Last week I attended the conference of the Registry of Interpreters for the Deaf in Philadelphia. It was quite an experience, to say the least. I earned some CEUs, I crashed my car, I reconnected with people I haven’t seen in years…quite an experience!
I was staying with friends in Northeast Philadelphia, which turned out to be rather far away from the conference. I didn’t know when I asked to stay with them exactly where they lived, but I suppose driving 30 minutes each way in exchange for a free room is part of the game! They were very sweet and always ready to offer me breakfast or dinner, and I got to sit on the couch and watch TV with them some nights, and their cat is really sweet.
I was not particularly impressed with the workshops, though perhaps I picked poorly. One of the most disappointing ones to me was “The Caller Said What” which was on Thursday, the last day of the conference – it was a 3-hour workshop, but we were an hour into it and they were still doing icebreaker activities (on the last day) so I decided to hit the road early. I also attended the “VRS for Deaf-Blind Callers” workshop and found it very prescriptive; I understand that Deafblind callers have special requirements when using VRS, but some of the recommendations given were more like mandates. Wearing a black turtleneck all the time shouldn’t be necessary as long as something similar is available in each center (which it is). I attended a great workshop that was supposed to be about “what do VRS callers want from their interpreters” but which turned into a dialogue; that one I really appreciated! (It was a little annoying, though, when the moderator didn’t clarify the difference between fraud – as in VRS companies defrauding the FCC – and scam – as in Nigerian 419 scams. One of the deaf panelists said “if I get screwed over because an interpreter didn’t tell me they knew it was a scam, and I see that interpreter again, I would be pissed at them” … which is their right, but we cannot intercede in that situation.) I didn’t attend the “Gay to Z” workshop because I figured I was already quite familiar with the gay community and I wanted to attend another workshop at the same time. I think I earned a total of about 2.0 CEUs but given that Academic Coursework is retroactive I didn’t really need that many.
The evenings were hard for me. I attended the Region II meeting one of the nights, but I didn’t make it to the BLeGIT meeting…I was just too tired. Unfortunately I heard it was really good, so now I wish I had gone! Evening is also when I smashed my car. I was on the phone with my wife, and I was really tired, and while backing out of my space in the parking garage I heard/felt a crunch. Turned out there was a low wall, and I had backed right into it and taken out my driver’s side tail light (I promptly started bawling at my wife, of course…I also had lost my parking stub that day). The bulbs still worked but the lens (plastic cover) was almost completely gone. I got some lens repair tape at AutoZone the following morning and covered it up.
I didn’t do well at the conference socially, for a variety of reasons. For one thing, I was too tired to party hearty; just about every free moment was spent napping on the couches in the lobby, and I went home early-ish most nights. Being social makes me very tired, I am really quite introverted, but I was eager to hang out with the people I hadn’t seen in a while. No such luck though – they always had something else to do, someone else to spend time with. I did get to have lunch with a couple of times, and I had dinner with a co-worker once, but that was it. I tried all week to get a group together for The Melting Pot but it never happened. I did make it to my three favorite places, though – Gianna’s Grille, More Than Just Ice Cream, and Kingdom of Vegetarians – and I discovered a great place in Reading Terminal Market called Basic 4.
I really like Philadelphia, particularly Center City. The RID conference wasn’t very successful for me, but I’m looking forward to going back next year for the NAD conference. That will be a blast!