Scatter Plot

T.w.o

I love conventions! They're so full of life, and color, and movement. I don't even care if it is a convention for lawn mowers, there usually is candy and free stuff. I can't help but get lost, wandering from stall to stall. The only thing I hate...the people. Don't get me wrong, people are great, and full of stories, but I hate crowds. I hate crowds for very good reasons too. I can't help but get distracted in a convention, then suddenly, I can't seem to place where I am, and I lose the people I'm with. This is probably one of the reasons my parents finally gave me a phone.

I was at a convention two weeks ago in Louisville Kentucky. I was with a group of eleven girls and my two advisors. Now two out of the eleven of us girls, were diagnosed with ADHD. This caused a bit of hardship, because when one of us was lost, (which was frequently) as soon as we found her, the other would disappear. The advisors split up, each one taking on four to five girls, and one ADHD girl. Most people picture boys having ADHD, which is stereotypical to the hyperactive side. I am not to effected by that side, I only have to be messing with something, or tapping constantly. I can't sit in a chair for too long. If I sit down to do my homework, I'll get up to get water, go pee three times, eat a bit here and there, make my bed, let the dog out, find a new pencil, grab a textbook, leave the textbook in some odd location I won't remember, and change my position in the chair ten times in five minutes. This is besides the point though. When my advisors discovered we were quite good at the disappearing act, they were surprised. What they thought was going to be a fun afternoon of browsing, turned into a full day of "Where did Rachel go? Dang it where is CeCelia?"

While they had trouble keeping us with the group, I had a grand time. There were these really cool metal sculptures that were being judged, one from each state. They were made by high school students and they were amazing! There was this one that was a bear head and the fur looked real but it was just little copper wires, and inside the bear opened up this cavity like a cave and there was teepees and campfires, all made out of metal! I didn't pay attention to who won, but I hope that kid did. There was also this jelly fish one that looked so realistic! Then there was these guys from the army, and they were super cute, and they gave me a free t-shirt because I did ten pushups. The t-shirt is super soft and I love it.

At this convention there was pin trading, where each state had a pin and you could trade a few of your state pins for other peoples, and I was so happy because I got Alaska which was pretty rare, and Texas had this little dangling thing hanging off of it. I ran into CeCelia several times and she had collected so much stuff that the army guys gave her a draw string back pack! Then the coast guards stand was making food, and it was so good! Except I had to be careful because they put pecans in it and I'm allergic to pecans. I really had a hard time in the south because they put nuts in every thing! I don't quite read the menus all the way either because I got the gist of what it is, but no, they wait to put the nuts as the last thing on the list! So I just ate a whole lot of ice cream because you can never go wrong with ice cream, unless it's bubble gum, which is nasty!

I didn't like the crowds though, it was to many people, and I could never find my advisors. I never was really looking for them, but when my feet hurt and I wanted to go back to the hotel, it was annoying that I couldn't find them. That was the sad thing about this convention too is that everyone was dressed the same for the organization, so all I could see was a sea of burgundy blazers and black bottoms. If you asked me to design the official, burgundy would never be my first choice. It was such a bland color, but I know you can't get some people to wear yellow, because apparently people really hate that color.

A lot of stalls had candy, and they would stare awkwardly at me as I took some. I wasn't interested in their product, just the candy, so I would take it and leave without them talking to me. Except for the guy selling lollipops because I had to talk to him to get my one free lollipop. They were also giving out free jerky, but it was the gross kind, where it's obviously really processed and I'm not sure if it's meat or plastic heavily scented to smell like meat.

I was slightly disappointed they didn't play music. You have that many people together, why don't you play music? I entertained myself by singing in my head, but I always have a song stuck in my head, whether I want it there or not. I don't think I've ever not had a song stuck in my head, I just have to get a new song stuck in my head if I'm sick of the old one. The worst is when I have the same three notes on replay in my head because I can't remember the rest of the song. If that happens I'll look it up on YouTube to help me along or I'll play a new song on replay until that one is stuck in my head. I think that's why I love Broadway musicals so much, because you can say almost anything and it can be a line in a song. It's helped me and killed me during many class periods.

Anyway, I'm sure my advisors were happy to put me back on the plane home, getting me away from that convention. My mom was laughing about that when she heard we went to a convention because she knows the struggle of getting me through one without losing me. The plane ride was awful though! It was twelve hours long and we weren't allowed to really move, so I kept doing squats in seat, and my friends said they would drug me up on Nyquil to get me to shut up and sleep the whole way, but Nyquil doesn't really work on me, I can still function pretty well, just a bit lazily, and it gives me funky dreams so I don't like it.

All in all, I'm sure my friends are glad to be rid of me after spending twelve hours in a pressurized tube thousands of feet in the air with me talking the whole time. I'm sure they're happy not to have to look for me for hours after I got lost in the convention....well, I never asked to be found. I'd be perfectly content going on my own and walking back to the hotel, but apparently that's not safe. I think it'd make everyone happier though...

"Where's Rachel? Where'd CeCelia go?"

"Just leave them...they're happy. We'll see them in a few hours when they get hungry."