In about a week and a half I’ll be at the Philadelphia Transgender Health conference. I’m looking forward to the conference for a lot of reasons: I get to see some of my very best friends, I’ll be on the east coast and eating Jim’s cheesesteaks, I get to do a fun panel presentation, a theology on tap event, and get ordained to the Diaconate! It’s going to be an awesome weekend.

I am also looking forward to meeting some folks who I have connected with via twitter or this here blog. I always feel like I need to offer a “here’s what you might encounter when meeting me” before events. A friend passed along this video: and it’s pretty spot on for my experience as well.

But here’s a couple of extra tips: If you see me, please, feel free to say hello. I WANT to meet people. If when you spot me I look angry or bored, it’s probably just that I am overwhelmed. It’s still okay to say hello.

I might be super awkward and have trouble making eye contact. It’s not because I don’t want to talk with you, it’s because these conferences stress me out and I’ll be trying to gather my wits.

I will probably not attend many of the sessions. I find that I do better when I can go at my own pace. So if you want to have a longer conversation (which I welcome) it might be best to do it during a session time as the halls are quieter.

So yeah, those are some tips for the care and feeding of this introvert. Please, though, if you’re going to be there, let’s connect! If you want to schedule a time to meet up and hang out, just send me an email. My Saturday is going to be a wash, I think, but Wednesday through Friday (with some exceptions) will be good. I’m also going to put up another post with some specific stuff I’m involved in that if you are a church nerd you might want to check out.

Hope to see you in Philly!