DAY FIVE
(Or Tuesday, for those of you not at a convention)

Sleep. Blessed glorious more than five hours of sleep. Not a lot more but at this point, every little bit. When I signed off last night I went to the dance, and the band was quite good – and REALLY loud – which gave me the motivation to stay only a short time and retreat to my room, where I knocked off some material for a meeting next week and finished the ad so I can send it to the office for comments and even did a little work on the homily for the weekend. OK a very little work, but I have an idea where it is going to go.

Of course, the big news item is Michael Jackson’s burial and the “service” at the Staples Center. Hundreds dead in rioting in China – and all the focus is on the crowd at the Staples Center. I may be in the minority here but enough is way too much – I grant his ability to dance and sing. I also note the drug use that seems likely to have been the cause of death, a lifestyle that was bizarre if not perverted (I know, he was acquitted but so was O.J.) – not my notion of a role model nor the “saint” he is being proclaimed by those of his inner circle. With the huge estate and debts and weird people attached to the whole situation, I am sure that the legal wrangling will keep him in the news for some time, and that the merchants and brokers and publicists will have their own motives for keeping the story going. Sigh. Enough. (And I don’t think there is anything more “wrong” with a ticket lottery winner trying to sell his ticket than there is for any of the other Michael Jackson sales that are and will be going on.)

I grabbed a muffin and a container of juice and did my morning email, sending things out. Ah to feel productive even before the first session of the day. Which I went to.

I’ll cut the suspense short – lots of door prize drawings, no wins for Sheehan. Economic report – yawn. Election of new board members – more yawn. Met a man who has been a client of the Xavier Society for years and wanted to let me know how much he enjoys and values our services. I’ve heard that a couple of times, and I never get tired of it. On the roster of speakers this morning, there was a man from Humanware, a supplier of devices to help the blind gain access to materials – they are very good and he wasn’t bad; a blind athlete who took part in the paralympics in Beijing (he was interesting); a report from a man from the Perkins School (Perkins was the first school for the blind in the U.S. founded in the early 1800’s – and the school is really much more interesting than the man who spoke, who is the President of the school) and the woman who is the head of the World Blind Union – between her quiet voice, her Australian accent and the content of her talk, the ONLY thing that kept me in the hall was the thought of the $100 door prize to be awarded at the end of the session. Which I didn’t win.

I went back to the exhibit hall to buy some things and at the NFB booth (Independence Mall – cute title) it took 20 minutes to process a credit card. The whole set-up of the store was a disaster – so far the experience of the NFB convention has been very positive but THAT – grumble, fratsis, snort. When it comes time for the evaluation, that will lead my own list of things that need work. I know the philosophy of the group is that blind people are the equals of sighted, with which I have no argument – but sometimes things need to be laid out differently. It was worse situation for blind folk, because they could not see when a clerk was free, they could easily find the way through the crowd to get a better spot. I shamelessly took advantage of my sight and tonight I will try to feel guilty about it. I don’t think I will succeed.

So here I am, catching up – had a piece of Wisconsin cheese for lunch – a very small piece – pity the poor starving priest (Ok maybe not starving but something more than simply peckish) and I am about to trot back to the hall for the afternoon session. I am going to cut out a little early because I have two meetings scheduled with people, and then I am going to a baseball game. I don’t really want to – there are several activities that I would like to attend (and probably should be attending, if not participating in) but I’ve laid out $60 (which includes an all you can eat buffet – these are good seats – remember, I’m not in NY anymore) and I’m not about to blow that off. So the people I’m meeting will buy me drinks and the food comes free, so even if the afternoon session is a bust – and I don’t think it will be, the featured speaker is supposed to be very good – I am filled with high hopes for the rest of the day. I counted and I have enough underwear for the rest of the trip, and life is good.

(Later - actually the next morning)
The metings were VERY good, except that at each one the person I was talking with insisted on buying drinks - so I had my week's allotment in one sitting. But very productive and hopefully a couple of good ideas may actually come to fruition. Off to the ball game - the stadium is about a 20 minute walk and after sitting all day, I opted for the stroll. (And on the way over I got a call from an Italian friend I know from Nigeria who is visiting in Texas. Small world indeed.)

GREAT stadium. Beautiful weather. All you can eat section upstairs on an outside deck (where, had I but known, I could have smoked a cigar. Actually there is even a cigar store and lounge at this stadium but I'm tight on cash and so I was noble.) Good seats and empty enough so that it wasn't a tight fit.

And let me tell you about going to a ball game with blind folks. Next to me was a guy who grew up with mill ball and kept better track of the game with his ears and paying attention than I, who had to keep checking the scoreboard. He talked baseball all night and was terrific. In front of me were a couple of guys who had the game on radio, so the play by play helped keep them in the game - and the conversation was far wittier, baseball relevant and fun than I am used to going to games with sighted friends. It was a great night. Took the people mover home afterwards, and unlike NY city subways, this rides on an overhead track and everyone in the car is chatting with everyone else - where are you from, do you like the city, how was the game, did you go to Notre Dame (I was wearing an NDN Alumni shirt) - great night.

And so to bed. Last full day of the convention tomorrow, and then I have a day to go visiting and exploring and then back to the "real" world for a couple of days before I head off on retreat.

Sweet dreams.