196/365-2 Red

"Unpacking NOAH"

This photo is more appropriate to this blog post than it is to the photo prompt "red," but it will have to do double duty here if I am to have any chance of catching up with posts and photos!

Traveling to the NOAH  (National Organization for Albinism and Hypo-pigmentation) conference was an awesome adventure all the way around.  We spent lots of time enjoying food, fun, information and time with friends both old and new.  Many of us have said that these conferences are like a great big family reunion; I truly felt that as we walked into the conference center and I was greeted by my best friend from the previous conference in St. Louis, whom I have not seen in two years.  

Here are some of my observations, revelations, and simple musing from my week with NOAH.

 1. The NOAH family comes to know you by who you are on the inside, not the outside.  Most of us can’t see well enough to judge by external appearances.  The upshot of that is that there is no need for any of you to worry about those extraneous chin and nose hairs.  To those of us with albinism, they don’t exist.  That said, if you notice them on us, a friendly pluck is OK.

2.  If you want to know how to navigate mass transit, ask a PWA; we are experts!

3. Sunscreen is the preferred drug of choice.  The good news is that sharing lotions and sprays is much safer than sharing other drug paraphernalia.

4. The Red Hat Society has nothing on the hats at a NOAH conference.

5. The Swedish Bikini Team is not a fictitious group, but rather an up and coming professional sports organization.  Swim On!

6. No matter how blind, or blonde, we are, we can always find “The Spot” at night.

7. There can be as many birthdays as there are pieces of cheesecake.

8. Hotel security guards do not provide condoms.  (The drunk girls inquiring were not part of NOAH.)  This was an exchange that you only had to hear, not see.

9. A NOAH conference is the only gathering where a Pigmento can loose his or her significant other and experience that same feeling of panic that PWAs feel when in a large crowd of people.  This is just another service offered by NOAH so that those with pigment don't feel left out of the learning.

10. Pale is in; red is not.

11.  NOAH friends are forever!