October 17, 2005 - 3:52 PM
We left on Wednesday afternoon for California and arrived home last evening. I thought that I would probably throw this weekend experience in with other things going on around here. But so much happened, that I guess it will get a writing of its own.
First of all I want to share about my trip to the airport. I had bought a piece of luggage that can be carried as a backpack or pulled on wheels and squished all I needed in it to travel light. My friend Jeanette gave me a ride to the hotel where I caught the Airporter. Sitting across the aisle from me was a lady named Valerie who was heading back to the Sacramento area on Alaska Airlines. I asked her if I could walk with her to the ticket counter, and she kindly said "yes." Once we both checked in, the agent offered to call for someone to assist me to my gate, and Valerie said that she'd be happy to walk with me since we both had plenty of time. We got through security with ease and ended up going to a snack bar and having dinner together. We found ourselves talking about everything under the sun, and I was especially impressed by Valerie's tenacity as it was only a year ago that she was going through a divorce, found herself needing to find a job, a place to live, etc. Well, the long and short of it is, in February she started a business in a fancy shmancy mall in Roseville, a doggy boutique at a little kiosk cart selling garments and accessories for dogs, mostly under 25 pounds. She is now getting ready to open her first store in that same mall, which usually takes a 5 year history to even be offered one, and she is going through all the legal paperwork to franchise. So we may even find Chez Pooche here in Washington one day. We exchanged contact info and plan to have lunch when she makes it out here next time as her sister has cancer and lives in Port Orchard. Anyway, it was a special way to begin my trip. And I was sad when our time came to an end. I think we're going to be great friends.
Then came the flight to Long Beach. I sat next to a very nice man named Mark, who ended up moving over one seat to give Geneva a little extra space. For some reason, Geneva seemed stressed the entire flight. She rarely ever pants, and she was panting like a hot Labrador. She wouldn't take a sip of water, not even an ice cube, and she never rested. Her head was up the entire flight. I kept thinking, oh dear, I hope we can make it out of the airport without an accident. I just knew if she was that stressed. Anyway, the flight attendant told me to wait and they'd get someone to assist. But Geneva would have none of this, so Mark let us into the aisle, and once those in front of us started moving, we were right with them. Getting off the plane we were outside and had to walk up a few ramps to the building. Once inside, Geneva seemed to know exactly where to go, and the next thing I knew, we were back outside. A very nice man helped me locate some grass, and Geneva did her things. To my surprise, her tummy hadn't gotten upset. She just had to really go. The hotel shuttle was there in moments and we were at the hotel by 9:30pm. Unfortunately my room wasn't ready and so I had to wait for a half hour in the lobby, but it ended up being a nice room and the staff at the hotel were wonderful.
The convention went very nicely. I had two speaking assignments, one on Thursday and the other on Friday morning. On Thursday, I spoke during lunch of their leadership seminar. My message was the importance as a leader of using great CARE: commitment, attitude, resourcefulness, empowerment. Friday morning was the Speaker's Bureau breakfast, a new program CCB is implementing to share their message out in the many communities around the state. I talked about the value of volunteerism and then reminded them that they would be serving as a representative of CCB, and my focus word was then REP,: responsibility to educate with passion. I felt both presentations were well received, and Geneva did very well in those settings.
We did have a little problem at convention which arose when I met up with an internet friend. We had decided to meet at the elevators on the fourth floor, and upon us greeting each other, his guide dog lunged and growled at Geneva. Unfortunately, this happened a few other times over the weekend, and I know my friend was mortified. We contacted GDB and one of the trainers attending the convention found each of us to deal with our individual situations. Geneva started to cower around other dogs and I was becoming quite concerned. Fortunately, with lots of encouragement and giving her extra space for a time, she seemed to be coming around by the time we left the convention.
Besides attending the CCB convention and enjoying the numerous presentations, exhibits, etc. I had the opportunity to visit with some CCB friends as well as some of my family and my best friend Brigid. My Aunt Helen and cousin Charlie took me for a late breakfast on Friday and we had a nice time. Brigid came for a late breakfast on Saturday and we ended up chatting/catching up over a three hour visit. And my Aunt Norma picked me up yesterday morning at 8:30 and took me to Spires for breakfast and then dropped me off at the airport.
So then comes the flight home. Once again, Geneva seemed unsettled the entire flight. We were fortunate enough to have the middle seat vacant again, so she had plenty of room, and the lady sitting in our row with us was very nice. We had an especially interesting conversation. Her name is Kathy and she lives in the Tri-Cities area. She and her husband own 2 Quarter horses, one of them being in a race at Los Alomitos on Saturday night, but unfortunately she didn't do well. Anyway, the 2-year-old maiden which lost Saturday is Eye Especially Tough, and the 3-year-old which will be racing in a regional challenge for 3-year-old fillies on November 5 is Dasha Freda. Anyway, I found all of this of special interest because I grew up around horse racing as this is my dad's favorite sport. And Kathy and I had such a nice time chatting, the flight went by so fast. She walked with me to my shuttle, as she was going that direction to catch a city bus. She had to stop and change her flight for Pasco to today because she had to go into Seattle to help her son who is a quadriplegic and his aide could not be there. Anyway, we had such a nice time together, and I think we both enjoyed our meeting.
When we got home, Geneva was so very happy. She was running around like a crazy dog before I could even get her harness off. And she certainly seemed to be relaxed today at work. I have lots of weekend travels coming up over the next month and sure hope Geneva will adjust to them okay.
The next big event is our WCB convention in ten days. Then it will be a weekend trip to the Kansas convention followed by a weekend trip to Kentucky.
Much more to share about things happening around here, but they'll have to wait until the next message.
Hugs,
Cindy & Geneva
