I'M HOME!!!

For a couple of days at least. And I am filled with good intentions about doing a wrap up, a summary, a reflective piece filled with brilliant observations and witty and incisive comments.

Yeah, right.

But in the meantime, a couple of photos to illustrate and amplify on my earlier comments.

The Guide Horse - see? I wasn't making it up. In the top photo you can also see the plastic diaper arrangement, a real necessity when you have a horse walking through a hotel. Or a living room. Or wherever,

Did I mention that working dogs are exempt from the Pooper Scooper laws? Yup, a blind person is not obliged to clean up after their working dog. One assumes the same is true of a working horse?

The remaining pix are from my hotel room window. Pretty much self-explanatory. If you look at the one picture, you can see the lights in the baseball stadium.

DAY THE LAST

Well, for the convention anyway. And before I launch into the last day, a word from a previous posting. Several people expressed - interest? - in how the pony which was being used as a guide animal relieved itself. I guess one might try to house train a pony, but this one had a plastic arrangement that was designed to catch whatever might be excreted. It hung below and behind - and when I saw the critter the plastic container was empty (thank you). But talking to some folks who had been with the critter when the bag was full, the aroma is - pungent.

Up in the morning - down to the gym - sweat to greet the day. What is it about sweat first thing in the morning that makes you feel as though you've done something noble. Even in this short time, the day falls into a routine - shower, dress, downstairs for a muffin and email and off to the first session. (To kill any possible suspense, Father John did not win ANY of the raffle or door prizes throughout the whole convention.)

The first session featured two of the folks who head up the National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped at the Library of Congress in Washington, and following their presentation they and I and another man from Talking Books in Colorado went out for a long talk and some light breakfast. I won't bore you with the details but we had several avenues to explore, and the upshot is that I learned some valuable information, got some valuable advice and I will be going down to meet with them at their place probably in August.

Because of the meeting I missed the next three sessions (See? Good things happen when you least expect it!) Actually the next session was underway when I got there and was being moderated by the guy I had been sitting next to at the ball game the night before. It was a panel, a group of people talking about their experiences learning braille and learning to uose the white cane. I stayed for that and the next session but they were running about 45 minutes late on the agenda, so at that point I bailed (No not Brailled, bailed) and took a large box to UPS to ship back to the office. Some things I had brought and had not used and a LOT of things I had collected during the week.

Down to the lobby to do email and work and then back for Dan Goldstein's talk. Dan is a lawyer who works for the NFB and I've been working with him on some of the issues with the Reading Rights Coalition, of which the Xavier Society is one of the founding members. (They always list us last though - never can figure out why.) He was very good and very direct and very encouraging about several of the issues we are engaged in.

The next speakers were also very informative, but about things I suspect you don't care about a bit, and a year ago, neither would I have. I split early - when 2,800 people all try to move at once, the elevator system can't cope, so I thought I'd leave and have some extra time.

Now I have been full of praise for the hotel -but when I got back to my room, I discovered that the cleaning crew had been a tad overzealous and the plastic tabs that makes a black shirt a clerical shirt - were gone. I assume the cleaning lady saw them on my desk and decided they were junk. Furious? Yeah, that would be a good word to decribe my mood. I was going to wear a clerical shirt for the banquet, and to visit people the next day and to travel home in - now all I have are a couple of black shirts. THAT annoyed me, but even more the thought that cleaning ladies were going through the thinks on the counter and on my desk and deciding what was and wasn't to be thrown out. If it's in the waste basket it's to be thrown away. Otherwise - not their call.

So the manager got rather a blast and quite honestly, while he was very polite, his whole demeanor was - So what? When I get home the Marriott management will get a letter, along with a copy to the BBB in Detroit and the NFB who sponsored this convention, with the suggestion that perhaps this is NOT a hotel to consider for future such activities.

The banquet was OK - with so many people they had tables out in the foyer area with loudspeakers - and with a community of largely blind, the ability to hear is more important than having a good sight line to the dais. Lots of door prizes (see above) and scholarships awarded and a terrific speech by the President (it went for an hour but it was still a good speech - remember to ask me about the vibrating vest) and off we went. I went to the porch and smoked a cigar, visited with some folks and crashed.

There will be one more posting, since I have one more day, although at this writing I suspect it will not be as productive as I might have hoped. But I'll work out at the health club and get a good night's sleep, no matter what.

