I finally made it to Gallaudet, though I didn’t do any interpreting. I mostly hung out with ayala920 the whole time, and got to meet a couple of her friends, who I really liked. I also saw a couple of the guys from the RSVP cruise I interpreted for last year; I see them around every so often at various events.

I offered to be an interpreter, and the coordinator in the GIS office was all set to have me work until midnight, come back tomorrow, get paid for it, and everything. I managed to get out of that and just offered my services to the woman at the front gate who was coordinating interpreting…I actually met her when I interviewed with GIS a few months ago. I told her I’m an RID-certified interpreter and would be available in an emergency if she needed it.

So we all stood around and waited until the faculty announcement came. MJ Bienvenu was the first person to make announcements, which were mostly a bunch of numbers that, when summarized, said “we support you, JKF must resign.” This is going to sound cheesy, but I was so thrilled to be there, hearing those words. I cheered and applauded with the rest of the crowd, even though I am at most a “friend” of Gallaudet. (I have a friend who is a student, a friend who is on staff, and I took some night classes there a couple of years ago…I’ve always loved the place.) I also felt so excited to be on a college campus, surrounded by young people - when the subject of dorms and roommates came up, I sighed about “oh, when I was in college…” ayala920 teased me about the moony way I referred to my college, but I really did feel special being on a campus last night.

I left before the rally started, because I wanted to get home at a semi-reasonable hour. The faculty announcements were over, and the people I was talking to wanted to get food and such, so it was a good time to go. But damn, I want to be on that campus full-time, for work or classes. I love Gallaudet!