to the exhibit hall. The other days weren't as crazy, so she could navigate easily. Her tail wagged almost the whole time at convention, and I only bumped into a few people. Dee and I sometimes got pushed by people who would stick their canes into Dee's harness handle. I'm glad I had her with me, and I will take her to another convention if I can.
Friday was the flight home. It was insane. Shawn scheduled the shuttles for 5:20, but it was 5:30 by the time we left. We got to the airport and it was craziness going through security. Strangely enough, Dee did not set off the metal detector. We got on the plane, and some flight attendant guy tried to take my cane and harness handle and put them above my head. I firmly refused and sat down against the window. He insisted that regulations state blah blah blah, and I told him that a person with a disability does not have to be separated from his or her service dog or mobility equipment. He kept trying it withother blind people. Someone else tried to read us the regulations and safety rules and tell us to wait till everyone else is off of the plane, but Shawn and Al stopped that pretty fast.
We got back about 1:30. I took Dee to relieve on leash outside of my apartments without my cane or harness. I somehow turned us and wandered around for a half hour. Dee leash guided me, and she finally saw our building across a huge driveway and took me there. I'm glad she could see it because I had no idea where I was. Lack of sleep, jet lag, dehydration from medicine, and not eating are a bad combination for me. I haven't disoritnted myself that badly for a long time. I also did it later going to mcdonalds later. I left my exhausted Dee at home and took my cane. On the way back, I got all confused and couldn't remember which street was 28th and where I ended up. I somehow got stuck in Old Chicago's parking lot.
Saturday, Michelle and I slept till after 10. Someone from BLIND, Inc. called me and wanted to know if I had been grocery shopping. I said no and wandered over to the tower. I was sooo glad to buy peanut butter and jelly along with grapes and soda. This saved me from having to spend a lot of money on hotel breakfast or snack food. Before we shopped, we went to El Phoenix, a Mexican restaurant. I ate tacos and flan; I love flan, and I haven't had it for a long time. We went back to the hotel, and Michelle and I went to the craft show. It was kind of sad; there were only like five tables. I bought a lab pin for Jen's graduation present, and Michelle bought a card.
I don't remember what I did for the rest of the afternoon, but after 6:30, I was marshalling and selling karaoke tickets near the elivators. I was the first talking sign, since I was near the atrium elivators, and I had to direct people towards the tower. I accidentally forgot to give Dave Galscol a ticket after I gave him change, and he forgot too, since he walked away. By 9:00, they called us all in to turn in our ticket money and go mingle. I just happened to get there a couple minutes after David. Charleen said his story sounded believable, but she just wasn't sure. I started telling her I forgot to give a ticket to someone, and he was right there.
We sang the karaoke song. It went ok, except we started singing four too soon and had to wait for the next line.
You found our training center and decide you want to go
You ask your rehab counselor but she just says no.
She makes excuses and policy noise
You check the regulations and find informed choice.
You gotta fight for your right to BLIND, Inc.
You want independence and confidence too
Training at our center is right for you
Excuses you're given they sound like trash
Your counselor says they got no cash.
Ridiculous!
You gotta fight for your right to BLIND, Inc.
The rehab law says you can choose
Training at our center is right for you
Your rehab counselor can't remember what you said
You want to get your training at BLIND, Incorporated!
You gotta fight for your right to BLIND, Inc.
Such corny lyrics, but peo[ple seemed to think it was funny. Al asked me to speak, so I said how I was resisting training but now that I am close to the end of college, I need to be able to travel well for inturnships and grad school in a new city. I was also the ticket person at the door, and the cane can help me tell when people were trying to come in without one.
That was a long night. Afterwards, David and I went to the media grill, since I had not eaaten dinner before karaoke. I had a steak burger and fries, which were good.
Sunday morning, I went to the exhibit hall when it opened. After 20 minutes, I decided it was insanely crowded and confusing, so I took Dee back to the room and used my cane. Everyone was so close together and pushing and shoving. I went back and did a tour of everything, not buying, just seeing what was there and getting the layout. I worked the NFB Minnesota table. We sold nut goodies and nut rolls, local candy. I never had one before, and they are good! We also sold word scrambles and tickets for the Olympus recorder. It was not organized well for a totally lind person to sell. The t-shirts were not sorted by size and iit was ridiculous
I went back to the room to get Dee, eat a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, and grab grapes and soda for the NABS meeting. While waiting for it to start, I met a scholarship winner from Puerto Rico. He told me it was his first time off the Island, and he was fighting with his rehab system who didn't want him to go to Louisiana Center for the bLIND for NFB training. His goal is to open a similar center in Puerto Rico. The meeting was pretty good. Someone spoke about new accessability improvements for black board. We heard from Conchita Hernandez and her story about becoming blind and finding the nfb. People from bookshare and rfb&d spoke about recent changes. Dr. Maur addressed the students.