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.

DAY FOUR - (Yawn)

The yawn was not boredom but rather fatigue. I was complaining yesterday about getting up early - I was up later last night and the alarm today went off a half an hour earlier, because I went for the March for Independence. Gather at 6:30 am.

I may have commented earlier about the inherent new way of looking at things when you get a bunch of blind people together to march in a picket line. More so when you have a thousand or more of them marching through the streets of Detroit. Imagine you're blind - there are talking signs all along the hotel so you find your way to the gathering point fairly easily. Next challenge - find your state delegation. How do you do this? Simple, you listen for someone calling out "New York. New York. New York over here."

The problem with this is that there are 51 OTHER delgations all doing the same thing. And occasionally an announcement over the loudspeaker. And at one point someone thinks it will help motivate the crowd to play loud music over the loudspeaker. Which it does - thereby making it even MORE difficult to hear the all from your state.

It all got sorted out, as it usually does, and off we went. Lots of police along the way - and news cameras - I suspect we were a feature on several local tv channels. (I have a tv in my room but seldom get to use it. Same thing could be said of my room.) I did get to meet some interesting people along the way and had a long talk with one of the NFB lawyers, whom I had met before, and she was able to answer a couple of legal questions I had brought along with me. The usual questions of crowding when a wide sidewalk turned into a small one, or someone stopped and the people behind kept walking, or someone walked into a state sign - keep imagining, it probably happened.

The march ended with a rally - lots of speeches and local politicians and I left early. I have learned that when 2700 plus people all try to move at once - and a number of them are blind and visually impaired - the elevators can't handle them all at once and you spend a lot of time standing around the elevator lobby. I needed a shower before the first session, so I went back and had the shower, dressed and got a good seat in the NY contingent.

The first thing they do at each session is a door prize of $100 - you have to be in the room to win. I think they call that motivation. Opening prayer by the "other" priest, and a good local band. A presentation by and to the Blind Veteran's group, including one of the Tuskegee Airman (I had drinks with him later in the day) and then - apparently a great tradition for this group - the roll call of states. If that brings to mind an heroic parade, forget it. Each state affiliate chairman - and there are 52 of them - gets to the mike, announces his state, crams in as much PR as he or she can fit it, and answers a series of questions about who the delegate and alteraneta re, who will sit on the nominating committee, when and where the state convention will be - some are shorter and some are longer and it makes watching paint dry seem a terrific option. They do break it up with drawing door prizes, but it went from 10:05 until noon.

Lunch - except I never got lunch. I did get my computer and did some work in the lobby - and got waylaid by someone who wanted to talk. Went by the Exhibit Hall to greet people and pass out brochures - and suddenly it was time for the afternoon session.

Opening event (after the $100 drawing - I didn't win again) was the President's Report. Marc Maurer is the President (Notre Dame grad) and his report went for a full hour. In that hour, there was factual report after factual report after factual report. There was very little filler and it was all interesting and occasionally exciting and very, very good. Yes, I know it went for an hour. But they deal with questions of accessibility that most sighted people never think about. Example - more and more kitchen appliances are digital and the critical information appears on a screen. An old oven - you could turn a dial, and have marks on the dial so you knew what you were setting the heat to. With a digital display, unless it talks, a blind cook is left out. Example - we are working to save energy and there are more electric cars on the road. One of the things about an electric car - REALLY quiet. Most people would think - Aha, that's good, that's a bonus, less noise pollution. But if you are a blind person, listening for the noise of an oncoming car to guide you as you cross the street - WHAM! Stuff like that.

Before the session started I saw a woman with a guide pony. You know about guide dogs - guide pony. I don't have my cable with me so I can't get the picture out of the camera and onto the computer so I can share it with you but I will. A guide pony - think I'm not going to take a picture of that? The young woman is Muslim and apparently they have a cultural bias against dogs (unclean, unclean) and so - a guide pony.

Idle thought at some point during the day - I had mentioned that the design of the hotel is round. Did I mention that the plates on which they serve the food are all square? Go figure.

After that talk it was pretty much all downhill from there. The Honorable John Dingell was supposed to give a talk on (and I quote)"Policies to Enhance Employment, Includion, Safety and Productivity. Dingell is THE longest-serving member of the House of Representatives, I think ever. 52 years. So it's a tourist thing if nothing else. But he droned on and on (and on) about health care reform and what he was going to do, and the bill his father had sponsored (his father was a Representative before him). Never got to the topic and while I can't be absolutely sure, I was fairly sure I heard some Boo's in the crowd as well as applause.

