City of Brotherly Love and Saying What

I didn't realize until Sunday night that I was flying out in less than 24 hours. The plan had been to fly from Seattle to Philly together with Lorne Tuesday night/early Wednesday morning. Eric was going to drive us, and Lorne planned to leave his car at our house. We bought our tickets on-line at the same time using IM. But somehow I got mixed up and accidentally booked my flight a whole day early! I had a full day of work ahead on Monday, and little time to pack. **SHIT! SHIT! SHIT!**

The cost to change flights was $321. I know someone who actually MISSED his plane back to California from Philly and he was only charged $25 extra. Apparently it's better to miss your flight than to let them know your change of plans ahead of time. I'll remember this in the future. There were plenty of seats on the other flight! Anyway-- I flew alone and so did Lorne, and I felt like a complete ditz for messing up.

Luckily my room was already pre-booked for that night. Since Robyn planned to fly in a day early, and we were rooming together, I had a bed. And boy did I need it by the time I dragged in at 4:00 pm!! By that point I had been awake over thirty hours.

Robyn was sound asleep in her bed when I walked in. Her ordeal from New Zealand had been worse. Two whole days of jets, airports, and not sleeping. She looked so peaceful, I couldn't bear to wake her. I decided to shower before hitting the sack myself. But just as I was about to climb into my bed she awoke. We hugged and talked non-stop for the next hour or so while she got ready for a dinner date.

I'll be honest. I had been afraid I wouldn't understand her accent. I always get nervous meeting new people for the first time and I knew the accent would pose a huge challenge. Silly me. She had been concerned about the same thing. Out of habit we both tried signing to each other when words didn't make sense, but New Zealand sign is waaaaay different from American sign. We laughed at each other's signs-- many similar, and others, well. . . very different meanings. After about the third repeat, we wrote on tablets. As the days progressed, writing became unnecessary. Her NZ accent is adorable.

She invited me along to her dinner, but I was way too tired. Though I hadn't eaten since 6 that morning, all I could think of was sleep. Later, I mosied on down to the bar in hopes of finding a late-night snack and other SWC club members sure to be straggling in by that time.

I've been to enough of these events to know all you have to do is sit in the bar and wait for people with hearing aids or implants to walk by. Sure enough the second the elevator doors opened I saw a familiar face wearing hearing aids talking to a man I thought might be her partner. Turned out he was PAUL, my blogging buddy!! For some reason I hadn't recognized him at first-- maybe I was still too tired. We hugged, ordered drinks and food and sat down to chat. Paul made an SWC sign for the table, but it wasn't large enough for passers-by to see. I tried to get him to wear it on his head, but it kept falling off. Eventually he talked a waiter into making up a larger sign so that club members would see us as soon as they arrived.

As the evening wore on we had to move to a bigger table to accommodate everyone. Then we had to start pushing tables together when SWC'ers continued to pour in. What a night! The next day a group of us planned to go to the zoo--the very first in America. Robyn was anxious to take pictures.