Day Three in the city (Saturday) and I definitely was hitting a wall. Showering in the morning just seemed like an impossible chore. Getting dressed left me teary with the effort, especially dealing with the dreaded compression stockings. Paired with Birkenstocks that I poked extra holes in to accommodate my grotesquely swollen feet, I make quite the fashion statement.
Danielle is my champion at both breakfast and lunch, fussing over me, making a path for me, fetching me tea. Then, who sits at our table but Lynne, who I met yesterday and liked so much. More sympatico chatting. There is just nothing as wonderful as someone who agrees with everything you say.
Katie Couric is the guest during lunch and is heavily promoting her new show. She is clearly on top of the social media explosion and since I am not and I don’t understand half the references, I get pouty. Katie is soliciting topics for her show and I figure, what the heck, and I leave a comment encouraging her to do a show on the devastation that MS causes. I have to say, it was really moving to hear her talk about her husband’s death. She was 41, just two years older than I was when I was widowed, so I could really relate.
We toured the Expo after that and got lots of free goodies. At least I got some free goodies while Danielle got massive quantities of free goodies. I don’t know what she does different, but we walked the same areas and she ended up with this:
while I ended up with this:
We pause at an exclusive mattress display and one of the (absolutely freaking adorable) sales reps asks me a question about my chair. We start talking and he is so informative it is a good five minutes before I say, hey, how do you know so much about power wheelchairs?!? It turns out he used to sell them. I told him I didn’t like that the rented chair lurched forward every time I accelerated and that is how I hit the doorjam and broke the arm. He told me the chair needed to be adjusted down, that the kind of sensitivity I described was a setting. He said that definitely should be a consideration in telling them what happened. I feel like a kid going home to tell Mom and Dad I wrecked the car.
One final afternoon session and I am done in. I fall asleep sitting at my laptop and wake up just to order a hamburger for dinner. I won’t tell you how much it cost. I doze off again and wake up to put my pajamas on. Danielle has gone to dinner with friends and they all come back to our room before going to the last round of BlogHer’12 parties, which are not my cup of tea. But these girls are all sweet and cute and young, so it is good they are going to have a good time.
Coming up I will talk about experiencing the conference from the perspective of a wheelchair.
