Well, I'm finally back and together here from the Forum in KY.  I gotta
tell ya all about it, so go put in a load of laundry, visit the bathroom,
and get a snack.
 
If you have already experienced a large symposium or ferret show/event,
I highly recommend that you try at least one Forum someday.  It is very
intimate and personable.  You get to spend more time getting to know
people there because there aren't many people and it is so much less
hectic.  The speeches are intensive and fun and not caught up so much in
a time table.  It's free flowing there and not on a strict schedule so
you have tons of time to talk, etc..  Because it is for one day, you have
a full other day (at least) to go out with your ferret friends to your
local Walmart and buy say .... Derby pie?  Oh Marylou, did I say that
out loud?  Seriously, you get to enjoy life and events outside of ferrets
on the second day or so forth.  And that is so awesome.  Why is it ferret
people are so wonderful and why do we have so many like interests and get
along so well?  It's amazing.
 
As for the forum itself.  The Black Footed Ferret topic was fresh.
Really different and so interesting.  I like that you can focus on one
issue at a forum.  Nice change.
 
As far as the people, well let's see, more important than the people was
Linda Iroff's Cassie!  What a little star.  She is a sterling silver as
we said in the old days with smudges under her eyes.  Very small.  Very
sleek and elegant is the best way to put it!  In demeanor and build.
When she is with Linda they look like soul mates.  I didn't treat her
sweetly like everyone else though.  I grabbed that face with one hand,
scrunched it up and went mmmwah, big kiss on the fuzzy lips.  Yup.
 
Oh yeah, people, guess I need to discuss those.  I got to meet Lori Sies
(shoot spelling?) a little more.  She was so much fun.  I hung out with
Susie some, I didn't get to do that at the last symposium.  I had a blast
with "the sisters".  And no, they are not twins like so many think.  But
they might as well be.  Chris Matlick was there with her sweetiepie
husband.  How's that geocaching going there, Chris?  Julie Fossa was an
absolute delight (sorry Ann and Julie for giving you heart failure at the
bus station with that guy).  Well, darn, this is terrible because I'm
going to forget people or at least run out of room to write about them.
 
Then, there is Alexandra.  Sigh.  Alex who wore a hedgehog sleep sack on
her head as if it were Gucci in my room.  Alex who wore light up flip
flops down the hall ways of the hotel.  Alex who drove me crazy with
those LOOKS!  Good GOD.  I"ve never seen a woman's wheels turn so much
in my entire life.  Every time I looked over at her she has "that look"
again.  I had to interrupt her and point and say, "you're doing it
agaaaaain".  Let's just say, Alex lives in an imaginary world of her own.
Who KNOWS what's happening in there.  I quit asking.  I asked at first, I
so received.  And every time I was left with my jaw slack at the things
that she mulls over in her mind.  Not that I ever think anything
atypical.  Not me.
 
I met my two goals.  Normally I don't meet all of my goals when I get to
go to a symposium.  My two goals were to meet Alex and hang with her at
long last.  How's the big pepper in the room Alex?  The octopus?  And to
finally, finally, spend time with Marylou.  Thank you for spending time
with me Marylou.  I've looked forward to that forever.  It was just icing
on the cake that I got to be with the sisters (Claudia and Melinda), see
Julie Fossa, etc, let alone speak.
 
People asked about Sean.  That makes me feel so wonderful.  All those
initial years when we were so alone because we were all held captive by
his autism.  Thank you.  I wish he was there.  Maybe, just maybe, I can
swing him going to the next symposium.  Which is where??????
 
Wolfy
 
ps, Susie please contact me, and I'd love hearing from that little
girls mommy that was there.  I didn't get to talk much.  I'd also really
love to keep contact with the lovely lady who I spoke to at length at
the dinner table about special needs kids (ours).  Lori dude... write
anytime.
[Posted in FML issue 5225]