The Homeschooling Convention (part 2)

Saturday morning before the conference started I went out to eat with two other VOM reps at Burger King--the closest place within walking distance that wasn't too expensive. Interestingly, the Burger King was a suite in the bottom of a huge skyscraper, and it had the address of One First Street. (Talk about easy to remember.) It turned out that we were not the only people who liked Burger King's prices. About 5 or 6 homeless men were eating there too. The clerk got a big chuckle out of my order (a chicken salad with hash browns) but since Burger King's motto is "Have it your way" what could she say?

As we concluded our meal I decided to take a picture of Lu and Marva, my fellow reps. I pulled out my camera and a guy sitting in another booth behind them and to the right held his red hat over his face. Apparently he did not want his picture taken!



Here is the picture I took. You can just see the corner of his elbow at the right side of the picture. I wish in retrospect that I had him in the picture too, it was so comical. He must have had a guilty conscience about something. As Proverbs says, "The righteous are bold as a lion, but the wicked flee when no one is pursuing."

We had to take turns eating lunch because that was our high traffic time at the booth. The official rules said we couldn't bring in our own food to the exhibit hall. (That is how they keep the restaurants in the convention center in business.) A number of people had (possibly unknowingly) started violating that rule and there did not seem to be any one clamping down on them. So there was some doubt in my mind about whether the official rules applied at this particular event. But I didn't want to risk violating the rules so I took the ice chest with my lunch outside to eat it. Unknown to me, this decision was guided by God. While sitting outside a father I had not seen in about 10 years ran over to me. He was there to drop off his kids at the youth event. He could not go inside the building himself (it cost money to attend the convention, and since he was not planning to attend himself there was no reason for him to pay). So if I had not come outside I would never have seen him.



Here is a picture of me with him and his two children. They were just infants the last time I saw them.

When I went back inside, I discovered that the rules were indeed being enforced. An elderly security guard saw me coming in with my ice chest and said "No ice chests allowed!" But by this time all I had in my ice chest was water and ice. I showed the guard and she said, "We still aren't supposed to let ice chests through. You need to take it out to your car." But the keys were with Lu in the exhibit hall. "Could I leave the ice chest with you while I go get the keys?" She got frustrated--other people were walking by that she needed to watch--and said "Is there some way you can hide it under a table in your booth?" I assured her that there was, and took my watery ice chest in to a secret spot in our booth!

So I was really glad that I had gone outside. I had a clear conscience about following the rules, and I got to see a friend.