General Assembly, early Sunday afternoon

A long day of travel to arrive at General Assembly, where the afternoon is just beginning in the Pacific time zone.

I took the mass transit from the airport to my hotel.  It was suggested as the "green" option, but it also was the less expensive option.  Taxi=$35.00; Shuttle=$15.00; mass transit=$2.50.  A no brainer.

As someone who has never visited Portland, I noticed some things I did not expect.  Visually, it looks a lot like Seattle, and there is a snow-capped mountain off in the distance.  I was surprised to see traffic moving very slowly on the highway as we moved by on the train.  I was glad to be on mass transit at that juncture. The convention center is really interesting looking.  It was a mild 65 degrees, so I did not even work up a sweat walking to the convention center form my hotel.

I arrived at the convention center for the first plenary meeting (a gathering of all the commissioners) a bit early to go through the registration process.  It did not take very long, so I had a few minutes to wander the Exhibition Hall, the place where all commissioners and visitors end up in pursuit of freebies at some time during the week. Even before getting to the Exhibition Hall, I ran into a colleague with whom I ran every afternoon during our seminary time together.  Then,  within five minutes of entering the Exhibition Hall, I ran into a colleague with whom I went to synod youth activities way back when I was in high school.

One of the joys of coming to General Assembly -- it is sort of like an extended family reunion.  You may not know everyone you see, but you will know some of the people you see, and if you stop and talk to almost anyone, you can figure out a connection.  In fact, one of our former members in Troy has sent me a text message to try and connect me with a minister from Tulsa where she now lives. Of course, as we go through our proceedings in the coming days we will see the family metaphor lived out in the squabbles we have.

Tonight we move into our committee meetings.  By the time I get back to my hotel room, my day will have been going for 21+ hours.  The adrenalin charge from General Assembly will be tested tonight.