Day 6 -- Las Vegas

Tuesday, January 31, 2006

This will be a really short post in comparison to the other days' reports, because it was by far the most hectic and most confusing day that I experienced in Las Vegas. And unfortunately, many of the things I did/said/encountered can't be written about publicly. I'm sorry. There's no remedy for a non-disclosure agreement even when it's merely verbal.

I woke up at 7:00 and my feet screamed at me. Amy and Paul went off to work, and I took a long shower, which helped to restore some of my energy -- and definitely made me feel better in general. Today I wore my new, embellished jeans (rips and tears and embroidered flowers and beads, oh, my!) and my new, embellished peasant blouse. I adored my new clothes, and they made me feel not-fat.

Sometimes it's not a matter of needing to feel skinny. I'm way past skinny. I'm perfectly happy with "not-fat." But this outfit had the added bonus of just enough beaded bling to make me feel positively *pretty*. That's not a bad way to start the day, is it?

Thusly adorned, I emptied the remaining press kits out of Amy's over-burdened backpack (and thanked heaven again that I have a sister who is not only a great friend but who also has good backpacks that she's willing to lend undeserving, disorganized sisters like me), hopped in the rental car, and tootled off to the Sahara.

And this time, I Didn't Get Lost At All!!!!! I literally pumped my fist in the air as I made my last turn into the Sahara parking garage and hooted my brilliance at no one in particular. The walk to the monorail station was the shortest yet, and I breezed through the turnstiles and went down to the loading platform just as a monorail arrived to whisk me off to the convention center.

As I got off at the convention center (and zipped past the people who ride the escalators as if they were thrill rides, snort), I looked around and thought, "Oh, my gosh -- who left the gates open?"

My mother used to say that. It's an incomplete colloquialism, I think -- it's supposed to be "the gates of Hell," implying that if someone left the gates of Hell open, everyone confined there would escape. It really means, "Man, it's CROWDED HERE!!!!"

That's what the trade show looked like on Tuesday. I thought Monday had been busy -- it was *nothing* compared to Tuesday. Everyone and their brother showed up for Tuesday. The halls outside the show rooms were as full of exhausted people as the show rooms were themselves. You couldn't walk without tripping on someone's bag or bumping into someone else. I even saw Lisa Bearnson on Tuesday. To exacerbate matters, my cell phone rang almost constantly. I found Kathi and dragged her upstairs to the press room for some much-needed R&R for a few minutes, and I think she can testify to how much my phone rang while I was in there, trying to escape the hordes of humanity.

Furthermore, Kathi gets my undying adoration for introducing me to Band-Aid brand Blister Band-Aids. Those things ROCK!!!!! She gave me one for my open blister, and it immediately felt better. It didn't do anything for the stress of pounding on the near-exposed pavement of the aisles, but at least the blister wasn't throbbing, too!

We shared a table near the CNN-playing TV with a lady named Stacy (from either Scrapbooking.com or Scrapbook.com -- I'm not sure which) and a British man who handed us copies of the British magazine "Creative Scrapbooking." It was a nice, low-key conversation while I wolfed down another fabulous roast beef sandwich. Then Jill called me and I told her to come back into the press room to join us at our table as Stacy and the British man left.

The conversation *then* was *just* lovely. Melissa Inman stopped by for a moment to say hello, which was nice, and I wish I had invited her to sit with us, but she was with some of the girls from BH&G Scrapbooks Etc., and our little table wasn't big enough for 6.

It was that kind of day. Soon enough, I was on the show floor again, checking out the Tsukineko and Clearsnap booths, thanks to Kathi's astute observations. Those folks rocked the cool inky stuff!!! I am in love with the ColorBox StamPress, which isn't new, but I hadn't seen it in person before.

At some point I ran over to the big exhibit hall and checked out the New Exhibitors only long enough to find the Carson-Dellosa booth with Antuanette's and Pam's new book, "Memorabilia Matters" on display. Woo hoo!!!! My all-time favorite layout is really in print!!!! And even more cool, the Carson-Dellosa people have *homeschooling* embellishments and papers in stock. AWRIGHT!

