"Home Conventions"

went to gospel meeting at apopka this afternoon.  apopka is florida's only convention, therefore our official "home" convention while we live here.  we have never had the privilege of actually attending it yet for one reason or another during the two years we have lived here now.  the first year work schedules wouldn't allow us to come because we'd chosen to go home instead, and last year i spent convention in the ER getting rehydrated after a particularly nasty stomach flu.  preps are just about wrapped up now & it's just a matter of enduring a couple more weeks before convention actually starts. even tho we have been here for two spring special meetings now- i can't navigate myself anywhere besides the meeting shed & the ladies restroom, so Dreema, one of the ladies we go to sunday morning meeting with, gave me the grand tour this afternoon.  it conjured up all these feelings i have toward the convention i call my home convention - milltown first & foremost, and occasionally walla walla because  i went there for many years growing up.  i thought about all the questions i had to ask Dreema... like: where do the worker's sleep, where do the boys sleep, where do the elderly sleep,where is the nursery, where are the showers, or are there showers, is there hot water, where do the tenter's set up their tents, how do i flush these toilets.... things i have never had to ask before really, because i get a vivid picture in my head of where each of these places are located at milltown or walla walla.  when i walk into ladie's sleeping quarters i'm greeted with a strong scent that i realize in my head is shouting at me because it doesn't smell like the sleeping quarters at home.  it doesn't make it wrong, it just reminds me i'm not at home either.  when i look around the room where meeting is held, at the sea of faces.. some i can pick out by name, the smiling faces that i meet with every sunday, or wednesday or union meeting... some i have met a handful of times but i can't remember their names, and some i know i have never seen in my life.  i realize that i'm subconsciously thinking that it's very strange to be at a convention where our only family is our spiritual family.  anyway, just a collection of bittersweet feelings i felt today.  i should add too that i am super grateful that no matter how unfamiliar it all is, that i have total faith that the spirit is the same, and we will be fed the same.  and that is amazing.