We voted for the NABS officers by passing poker chips to the end of the rows and someone counted to see who had the most votes. The meeting ended at almost 11, so some people and I went to the media grill to eat.
Monday morning, I went to the board meeting. It wasn't very interesting to me, but we had to go to that or resolutions. I went to lunch with someone then went back to the exhibit hall to actually buy things this time. I bought a manicure set, where I found Marie Cobb. She knew me wehn I was a baby, and she taught me to make homemade bread and chocolate chip cookies while I was at BISM when I was 17. She was like, I made your baby shower cake. It had pink teddy bears. We chatted for awhile, and it was great seeing her again. I also bought a Braille tokin that says Imagine and a Braille Keychain that says Life is a Journey. I caught up with a GDB instructor since I wanted to see how Dee was doing in traffic because of her issues after we almost got hit by the bus. He watched us for six blocks or so, and he said she is just fine now!! He likes her behavior and her work initiative! It took about a month to completely fix it, but I'm glad I stuck with it. She was a little dog distracted at convention, so we walked around a bit in the hotel. She sniffed, but she would move on when I noticed and told her to.
I went to the Pennsylvania Board meeting, where I saw Jim Antonacci, Lynn Heitz, Cary Supalo, and Miichelle. I haven't seen them in such a long time. Later, I went to the NAGDU meeting, and it was the 25th aniversary of the organization. Four of the five presidents spoke. This one professor guy was soooo long-winded, self-centered, and borring! I liked Suzanne Wailand, a blind lady in a wheelchair whose dog was trained both at Seeing Eye and South Eastern.
The meeting finally ended at 11, and I got to meet solstice_singer and talk for a few minutes. That was fun. I think I went to bed after that because I was exhausted.
Tuesday started general session, and that got old after awhile. My suggestion is to only have *one* role call of states and mention the fundraising amount then instead of having it again Thursday afternoon. I loved the speakers about education of yound blind students. I work with many kids, and I can relate to the problems and frustrations, even though I am not a teacher. I think I will write more about that later. Tim someone, a bllind doctor, spoke, and that was one of my favorite speeches. Michael Hinkson, the man who survived the Sept. 11 with his guide dog, also spoke. The resolutions took awhile, and people wanted to speak to them which made it even longer.
Other awesome things of the week included having dinner with Dominique and Briley and other people. We went to a burger place. Briley and I went to the exhibit hall, where we looked at the Braillenote Apex connectivity with the Iphone, and we got a free USB hub at the RFB&D table. I also got to meet Deanna with Pascal and we had lunch. I hung out with lots of other people I met before after sessions.
The banquet was ok, but I was freezing since I was wearing a dress. We had dry beef stew, but the chocolate cake was great. Someone from Pennsylvania got a $5,000 scholarship.
Dee did an awesome job for me all week!!! The first day, she was a little nervous and had an accident, but the rest of the time she was fine. She remembered the Media Grill, the corridor to the tower, the doors outside, the general session meeting room, and a few other things. Sunday was the only time I didn't take her to the exhibit hall. The other days weren't as crazy, so she could navigate easily. Her tail wagged almost the whole time at convention, and I only bumped into a few people. Dee and I sometimes got pushed by people who would stick their canes into Dee's harness handle. I'm glad I had her with me, and I will take her to another convention if I can.
Friday was the flight home. It was insane. Shawn scheduled the shuttles for 5:20, but it was 5:30 by the time we left. We got to the airport and it was craziness going through security. Strangely enough, Dee did not set off the metal detector. We got on the plane, and some flight attendant guy tried to take my cane and harness handle and put them above my head. I firmly refused and sat down against the window. He insisted that regulations state blah blah blah, and I told him that a person with a disability does not have to be separated from his or her service dog or mobility equipment. He kept trying it withother blind people. Someone else tried to read us the regulations and safety rules and tell us to wait till everyone else is off of the plane, but Shawn and Al stopped that pretty fast.
We got back about 1:30. I took Dee to relieve on leash outside of my apartments without my cane or harness. I somehow turned us and wandered around for a half hour. Dee leash guided me, and she finally saw our building across a huge driveway and took me there. I'm glad she could see it because I had no idea where I was. Lack of sleep, jet lag, dehydration from medicine, and not eating are a bad combination for me. I haven't disoritnted myself that badly for a long time. I also did it later going to mcdonalds later. I left my exhausted Dee at home and took my cane. On the way back, I got all confused and couldn't remember which street was 28th and where I ended up. I somehow got stuck in Old Chicago's parking lot.