Orlando SB Expo, August 26, 2004

1. My first flight was cancelled and I had to catch a later flight. I wasted lots of time at the Knoxville airport and was exhausted because I got less than three hours of sleep. I got flagged for additional searching, and I was nice and cheerful to the TSA people. I was also really nice to the girl at the ticket counter who had to re-route 140 people because of the cancelled flight. She was so relieved to have one customer who wasn't irate that she gave me an extra $5 worth of food coupons, and that was good, because I didn't have to use my precious few pennies for airport food.

2. My first leg was on a Buddy-Holly-killin' plane, and the cargo was loaded in the plane with us. A box of baby pheasants was in the cargo, and one of the babies escaped. The flight attendant rescued it. Five minutes of tiny "peep peep peep peep peep peep peep peep peep peep peep peep peep peep peep peep peep peep peep peep peep peep peep peep peep peep peep peep peep peep peep peep peep peep peep peep peep peep peep peep peep peep" is cute. Forty minutes of it makes you want to throw the ball of feathers out the window and see how aerodynamic baby pheasants are.

3. The Atlanta airport looks skanky. They desperately need to remodel that place. It is positively scary.

4. Pam picked me up at the Orlando airport. First of all, now I finally know what that place looks like!!!!! It's really neat!!!!!!!!! Second, I missed Pam upstairs, so I went down to the baggage claim, got my luggage, and went outside to call her. She found me downstairs, and I was laughing because she had her face covered up with a piece of paper. It turned out the paper said, "Bay Loftis -- International Scrapbooking Celebrity!!!!!!!" She thinks Wesley is cute to call me that.

5. We took our time leaving the airport -- her son James wanted to play in the arcade, and I wanted to use every single bit of my $15 of food coupons. Waste not, want not. So we got Cokes and a chocolate chip cookie with the last $5 voucher and let James play. There was a teenager and her mother arguing behind us about how the girl wanted to go to some party school and her mom wants her to go to an approved state college. It got pretty ugly back there. I wanted to smack that ungrateful wench for being so snotty to her mother.

6. Pam took me to the Gaylord Palms, which is *gorgeous*. Honestly, y'all. I am spoiled by Disney, and Gaylord has obviously learned all of Disney's best tricks. It was gorgeous and the customer service was phenomenal. And there are computer terminals in every room, so you can blog in your jammies!

7. When I got upstairs (I was on the second floor, close to the lobby), I found my roomie Annette. Annette is a redheaded fireball from Australia. We were gabbing and sharing albums when my cell phone rang. It was Tricia. Things had gone badly wrong with the planning for this show -- most of it was the Expo's fault. In the meantime, Tricia is in the convention center after spending the entire day at the MK, and she has no tables, no boxes, no nothing. She was beside herself. I said we'd be down there ASAP.

8. We ran through the atrium to the convention center, which fortunately is closer than it is at the Gaylord Opryland. I looooooooooooooooove the atrium. It's massive and has a forest inside, and the roof is glassed in, and the air conditioning is amazing. It must cost a *fortune* to cool that place in August!!!!!!!! It was great.

9. We got to Tricia just as our boxes were being delivered. With the three of us, we got the booth set up in just under an hour, and Tricia was *so* grateful. She usually sets up by herself. Can you imagine? And she has a broken tailbone right now!!! OUCH!!!!!!!!!!!!!

10. Pam wanted to pick me up at 6:00. I was worried that leaving so soon would hurt Tricia’s feelings. But I've seen Tricia more than I've seen Pam, and Antuanette wanted to meet me. Pam called at 5:30, and I begged off and asked not to be picked up 'til 7:00 or 7:30. I really can't remember which it was. Annette and I went upstairs to our room, and I washed off (a "PTA" bath as my mother called it) and put on make-up and changed clothes. I invited Annette to come with us, but she had driven from West Palm Beach and wanted the night off. So I got ready and went downstairs to catch my ride to PI.

11. Antuanette is gorgeous and funky and fun. She and Pam had gone to World of Disney while waiting for time to pass, and there they saw Janet Jackson shopping. I asked if Janet had any "wardrobe malfunctions," but no, she didn't. She was surrounded by an entourage and a phalanx of security, but other than that, Pam said, "She was so completely *gorgeous*." They were amazed, truly, at how soft-spoken and polite she was with her attendants. She thanked them every time they took a package to be checked out.

12. Andy -- Pam's extra husband (long story, ROFL) and our designated driver -- is a CM and he got us in for $10 each. (Every Thursday night is Cast Member night.) We went to Adventurers' Club, which Antuanette had never visited before. Ant is not a Disney freak. But she had a good time, anyway. One really funny thing happened in the AC -- we went to the room that isn't the mask room and saw Yvette, the maid's show. She pointed to the waitress and said, "If you're here to get lit, you need to see her." Pam, Antuanette, and I all raised our hands and said, "HERE!!!!!" A couple of minutes later, Yvette asked Andy who he was with. He was sitting on the front row; we were against the wall, and he pointed back to us and said, "I'M WITH THE THREE WOMEN WHO ARE GETTING LIT!!!!!!!" Everyone loooooooooooooved that, of course, but there were children in the audience that early in the evening, which put a damper on the show. I figured out how the head moves in that cage thing on the mirror, and Pam smacked me because she's never figured it out, and I figured it out on the first time I saw it.

13. Then we went to 8 Trax because Antuanette and Pam used to love that place. They were playing bad music, though, and lots of horrid disco. We requested Queen and they said it was too rock. (TOO ROCK????) So we requested every dance hit from the 80's we could think of. The only one they played was "Girls Just Want to Have Fun." When Antuanette started falling off her shoes -- she wore stacked heels -- we left.

14. We sat outside and ranted and raved about the scrapbooking industry and trying to get published/ stay published/ et cetera.

15. Andy took a conference call at 9:00.16. Then we went to Mannequin's. Antuanette fell in love. I knew she would. It's her kind of place. The beautiful cast members danced like mad and I just watched because I was tipsy on one drink. Oh, and I got a second drink from Gordo, my personal bartender, who was *so* surprised to see me. You should have seen his face!!!!!! It was priceless!!!!!!

17. We visited the new club. I think it's called Motion. It's definitely for the young, gorgeous crowd – not the middle-aged scrapping crowd.

18. We left a little before midnight, and I literally crawled into the van. Andy had his hands full, because Pam told him to cut her off after three drinks, and he did, but she wanted to get a fourth drink. Then Antuanette got a jello shot in a syringe and shared it with Pam.

19. I got back to the Gaylord Palms after midnight. I was *exhausted*. I sat in the porte cochere (the place where the cars drop you off and the valets usually hang out). There was no one there. I sat there in that gorgeous, warm night, watching a fountain and listening to the classical music. I called my sister Yamy. I knew Wesley was asleep. Then I went upstairs to discover my roomie still awake. I checked email -- well, I tried to -- and washed my face and crashed. Great bed!!!!!!!

No photos for today, but maybe I can find some nifty links...

Ooo! Like the link for the Gaylord Palms!!! Here you go... http://www.gaylordhotels.com/gaylordpalms/