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My first reaction upon learning that I might be invited to the White House signing ceremony but it would be for the entire Labor--HHS Bill rather than a separate Parkinson event, was not to go. As many of you have heard me say repeatedly re signing ceremonies "all I want is to sit in the back row with my friends drinking campaign". I reconsidered. Seating was going to be extremely limited, and I felt someone who represented those who pounded the halls of Congress should be there. So for all of you who I wish could have been there and others I thought might be interested, I'll provide the following detailed account of my trip. I had heard rumors that there would be a signing at the White House on Thursday around noon and that my name had been placed on the potential guest list by both PAN and NPF. So I went out Wednesday at noon to get a hair cut and make an early morning plane reservation. Upon returning home the lights on my answering machine were going bonkers. The signing was to be at 9 a.m. rather than noon. I was told that the White House should have called me to confirm that I would attend. They had not. Apparently there were some significant communication problems with the White House as Joan Samuelson had not been invited either. Both of those errors were corrected. So I had to rush around and get to Washington Wednesday evening. Well my fellow PWPs, you all know how rushing and Parkinson's go together. The faster you try to go the slower you end up going. Combine that with the fact that I'm switching from Permax to Requip and experiencing significant end dose wearing off made for chaos in the Cordy house. Fortunately, my wife Deborah is a Saint. It was her that tucked my shirt in and pinned my Parkinson's pins on my lapel, packed my bags, wrote down the phone numbers I would need and took me to the airport. Now for the best decision I made on Wednesday. As I was going to arrive in D.C. to late for dinner, the prospect of staying alone in an expensive D.C. hotel wasn't very appealing. I decided to take advantage of the standing invitation of Perry Cohen to stay at his house. I even talked him into picking me up at the airport. Friends are very important to me. It was a couple of very pleasant hours we spent talking about what's next and reminiscing about experiences that had occurred during our advocacy efforts. Perry went to bed about 11:30 but by now I was pretty excited about going to the White House and although relatively stiff not at all sleepily. Taking advantage of the three hours time difference, I called my adopted sister, Carol Walton. Carol put up with my rambling for more time than I could reasonably expect and then told me to go to sleep. As I had no other options I complied. As with many PWP, a full nights sleep is something that happened years ago. I was awake at 3:30 a.m. but manage to dose on and off before finally getting up at 5 a.m.. I spend the next hour and a half working long hand on a revision to a NPF announcement that will be made shortly. Of course it was written in teeny tiny Parkinsonian script until my meds began to kick in. I then got dressed and attempted what has become a difficult activity--tying my tie and buttoning those teeny tiny buttons they put on button down collars. Of course I was going to wear my frog tie to the White House, if I could get it tied. My success won Bill Turenne a bet with Larry Hoffheimer that I would wear the frog tie. I don't know who would have won if I had opted for the fall back turtle neck that I had in reserve. Perry staggering down ( his Parkinson's not having developed a good shuffle yet) to have a bowl of cereal. I got my final directions to the subway, thanked him for his hospitality, and was out the door. It was colder than I anticipated and when a cab pulled over and asked if I needed a ride I accepted. After all I was going to the White House, I could afford a cab. I had a pleasant breakfast with Nathan Slewett and Emilio Alonso-Mendoza at Mayflower before Larry Hoffheimer and Norma Udall arrived. We then all piled into the car and were off to the White House. We were some of the first to arrive. I was motioned into a different line at the gate than the rest of the party and went on ahead thinking the others would be right behind. I was hoping to smooze with some of the Members I had met, I was particularly hopeful that Senator Wellstone would be there. He and I had shared an emotional moment a year and a half ago when I cried on his shoulder and implored him to do something to get the Udall Bill moving. He had put his arm around me and promised to get it moving again even if he had to bring it up on the floor of the Senate himself. I subsequently told him that we would share a big bears hug of victory when the Bill passed. Regrettably he was in Minnesota. I did thank Senator Specter and Congressman Upton for their support. I saw Morton Kondracke and his wife Millie along with Paul Smedberg of APDA. Mort has been one of the driving forces in guiding this bill to victory using his extensive Washington contacts to open many doors for Joan Samuelson to deliver her persuasive pitch. By this time I was beginning to wonder what had happened to the rest of my party. So I retraced my route from the East Room back past the uniformed quintet playing chamber music back down the wide marble stairs and the 50 or so young guides stationed along the route to the gate where it turned out there was a discrepancy between the birth date on Nathan Slewett's drivers license and the one they had on their guest sheet. It took them 30 minutes to straighten that out. Our government can be very thorough in observing their procedures. I wish we had that commitment directed toward curing Parkinson's Disease Emilio, Norma, and I went back to the east room and were seated. For the next half hour we waited. There was a lot of stirring. scurrying around by White House staff including putting up some charts that would have made Ross Perot proud. Joan Samuelson finally made it I presume having taken the "red eye" from the west coast. Nathan and Larry had finally convinced the guards that Nat wasn't a terrorist and were allowed in and we waited some more. Stay tuned for Part II - the President Jim Cordy Pittsburgh [log in to unmask]