Phila's Deaf Professional Happy Hour

Went to my very first Deaf Professional Happy Hour in the city of Brotherly Love at Champps Bar & Grill. Not bad. Saw Staci Rensch! Saw Robert Traina! And unfortunately, I saw Dorian Yanke.

It is true. Dorian is now living in this town next to me. Go figure. Nothing happened -- one gal said, "Here is your best friend! He's sitting over there." I immediately smiled and said, "Dorian?"

She smiled with an evil grin. I groaned and said in a teasing manner, "That boy cannot live without my ASS! Serious case!" But on a serious note, I wish him the best in his endeavours -- *people behind me probably snickered when I said that line*.

Today, I heard from a friend of mine in Washington, DC -- he went to the DPHH, it was packed with more than 300 people. Here in Philadelphia, less than 100 showed up. Many faces, I do not know who they were. That is OK with me. I'm not concerned about that. I once mentioned to a friend that I'm not making new friends. Instead, I am more selective with making friends -- I guess, getting older, you do not want to deal with the hassles of friendships going through some growing pains. I do not know why but in early 90s, I enjoyed meeting new faces. Today, I do not. Is it normal? I do not know. I routinely went to the fairgrounds, events, homecoming events -- I get annoyed each minute. Maybe I liked the intimate conversations rather than "HI ... ME NOW SSI $885 MONTHLY, YOU? WHAT KIND JOB? HAS WIFE?" I cringed when people says things like that.

It was nice to see Staci once again. Been some years since I saw her! Never forgot the moments that I had with Staci in the board room where she blasted Mindy Moore to smithereens during the Deaf Moonlite Show's brainstorming sessions. It was hysterical to see Mindy Moore falling apart. I remembered her writing a note to tell me to inform me that the student next to us was eating his dinner from his nose. This woman has the eyes has her own rule: Observe But Do Not Interfere. Sure enough, we were sitting at the bar recently ... Staci and I smirked each time we cruised each individual that comes in our path -- she would explain a little about his/her background right below the bar counter, to prevent from anyone seeing our conversations. Why did she do that? To prepare me to be aware of peoope around me.

For example, I asked her, "This guy is cute, any chance for me to nab him?" She smirked and fingerspelled under the counter, "He's not available. He just is in the process of divorce, his wife is now with this guy. He's straight breeder but very wacko." I rolled my eyes at stuff like that. But that is how the Deaf World operated -- you talk clandestinely at public events about people, even if you deny it. I do that, you do that, Rayni does that. Everyone does that to an extent.

I probably did not dwell on negatives too much, just that I do not know who everyone else is -- so there were people out there who could supplant me with the necessary information about people wherever I go. Some people wondered at the fact that I seemed to have tons of information about people's lives -- the truth is that, y'all told me about it by yourself.

Not that it's bad. It was interesting evening.

Jason has a graphic novel of "Kyle's Bed and Breakfast Inn" -- I am so going to read it. I love Greg Fox's works on Kyle's Bed and Breakfast Inn.

What About Pets? Merritt paged me and insisted that I say something about the pets being stranded in New Orleans. It is true. The Humane Society of United States is struggling to rescue animals abandoned by the humans during the floods which buried New Orleans by Katrina. They are hungry, they are scared, it was said that you can hear the dogs barking for miles. If you want to donate something, you may check the Humane Society of United States's website. Merritt said dogs will arf, birds will chirp and cats will meow when you do that. So do it.

Cheers,

R-