He was followed by a former Representative, now the President and CEO of the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers. This could have had potential and he wasn't awful - but he has definitely taken a course in glittering generalities, and I would dare to say he probably did fairly well. He was followed by another Representative, Congers (or Conyers?) I confess to not knowing Representatives and he was not on the printed agenda. He also talked about health care - and his deep and personal relationship with Stevie Wonder. Funny, in an old man sort of way, but too long and not always coherent. He should consult with the first guy abot his diet or exercise.

The next speaker was to talk about "The Journey of Braille: From the Hands of the Creator to Earth Orbit." The proverbial straw that did in this particular camel. On the one hand I didn't want to NOT be in the hall if they calledl my name for a door prize. On the other - I'm outta there. Went out to the porch and had a hamburger - met people and then met more people and then met more people, and while I found them fascinating, I'm not sure you would. There was one man who is here because his 22 year old son is going blind and he is trying to figure out how best to support and help him. A young man from Staten Island who has had his guide dog for three weeks - he wants to come to the blessing of the Guide Dogs. Many others.

By then it was after 7, so I went back to the Exhibit Hall and sat in on a meeting with some people from the Treasury Dept (talking about accessible money - money printed so the blind can figure it out) and then to the lobby to do some online stuff. When I leave here I am going to a dance with a live band to see what the music is like, and then I have to finish laying out an ad for a magazine and finish some material for a meeting next week so I can post it in the morning, and maybe even work on homilies for the weekend and next week.

Oh - last night. (Not that this is the last night but I remembered I had never really finished last night's activities.) When I left the porch, I skipped the Kurzweil demo, and the Guide Dog meeting had started, so while I did stay for a little and got some literature, I wasn't going to get to meet anyone until it was over (10 PM) I did stop by the group promoting the use of Braille and visited with the Blind Veteran's group and then it was time for the New York caucus.

Which was actually kind of fun. About 40 people - talking mostly about the march and the rest of the convention and the NY State convention, although they did also talk about an online poker tournament coming up (in which you too can play for an entry fee of only $20 - trust me, you'll be hearing about that from me in the not too distant future.)

And finally - blessedly - bed. Which is hopefully in the not too distant future today. I have to think to realize that today is Monday. There is an unreality to all of this, living almost exclusively inside the hotel. I'm going to see how late I'm up - I need to do the gym in the morning, more for the weights than the treadmill tomorrow. We'll see. I was really unhappy with the alarm clock this morning, and I'd like to send some of the work off in the morning before the first session (and that $100 door prize).

Sweet dreams.

DAY THREE (Interim report)

Any day that starts with pizza for breakfast is a good day indeed. Although the first question of the day was - and I quote -

WHY IS THE ALARM GOING OFF AT 5:30 IN THE MORNING? A CONVENTION IS SUPPOSED TO BE A TIME OF REST AND PLAY AND SLEEPING LATE!!!

Not. At least when it's Sunday and morning Mass is at 7:15 AM and everyone knows that you're a priest. Now I was not the celebrant, so I did not need to be particularly awake,but I did need to be present. I was (present) and was not (particularly awake). But (as sometimes happens after a Mass at which I am a pew participant) a number of people came up to talk about my singing. The Mass itself was led by a priest who has been associated with the NFB (see yesterday) and it was ok. I'm a Mass critic, worse than theatre, and there were things I would have done differently. The cantor raised her hand to indicate that people shoudl sing. Hello - this is a group of blind folk. No ushers to help coordinate movement for communion, nor talking voices or guides to help people find the Minister of the cup on each side - which led to some interesting moments. And at the end they sang three of the four verses of America - leaving out the most beautiful!!! Grrrr. Now if >>I<< were in charge of the world.....

Dashed off to buy a NY Times ($6!!! - thank heaven for the pizza because having paid for the paper I couldn't afford breakfast). Made myself a cup of coffee from the room brewer and off to the meeting of the Board of Directors of the National Federation of the Blind.

Note: For all their other talents, blind people at a meeting can be just as boring as sighted people. Equal opportunity taken to its logical conclusion. A HUGE ballroom which was only about 1/3 full, but which was chilled for full capacity so I ended up leaving early simply because I was freezing. And I needed the time to do some other business.

