#225 Good Evening Thursday, July 2, 2015

Hello World,

Ok, made it to Atlanta in the Druggie Buggie.  It was fine, but a very long ride and I didn’t sleep much, if at all.  I’m too tired to go to the Party in the Park (which has been moved in doors due to potentially bad weather).  But I thought since my “internal” clock is out of whack, I thought I would start this blog tonight rather than get up in the morning to do it.  I am supposed to be volunteering tomorrow beginning at 7:30 AM at reception.  If I go tomorrow, I need to leave the hotel around 7AM because it takes me about 1/2 hour to walk it.  I need to wear my tennis shoes tomorrow also, because my feet are really tired tonight because of the sandals I wore today.  Just a bunch of little issues.  The weather is really great though.  The temperature is only up to 82 today and it isn’t as humid as Florida.  Bill is staying at a hotel out by the Airport which is 40 minutes on the Metro.  I rode home on the Metro tonight and found that it takes as long to walk from the station on North Avenue as it does to walk back from the GWCC on Luckie Street.  I thought it would have been quicker, but it isn’t.  I could have made it to a “meeting” at one of the churches (a big book study) but was just a little late for it and I wasn’t sure exactly where the hotel was.  So now I’m at the computer doing a little  blogging from Atlanta.

This event is really amazing.  SO many of “us” here.  Everywhere!  I kind of wish I had more closer friends here.  Jackie has a new “love” interest and I don’t think Amy is here.  It makes me realize I don’t really have that many “friends” I want to spend time with here.  I like being with Bill, but he is so far away this time – 40 minutes by Metro.

My hotel is “OK” not great.  I’m glad I’m not sharing a room now though because the room is pretty small.  It’s a bit of a dump.  They are “renovating” and my room still smells like it was a “smoking” room.  They repainted it, but it still stinks, although I’m used to the smell now and the AC is one of those “radiator” types.  It’s pretty cool in here and a little “moist”.  Maybe it’s a smell of old marijuana since this hotel is on the outskirts of Georgia Tech and may have been used for students.

So the “Big Meetings” begin tomorrow night.  I’m a little concerned about it since I’ll be walking back by myself in “the dark”.  I hope I can follow back to the hotel with a “bunch”.  We’ll see.  I’m sure it will be fine.  I really want to get to those meetings.  I’ll try to hook up with Steve and Kris and some of the “Druggie Buggie” group.  I am terrible with “names” and there are a few people I rode up with that I don’t know their names and I hate that.  But this is the Dome Seating:

Big Meetings in Atlanta

I still remember those meetings in San Antonio and really enjoyed them.

So today, Bill had trouble with his badge.  He pre-registered but they never sent him a badge.  So by the time he got there, the line was probably an hour or so wait.  He came up with the brilliant idea of going to “special needs” and plead a “hard ship” since he had 2 knee replacements and could not “stand” for that long.  So they took pity on him and bumped him to the front of the line and boom – he had his badge in about 15 minutes.  It was great.  I don’t think anyone noticed.  I sure would have been pissed if I saw that happen after I’d stood in line for that long.  We got there earlier in the day and went right up to the line and picked up our stuff.  It took about 20 minutes.  I went to the “bookstore” to buy my Marta Pass and realized that I didn’t have my bag of “goodies” any longer.  Panic set in – where had I put it?  So fortunately, I had left it at the table where I was sitting with some Naples folks at “Corrections”.  I went back to the table and there it was, just sitting there waiting for me to pick it up again.  Here is a picture of all the “stuff” that was stuffed in the bag.  I’m hoping I can “stuff” bags at reception tomorrow.  I’m supposed to work for 4 hours.  But here is a picture of the “stuff”:

My Goodies

This year technology is really amazing.  There is a wonderful app for the Conference and I have an app for the Metro too.  Plus I just got this in my email:

Reminder of my shift.

Now I see my shift is 5 hours – wow!  But that’s okay it will keep me from spending money at “Sober City”.  I’ll try to get something to eat before the shift.  Oh yeah, we have a “free breakfast” beginning at 6AM.  So that will be nice.

So now I’m going to go through some of my goodies and then get to bed.

Oh yeah, another little “glitch”.  My kitty sitter didn’t think she needed to stop by to feed the kids until tomorrow.  She said Jackie told her the wrong date.  Anyway, she said she would stop by tonight after work which is after 8PM and will feed them then, so now I’m waiting to get a text from her about that.  At least she is able to stop over.  I warned her that Claudia may stop in also, so not to be surprised if she “crosses paths” with her.  I want to “gently” get Claudia to take care of the kids.  I don’t want to take advantage of my “neighbor” but as little a I go out of town, it shouldn’t be too much of a burden.  Plus I’d be happy to reciprocate.  But she doesn’t go out of town very often either.  Well, now I’m signing off for the day.  More later.  Thanks for visiting.