nywc atlanta : pilgrimage day one

i am here.. been here actually.

somewhere last night when i got home from church just close to 10pm, hadn't packed a thing, hadn't cleaned the car i decided that i wasn't going to rush down here. i am not sure why i was in the first place. if you followed my twitter posts, which i was doing (and will continue to do) via txt message, there was a stop by the dentist, a lame lunch from arby's, a few hours at sewanee & monteagle, then met up with mike at the 296 waffle house.. the cell phone went dead shortly after that.

we finally got to the gwcc. i had been traveling for about eight hours, which was cool. i wanted to do the exploring thing. if i could have i would have stopped by rock city just for kicks. it was starting to get dark when i got to chattanooga so i passed on that one. mike & i got separated in atlanta traffic. mostly due to, what i think was, a hawks game. still, atlanta is not the most intuitive driving city.. there is a bunch of construction stuff happening too that doesn't help. we found our way to the same parking garage, but still couldn't find each other. i blame mike for that one.

everything was over and the expo area was closing soon. the only reason to get there was to meet up with our friends at upperroom/abingdon/youthworkermovement. like it is with an event like this (and pretty much why i enjoy coming) is that you have run ins with folks you didn't expect to see. first off was eli. i was wondering if there was an overlook area of the expo to get a picture to show the craziness that it can be. i saw this guy who looked vaguely familiar at a table top working on a laptop. at first glance it looked like he might have been working on blogger (such a nerd to recognize that). i say something to the effect of "there's someone blogging" (confirmed by his account). take a couple of pictures and then go over to talk to blogger person. turns out it is eli, fellow blogger and twitter person. actually, he's the reason i thought to twitter this, cause i saw him mention it. we chatted, took the proverbial blogger picture, talked wi-fi in the gwcc and headed off. met up with charity, our wonderful interlinc person. hugs and pleasantries around then we found our destination peeps. then we all got kicked out of the convention center.

other peeps, met a fun fella from saint petersburg in the mass of people walking out the convention center. for the life of me i can't remember his name, started with an "l." he's a trevecca grad, so we talked nashville stuff. good guy. then someone asked me directions to get somewhere.. i laughed, not at them, but because i thought it funny, i hadn't a clue as to where the mass of people were going. chatted a bit, then she turned around and went another direction. smart not to follow me.

evening dinner at ted's. i'll have to figure out the link to give credit, but someone i don't know in our group bought dinner. thanks!

ran into eli again, this time i think he had his wife. talked up a dude at the bar about the football game, apparently ryan leaf's little brother made it into the football game (which is crazy to me that oregon lost).

tucked away in the room now.

top highlights!

• afternoon prayers at sewanee chapel
• exit 296 waffle house
• having the first person i meet be a fellow blogger
• someone buying dinner

check out my updating flickr set : nywc07 pilgrimage

Comments

[Eli]

Yes indeed that was my wife. I will make a point to introduce you guys today, if we bump into each other again.

Interesting side note here at this point. When we walked into Ted's, before I realized you were in front of us, Jenn nudged me and said "Hey, that guy looks like the drummer from David Crowder Band."

When I looked up it was you. :)

[gavin]

i've been commonly confused with jack black. dcband's drummer is a first.