So I'm sending this - off to the exhibit hall to make a purchase - and to a meeting of the National Association of the Blind in Communities of Faith. I have NO idea what this group is about but I have loaded my bag with materials and off I go. I won't stay for the whole thing unless it's terrific - there is a meeting of people planning activities for Meet the Blind month at 3:15, a meeting of Kurzweil users at 5:30, National Guide Dog users at 6 PM, the National Association of Blind Veterans at 7 (also a meeting of those interested in promoting use of Braille at 7) and a caucus of the NY delegation at 9:15. Now where I get to eat in all of this I have NO idea - so it might be a low budget, low calorie kind of day.

(Some time later)
When I was on Kwaj, the golf pro used to repeat (often) "It's all good." (Have you ever known a golfer who was not a philosopher? Although the same relationship cannot be assumed of philosophers...) Today - so far - it's all good, although I have to work a little harder at finding it. I have spent the day in meetings with little or no immediate value. I went to the meeting of faith communities - veyr evangelical, lots of alleluia's and amens, and not a lot of concrete information. (Although they did manage to extract a $5 membership fee, so I expect I will receive the odd e-mail during the coming year.) From there to a meeting on how to morre effectively reach senior citizens, whose eyesight is failing. I didn't spend a lot of time there but there was a lot of talk about crafts and what it was like to be a grandmother. On to the meeting about "Meet the Braille" month, an annual event designed to help educate the wider world about the blind and what they can do. (Ie, pretty much anything.. All right, flying a plane is tricky - actually flying is easy, landing is hard)

The moderator was a sighted staff member from NFB and unusually up tight. So far the sessions have all been fairly relaxed - blind folks speak out when they want to ask a question (raising your hand is fairly counter-productive) and people need to talk to get directions on where to find a seat, so strict decorum is in the background but people are relaxed about how it is actually observed. This guy wanted everyone to sit down before he started (blind folk don't care of they can't see you) and then he started to lay out the program. I was rahter hoping it would be a session of ideas, but it seemed to be a presentation of the NFB program, which involves having students take pictures standing with other people next to a cut out figure. OK it's more sophisticated than that, but not something the Xavier Society is going to get involved in.

At one point he stopped and asked if someone was talking. Someone was talking on the phone, very rude but not unusually obstructive, but it was a high school moment, with the teacher pretending she didn't know what was going on but threatening anyway. The person stopped talking and we went on. Not two minutes later, HIS phone range, he looked at it, apologized and said he had to take the call. That was when I gathered my bag and left.

From there to the meeting of the blind lawyers. I have been working with this group in trying to free up the Kindle situation and I was interested in the section on copyright law and access to electronic material. It was a very well-done presentation, but I knew absolutely everything that was presented. Sigh.

So now I'm back in the lobby, taking a quick rest before heading off to the Kurzweil presentation, a swing by the Guide Dog Association meeting, a visit to the Blind Veterans (and maybe a quick visit to the National Association to Promote the use of Braille) and then a meeting with the NY affiliate group at 9:15. And lest all this sound too exciting, remember that I have to be up and dressed and downstairs by 6:15 AM to take part in the 4 km March for Independence, which includes a rally and a torch lighting and music and dancing in the streets. I will take my camera but I can fairly well assure alland sundry there will be NO pictures of yours truly (that would be me) dancing in the street.

In theory there should be one more entry tonight. In practice, don't hold your breath. More tomorrow.

DAY TWO - Reflections etc.

Reflections from a sighted guy at a blind convention.
And other stuff.

DAY TWO

How weird is this – I’m in Detroit on the 4th of July, watching the New York fireworks on television, on the 43rd floor of a hotel with glass walls – and there are no local fireworks to watch. Apparently their big fireworks was last week. (Probably bribed by NBC so there would be no competition. Or maybe they didn’t want to compete with the glorious sunset – which at 9:43 is still breath-taking.)

Digression – for those of you in the “older” category. Remember when the 4th meant a picnic – maybe a parade – and in the evening you would go to a park or a college football stadium and lie on the grass or gather with your friends and watch the fireworks. Maybe a little food – but that was enough. It was simple, but somehow it was also magnificent and magic and special. As I watched the tail end of the NBC Macy’s Spectacular (or whatever they called it) I had the feeling that NBC and the powers that be don’t trust us to figure out something is special. So we have bands and the Intrepid and guest singers and the dancers from West Side Story and production and more production, as if the fireworks alone wouldn’t be enough. (And of course there are about a million gazillion more pounds of fireworks than anything we ever saw as children.)