And all the while, my phone kept ringing and I kept having to run somewhere and meet with people. At one point, Lynn Baker *very* kindly rescued me and gave me more than half of her yummy, cold, quenching Diet Pepsi. She was a lifesaver -- I was just at the point that I was going to keel over if I didn't get some caffeinated beverage into me.

But at least if I keeled over, I would've looked good doing so. Even Erikia liked my outfit!!!! She is a style goddess. If Erikia liked it, it must be cool! And of course, I watched her start her demo. We talked about her Monday evening -- her shoulder hurt her, and she went to bed without dinner. I wish I had known! I could have brought Erikia some food, darn it -- I was *at* the Hilton, after all!!! She had plans with the Scrapbooks Etc. Creative Team people for Tuesday evening, so I wished her a good evening before I left the show.

Now -- you will note that I didn't see Becky, Stacy, or Kelli that whole day. I'm telling you, the throngs of humanity were just all over the place. It was nutty. They were mostly very nice, and I didn't have more than a couple of meetings with people who said, "Oh. It's YOU," as if I were the village pariah. But the show was a Madhouse, and I was so worn out by 2:00, I almost wanted to leave then.

Back at the monorail station, I kept running into people who couldn't figure out the monorail. I helped some guy figure out his ticket (take it OUT OF THE MACHINE to get through the turnstiles), and at the Sahara station there were two people who didn't understand that this was the last station on the line, and they had accidentally gotten on the Northbound train instead of the Southbound train. I told them to wait there at the platform for a couple of minutes; they had just announced that they were taking this train offline, but another would be along to take them South. Then I had to tell two elderly gentleman that the exit was *this* way.

It was just that kind of day. I know I keep saying that -- but it *was*.

When I got back to my rental car, I turned on the radio. I found a great radio station that really tripped my zizz wheel -- I'm a big-time "adult alternative" listener, and there are no longer any good "adult alternative" format station at home. Sniffle. But Las Vegas has a great one, and I was constantly singing along with the radio. They also had traffic reports, and as I was making my way out of the garage, the DJ's warned me that there was a huge snarl at the intersection of Las Vegas Blvd and Sahara. Dang it, that was supposed to be my first big intersection!!!

I called Amy, who told me to turn right on Sahara, then left before the Hilton, and then she guided me to secondary surface streets to get out of the worst of the traffic. It was a very scenic route that passed a darling little desert-landscaped park, and I enjoyed that drive immensely. I barely got home before Amy, so I took off my shoes and cooed over my poor feet.

When Amy got home, we decided we needed to go to the Tropicana and have our traditional meal in the coffee shop -- and might as well tour the Titanic exhibit, too. We stayed at the Tropicana the first time I ever visited Las Vegas, long before Amy ever had plans to live there. We have warm & fuzzy feelings for the glorious Trop. Rumor says that it will be torn down soon to make way for a more modern resort, and I hope that rumors are wrong. I have fond memories of that hotel and our first trip to Vegas.

But first I wanted to stop by Lane Bryant and buy that gorgeous little camisole that I've been wanting ever since I saw it a few weeks ago in Knoxville. I had my gift cards with me (thank heaven), so we went to the mall.

One of the things that makes this trip so nice is getting to see the places where Amy goes on a regular basis. Just a couple of weeks ago, she was chatting with me as she went to this mall, found Lane Bryant, and checked out their peasant blouses like the one I wore on Tuesday.

Unfortunately, we miscalculated, or everyone else did, because Lane Bryant was almost as busy as the convention center had been during the day. There had to be 20 people in there, all shopping. There was a line for the dressing rooms. There was a line for the cash registers. It just took *forever* to try on three tops and buy one!

By the time we finished, we were both too worn out to consider driving all the way to the Trop. Instead, we went to Pop's Philly Cheesesteaks, got dinner, and went back to Yamy's house. We watched "American Idol" together and then I crashed again. I was absolutely exhausted, but at least I got a good night's sleep in Amy's lovely guest bedroom!