Together We Can~ 2009 Oxford World Convention

Let me just begin by saying that I my body is tattered, damaged and withered. I am so sore again, but this time from dancing until 3am.... but it was SUCH A BLAST. So the day started bright and early, I had session's and breakouts to attend starting at 8:15 all the way up until 5. throughout the whole conference there were 5 general sessions, and in them there were either awards given, speeches made, elections and resolution voting. Breakouts were panels we went to, to learn more about different area's of Oxford. The were 4-5 breakout's to choose from in 3 different time slots. I went to Chapter's and State Association's, Discrimination and Legal issues under the FHA, and Data Recording in Oxford. The most interesting one I attended was the discrimination and legal one. A lot of the world is not educated about people in recovery, and think we are all bad people and threat's to community safety. There are a lot of "Not in my Backyard" issues that Oxford has had to fight through since their national expansion 20 years ago. I listened to lawyer's speak about experience's they've had with trial's etc. and it was unreal to hear what lengths cities have gone to to keep Oxford out of their neighborhood's. A lot of the time, when they actually had litigations over these matters they were able to make city council understand that Oxford House's have many upstanding citizen's living in them. They are quiet, pay their rent on time, keep everything clean, they don't drink or use, and (hopefully) are honest and striving for integrity. Oxford has never been sued for disrupting the peace or anything like that. Usually the issue's have been cities creating ordinances with guidelines about the number of occupants in homes, and if the landlord's don't correct this they receive a criminal summons. At this point, Oxford House, Inc. steps in to support the landlord's who have been supporting us for years. They represent them, and have always settled before trial-- with the landlord's even receiving attorney fees in their favor, and not having to change the occupancy. I think if Oxford keeps growing the way it has been, more people will understand the good it does for the community rather than the threat. People can't go back to living in house's on dirty drug ridden streets when they are fighting this disease. They deserve a chance to live comfortably too, it's one of the many reason's a lot of Oxford House resident's are so successful.After all the breakouts was another general session. This was the session where Washington State got our awards for so many of our house's contributing monthly to World's Service's. It was a wonderful feeling with our state being recognized like this, as well as seeing the turnout that our state had in sending at least 100 people from different chapter's there. Also in this session, we voted for where next year's world convention would be.... and although alot of people from the Northwest were gunning for Portland, OR, Chicago came out the winner. One word-- OPRAH :) This session was also the time to vote for resolution's, or new guideline's to be added to the Oxford Manual. We had a quick break, and then our Formal Banquet started. All of us ladies were looking chic in our dresses and the men looking fly in their suits. When I walked into the banquet room I was shocked at how fancy everything was. It was a high class dinner and it felt like it was a convention for established business people or important celebrities. Our waiter's were dressed to the nine's and the tables were set with so many fork's and knives we were all laughing about the fact that apparently we were even supposed to slice our salad greens. At our table were Brian, Mariah, Melissa, Rick, Ricky, Thea, Chris and another couple from Texas who we didn't really get to know since they were out on smoke break's for most of the evening. Chris is the newly elected Vice President from World Council, and he is also the Texas State Chair. He was really nice and believed passionately in Oxford. During the dinner, Paul Molloy spoke, and other member's of the board gave out awards. There was also a couple of guest speaker's, including an old friend of Father Martin's and the author of the book "Courage to Change" by Dennis Wholey.After the Banquet ended, the dance began. We stuck around the dance until the raffle began and ended. No, I didn't win anything and a little miffed, I returned to my room to change into some comfier clothes than my dress and heels. And right about that time is when things got reeeeeeeeeeeeeeeal interesting. Our friend Jon from Seattle lived in DC for a time, and was familiar with some certain area's. He informed us he was going to a gay club, alone--and asked if we wanted to come. I said I wouldn't go without Thea, Thea said she wouldn't go without Ricky, and I thought that was that. But somehow Thea convinced Ricky to give in, and it was on!! I was so excited, I have never been to one before. Thea had, but was excited to go there with Ricky (who also had never been) and I. We invited Chris and he surprisingly obliged as well. The plan was to go and dance the night away. So here we set off... with only one gay person in our group of 5. We took the metro to Dupont Circle and walked several blocks where we stopped at Cobalt. After stepping inside and upstairs, we realized that we had just paid for a club whose DJ was featuring some kind of crazy salsa-techno music--not really our thing. So we asked around about where we should go and then caught a cab to a different place-- Club Apex. As soon as we walked in we knew it was a better choice. The heat was stifling but the music was great and we all danced together until we had to leave at 2:30 so we could make the last metro. We left there with many funny stories and encounter's, and met a lot of sassy and hilarious people there. My favorite story I will share with you: Thea had warned me ahead of time that in clubs like these, the ladies room is everyone's room, just so I wouldn't get startled if I saw a man walk in. Sure enough, as soon as we walked in, there was a guy standing inside. Thea went into her stall and I waited for her by the sink. The stalls ended kind of low, so a tall person would be able to look over them if they really wanted to. I watched this dude go into the stall next her's and shut the door. He then gazed over Thea's wall and looked right down at her sitting on the toilet. It was hard for me to hold in the giggle's at this point. (For the stories sake I would like to point out that this man was most definitely not straight, so this wasn't some crazy rapist situation) He said "Sorry I'm not trying to like peek in at you on purpose" (which seemed highly unlikely to me considering his positioning) Thea being her naturally charming self responded "Oh it's ok" thinking that would be it and he would do his business and she would finish her's. But he remained staring for another good 10 seconds, until she scampered out the door and we both lost it. The only reason we weren't rolling on the floor was because it was too dirty for that. I snapped a picture of her face while she was washing her hands after the incident. It is below. That story will be a funny one to reflect on. These last picture's are of what I believe to be the longest escalator staircase EVER. It was at Dupont Circle Station and it looked like a moving metal mountain!!! We got home at like 3:30am, after stopping and getting huge slices of pizza from a pizza place with a woman who SCREAMED at every single person that walked by "DUPONT PIZZA HAS THE BEST PIZZA AROUND""DUPONT PIZZA HAS INSIDE SEATING""DUPONT PIZZA IS CHEAPER THAN THE PLACE NEXT DOOR" It didn't matter if she was ringing you up or dishing up your pizza... she dropped everything to scream at these passing pedestrian's. That was another good laugh. What a great end to a great convention! We sure do know how to go out in flashes of light!!
XOXO--- tomorrow will be a day of travel!!