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First, an update on my connection status. I still couldn’t get anywhere on the citywide wifi cloud (even though I was connected at “Excellent”) and I still couldn’t get in when hooked in through ethernet. I’ll have to test that at home. So I went downstairs and searched for free ISPs. I almost went with Copper.net and LAFN but they both ended up having charges higher than I wanted to pay. I ended up choosing BudgetDialup, which is a pay-as-you-go dialup; I got 10 hours for $6 and it’s good for a year. Sure beats the 75¢/min rate on cruise ships!

The Signing for Sexuality workshop today was pretty good. It was about 65% discussion of sex topics and 35% discussion of interpreting sex topics. There was a deaf woman in the class (who looks exactly like somebody I went to high school with), so the teacher was mostly sim-comming the whole time (speaking and signing at the same time), and I’d have preferred it being entirely in ASL, but it was still good. Just before lunch, a woman came in to go over vocabulary with us; she’s a deaf teacher of sex education and we discussed signs like cock, pussy, etc. I think this part was more useful for those who will be using these skills receptively - they need to recognize signs like that when a deaf person makes them - but I don’t know that they were supremely useful for expressive sexuality-related interpreting, which is what I do a lot of at leather events. I guess it was a bit helpful in that I learned less graphic signs for some sex acts…for example, the usual sign for blowjob is made at mouth level and is quite graphic, so everybody watching knows what you’re saying, and it makes you blush. But I learned an alternative sign that is a bit more subtle, involving only the hands and done in neutral space at chest level.

I was a little bit uncomfortable the whole day, because a number of the interpreters were local and so they all knew each other and were very chummy. There was only one in the room who was kind of snotty opinionated about interpreting topics - there’s always at least one - but pretty much everybody else was cool. But she was also kind enough to lend me a walking map of Center City so I wouldn’t get lost while wandering around, which was nice. I was uncomfortable again when we did an exercise about our values. In the morning, we’d filled out an anonymous survey with questions like “how do you feel about abortion” and “can deaf people have healthy sexual relationships” and “should interpreters have personal relationships with clients.” One question was about whether you believed homosexuality was wrong. In the afternoon, we were handed surveys at random, and for each question we stood under signs that said whether the person agreed strongly, agreed somewhat, wasn’t sure, disagreed somewhat, or disagreed strongly. Most everybody said homosexuality was okay, but a couple of people “disagreed strongly” - including the person whose paper I was representing. I’d already said earlier in the day that I was gay, so in the discussion afterward, I mentioned that it made me a little nervous to know that a couple of people disagreed with “a question that I saw myself in.” I wasn’t being specific, but it was obvious enough what I meant, and the facilitator spoke to me afterward and said she knew what I was referring to and she was sorry I had felt that way. I also bought a copy of the Signs for Sexuality book before I left.

At lunchtime, I’d gone outside to call A, and I spotted an ice cream shop across the street and planned to get some later. After the workshop ended for the day, I headed over there. To my great surprise, when I walked in the door, who was sitting there but Teddy O’Rourke! He was International Mr. Deaf Leather 2004 and he is such a sweetheart. I knew he lived in Philadelphia but I had absolutely zero expectation of seeing him until next weekend! I was so shocked that I literally stumbled as I entered the shop, and he got up and we gave each other a big hug immediately. I had left my wallet in the hotel room by accident, so I couldn’t get ice cream for myself, but I stayed and chatted for an hour and a half. We talked about all manner of things, from leather stuff to what we did on 9/11, and I had an absolutely wonderful time. Poor Teddy’s ice cream half-melted! Oh, it was such a surprise to see him, and so marvelous! He said he had seen me approaching through the window and he was shocked too, because he wasn’t expecting to see me until next weekend’s World Leather contest! We ended up walking almost all the way back to my hotel together before he left for the subway.

I went back to the hotel to pick up my wallet, and set out with my printouts to go geocaching. A called before I found my first one, and we chatted for 15 minutes. When she had to go, I went back to trying to find Center Square, my first multi-cache and the only actual log I got to sign. It was a fun one; after that I went looking for America’s Favorite Cookies - I was rather looking forward to this one, and I figured I’d get chocolate chip or something. Imagine my surprise when I realized this virtual cache wasn’t actually a cookie shop! I went and found Colonial Martyr next, that was another virtual cache. All three of these were pretty damn close to my hotel, but I did enough walking that I had worked up an appetite and I went looking for dinner. I was hoping to find somewhere good, but I’d been walking for a while by then and I was hungry so I ended up at Chili’s with a veggie burger and a tasty drink - not much of a buzz from that, of course, but it was good. I went next door to 7-11 after I was done, and I was impressed by the wide variety of vegan options in the deli case! They also had the Diet Pepsi Slurpee, which I haven’t seen near me in at least a couple of years, but of course it wasn’t working very well. I got one anyway and topped it off with their purple-colored but vanilla-flavored thing. Don’t get it! It was terrible. Anyway, after that I came back to the hotel and spent a while messing with the computer. And I’ve now spent an hour writing this entry, so I’m gonna end it now. I was going to see rockwrok at her club but it’s far away and dark and I’m tired and I have to be up early to check out and put my stuff in my car before the workshop begins.