#226 Good Afternoon, July 3, 2015

HelloWorld,

Well here I am blogging in the afternoon again.  I got up early to go to the GWCC for my 5 hour volunteer shift.  I had no idea it was 5 hours!  A little surprised by that.  I wanted to stuff bags at reception but instead I did this:

Handing Out Books

My job was to take the little tickets that said that a person paid for the 80 Years Happy, Joyous and Free hard bound book and the Special Edition Grapevine book from this years’ convention.  The little tickets came attached to the name tags we have to wear.  So after picking up the packets, everyone stands in line and hands in a ticket and I hand them the books.  The books are printed in English, Spanish and French.  I gave out 2 French Books and someone handed in two tickets to “give away” a copy so I grabbed one of the French copies and gave it to Bill for Intergroup/Archives.  I handed out probably 40 to 50 Spanish books and probably 500 English Books during my 4.5 hour shift.  It was fun, but my body is tired since I was on my feet for the entire time and never stopped moving.  My “relief” person came in 1/2 hour early and I was SO HAPPY!  I was DONE!  Anyway, luckily Heather and Ralph were just across the street at a restaurant having lunch so I went over to join them.  I never had dinner last night – potato chips, cashews and a Diet Coke.  There are no restaurants near my hotel, but I did discover the “Varsity” today on my second walk from Marta back to my hotel.  I really love Marta.  It has been a blast.  I have “yet” to make it to a meeting.  Tonight is a the first Big Meeting in the Dome.  We’re meeting at 7PM at Gate C.  Heather, Ralph, Bill & me.  I’ll tell Steve about it too.  He is staying with Anna in my same Hotel.  Saw him this morning at “Breakfast” before my shift.  I’ve been told that some of the meetings are so big, that people are being turned away.  The GWCC is really confusing and BIG.  It’s a lot of walking.  My “dogs” are tired.  I’m taking off again tonight at 6:30 for a ride to the Dome (or as close to it as possible).  There are volunteers all over the place to answer questions.  Cops everywhere too and lots of ways to get information.  I wore my shirt after my shift and people were asking me all kinds of questions.  I won’t be wearing that shirt tomorrow for my Grapevine Shift.  SO tomorrow I’ll be able to relax a little more and maybe hit a meeting or so.  I am still on the search for a badge holder.  I bought a Tee Shirt for Betsy’ son.  I bought 5 pins for my lanyard.

So I just spoke to Carol Ann.  She is going to pick me up at 8AM to go out to breakfast.  Then she can get me to my “shift” at the GWCC at 10AM.  That will be fun.  I’m psyched!  Carol Ann and I were early drinking buddies – at 18 driving to NY when you could drink at 18 while in CT we had to be 21.  She’s a “part of my story”.  She’s retired now.  Living on Social Security and a pension from her husband who died a few years ago.  She lives in Marietta and is going to drive in to get me tomorrow.  That will be fun!

Time to relax a little before tonight’s festivities.  It’s gonna be HUGE!  People are guessing anywhere from 60K to 110K here.  At $100  a person, that’s a bunch of $$.   I figure I’ll be close to $1000 for this trip.  Others are paying lot’s more for their rooms.  Atlanta is getting “rich” off us drunks!  It’s really kind of wonderful though!  What a RIDE!  Thanks for visiting.

PS Need to add one more picture today:

Bill, Bill & Bob