End of digression. And certainly the Macy’s fireworks were spectacular. But you know what? Half that many would also have been spectacular. Thus speaketh the crotchety old man. Curmudgeon. And increasingly proud of it. Today local communities are abandoning their own fireworks because of the expense. But I wonder if tomorrow they will abandon them because they can no longer compete with television, because the local children will be comparing the Fire Department effort with what they see on tv, and it will fall short and they will be disappointed. All right, all right, I’m done.

Today was personal contact day for the Fuzzy Jesuit (that would be me, for those not paying proper attention). I arose and after a short argument with myself, which I lost, I betook myself to the 40th floor where the “Health Club” is. All I have to say is if one is going to spend time on a treadmill, a 40th floor glass wall view of the city is the way to do it. And a tv set on every machine. And headphones. And every other machine imaginable and free weights and I had a really good workout. Upstairs to shower and coffee in the room and off to register for the convention. Which took about three minutes and then the first walk through of the exhibit hall.

I spent a couple of hours visiting tables, finding out what they were selling or providing, and introducing myself and the Xavier Society. Made some appointments for longer meetings later in the week, ran into a couple of people I knew from other events and got rid of some brochures and a lot of business cards. Met a lady who had been befriended years ago by someone from the Xavier staff. She didn’t remember who but she was still grateful. Gave away more Braille cards and Braille brochures than printed. I went to the lobby and had a muffin and cranberry juice and worked on my computer for a while. (Wifi is free in the lobby - $12.95 a day in the room. What’s the expression? Oh yeah, "no brainer.”) Met some more interesting people in the lobby, gave away some more brochures – and back for another hour at the exhibition. My thinking being that organizations change their table staff so I got to meet a whole new crew of people. Walked around for a bit and found a grocery store for a cheap sandwich, on to the porch for a cigar – and met more interesting people, including one guy who (on discovering I was a priest) talked about his wife and his marriage and a bunch of stuff.

From there on to the Mock Trial, put on by the Blind Lawyers’ group. Very (VERY!) funny, although a little weak on the law side. The large ballroom was packed and the jury (ie everyone assembled) was decidedly prejudiced. The case was about a divorced couple, each seeking custody of their children. He is claiming that she is an unfit mother because (wait for it) she is blind. Guess what the verdict was.

I left before the end so I could attend a meeting of newsletter editors. The National Federation of the Blind (hereafter NFB) has a federation in each state (or almost each state) and many have newsletters. Most of the people at this session were editors or past editors or people who wanted to be editors. I was hoping for some technical information about doing newsletters for the blind, and I think I gave more helpful information than I received. Ah well, more blessed and so forth.

At the end of the meeting I went down to the bar, to help lower the level on the Laird’s bottle. (If that doesn’t make any sense, you haven’t read Day One, have you?) But the place was crowded and I wasn’t in the mood and while I was peckish, I wasn’t in the mood for a meal, so I went up to the room and dropped off my bags. I had not visited the Hospitality Suite, and I wanted to see the view from the 70th floor so I went up.

WOW. More glass walls, only more of them. Two large rooms and a bedroom and a piano. A piano? Yup, a parlor grand, at which I promptly found myself seated, noodling away. Had a soft drink, some cheese and crackers, chatted with people, including the only other priest at this event, who has been with the group since 2000 and who is celebrating the Sunday liturgy – and up came two pizzas left over from another meeting. Yay! Vegetarian, but thick cheese and really good. Visited with some more people, played a little more and just before sunset I came back down to the room and – see the opening paragraph.

Actually, after the Macy’s extravaganza finished (Blew itself out? Naw, too easy.) I looked out the window, and turned off the lights and there were small fireworks all across the horizon – not big but from my window I counted at least six. That was after I had gone through the whole nostalgic thing.

Which was a lovely way to end what was, all things considered, a pretty good day. Mass tomorrow morning at 7:15, so I’m off to an early bed and I hope a gentle sleep. (Oh and I snarfed a piece of the pizza for breakfast. Hot coffee and cold pizza – day doesn’t start any better than that.)

And thus endeth the second day. And I looked at it and I saw that it was really, really good.