A Real Trip

It has been a while since I've done anything as important or as trying or as fun as what I took part in this weekend. This is true on several levels. I'm only going to talk about one of those levels for now if I can even figure out how to say that much. I met my sister here in Salt Lake City on Thursday where I am currently trying to type this damn posting using the TV internet access. This mode has some shortcomings I find. Back to my sister. Ang flew here from Des Moines with the usual difficulties and delays a traveler might expect. For her this was intensely frustrating and demanding. When she finally got to the hotel she had a few other annoyances. Once in the room she went straight to sleep. Meanwhile, as I traveled from Pittsburgh I called the hotel a few times without getting an answer. I preferred to imagine that she had made some new friends and was out having fun but I figured asleep in the dark was a more likely explanation. My sister has told me in the past that she has often had to have help from friends just to make sure she gets out of bed from time to time and eats. This became my job. Thursday wasn't too bad.

Friday was a little more challenging. I don't think I've ever had another adult human being be quite so dependent on me before. At least outside of a hospital. She was scheduled to speak at the conference which was the reason for our visit to Salt Lake City. I was attending as her support person. Friday she drank several cups of coffee and drank 2 or 3 bottles of coke and ate several cookies. Needless to say I was impressed. The last time I got any where near this it made my watch stop for 10 minutes straight. All this combined with the stress of doing something new and emotionally laden resulted in a bad stomach upset and a severe headache. I tried everything I could think of to relieve her discomfort while I watched her struggle to not give in to these symptoms and go up to bed. She did a remarkable job. By evening she'd had it and dinner had to be arranged "in". We looked at her script a little and I made some notes about when to cue which slide. But, after the full and active day she couldn't cope with more so we were left to deal with prepping her in the very early morning. Her talk was scheduled for 8:50. I will leave you to contemplate this state of affairs for the time being. Pardon the type-O's and other unsightlies. This keyboard sucks.