January 16 - Off to Louisiana

Tomorrow morning I head out early to LaGuardia airport to catch a plane to Memphis and then to Monroe, LA where I will be met and taken to the Louisiana Center for the Blind. For the next two weeks I will wear sleep shades and learn how to use a white cane, navigate and deal with the basic of daily living in a world designed by and for sighted people.

I find I have a mixture of apprehension and excitement. I have no apprehension about what I am going to be doing. I have met a number of people from the LCB, both staff and graduates, and these are talented and dedicated teachers who do this all the time. They will not let me get into a situation where I can be seriously hurt - and I've been lost before with my eyes wide open, so not knowing where I am won't be a new experience. But not being able to quickly size up a situation or a person, not having visual cues to aid an admittedly failing memory - I just don't want to embarrass myself TOO badly.

I suspect I won't be writing here during the time away, but when I get back and have a little time to digest, I know there will be something here sharing my adventure with y'all. In the meantime, a little odd prayer every now and then would not be an entirely bad thing.

As I write this it is between Masses at St. Malachy's - I just finished the 5 PM, and I also have the 11. I am NOT ready, so when I go home I will pack, grab something to eat and it will probably be about time for the shuttle bus to swing by and collect me. This afternoon I had to go and get a new phone - I plugged my trusty Blackberry in last night for a charge and this morning - nada. I still had the charge I Had last night, but nothing new had been added. I checked the outlet and the plus was ok, which meant the charger was bad or there was something wrong with the phone, or both. Went to the AT&T place- charger fine, so has to be the phone. Now I'm leaving in the morning, so I took advantage of my status with AT&T and changed my basic plan, saving a little money and bought a new phone. Very like the one I had, so there is virtually no learning curve- but it was one complication without which I could have lived.

Two concerts and a gala evening to plan in the next days, some design work to finish at odd moments and get to a printer - well, I TOLD the folks at LCB I would have to have a little time each day to stay in synch with the office. I don't know if there will be a space where I will actually be able to sing while I am away - ah well, all will be revealed.

Stay tuned for further developments.