K-CSRR, Part 2 of 5 - Sat., March 31st

Saturday morning when the alarms went off (two on my cell phone and one wake-up call, because ever since I went to the Orlando convention with Annette Dragon, I don't trust hotel room alarm clocks because they don't like me and go off at crazy times), what I really wanted more than my classes to start was about three more hours of sleep.

My floor of the hotel was really relatively quiet. There were college engineering majors all over the hotel, attending some kind of competition, and they were partying on some floors. On my floor, they would just meet in the hall and talk earnestly about something. What? I don't know. But I hope that they got their posterboards made and the statistics finished on whatever their project was. They had those conversations right outside my door three times during the night, and I finally decided the next time they needed to check on their posterboard progress, I was going to stick my grumpy, middle-aged head out into the hall and tell them where they could find their posterboard if they kept waking me up.

When I actually woke up, though, and had a cup of the in-room coffee (the best in-room coffee I think I've ever had), somehow the aggravations of the night melted away, and I was ready to learn. Ooooo, boy! Retreat classes!!!! Two trips to Main Retreat have prepared me for some serious projects and fabulous fun! I *know* what's in store for me when I go to a Club Scrap event!!!

I was ready for something else, though... what was it? Oh, yes, now I remember. Breakfast!!!!!! I screeched into the restaurant before they shut off the lights, thank heaven. And yay! Staci was right there! I pushed past the maitre d' and asked Staci if I could sit with her. Staci is much nicer than I am. I think I would have been scared of me if I had been someone else looking at me. I was really hungry and needed another cup of coffee before I could even approach polite behavior.

The waiter poured me a cup of coffee and a glass of juice, and I hit the breakfast buffet at a full tilt. YUM. I love breakfast foods, but I can't eat a whole lot of it. I had a bit of pineapple, sausage, fluffy scrambled eggs (cooked fresh for me by the omelet guy) with cheese, and homestyle potatoes. I do love breakfast. Staci and I chatted while I snarfed down the food, and soon we were upstairs, arriving at Sequoyah 1 (a classroom) to gather with my lovely Group B compatriots. Karen was our beauteous teacher for ... ALSB!!

In my humble opinion, I think the Knoxville ALSB kit is the prettiest one yet. It was a Remix containing shades of turquoise and brown papers from: Asian Artisan, LMCTW, Collections, Autumn Splendor, Renaissance, and I think even Textiles & Notions. It was an incredible mix. Seriously! Anyone who wasn't at the Knoxville RR totally missed out, cuz we got the best kit. I'm just sayin'. Is all. I mean, the others are nice. But. Y'know. ;)

Karen gave a brief overview of the various Club Scrap kits and levels, and checked to see if we needed Tonic Studios trimmers, and then she started the class.

And, oh, my gosh, you know you are in the special class when you aren't three steps into the first page and someone in the back of the room says, "Oh, crap!" Yeeeeeeessssss. I was in the special class! Karen was a *fabulous* teacher. She was calm, cool, collected, and incredibly helpful. We really did have a lot of different skill levels in Group B (for Best!), and at one point, I actually thought about going over and offering to help one group of ladies. They were *really* nice and soooo cute -- they were a crop group from Alabama who like to travel together, and they always wear matching shirts. They had red on Friday, and orange striped on Saturday. Nice, nice ladies! But man, they only had one person cutting the paper. I was using a Tonic Studios trimmer and could've really churned out some photo mattes...

... But I was being all shy and retiring. Also, I put adhesive on the wrong side of a paper "ribbon," and I had to figure out how not to let anyone know that I had messed up, too.

Snort.

Karen, in the meantime, was just the best teacher. Whenever someone *really* messed up their piece of paper while cutting it, Karen would just sing happily, "Trade ya!" and hand over *her* correctly cut piece of paper. After a while, instead of saying, "Oh, crap" when we messed up, we would just yell, "Karen! Trade!"

I'm tellin' you. Group B. B for best. We were the special class.

So at the end of the 1.5-hour class, I was totally shocked and amazed to look down and realize that I had ten -- 10 -- TEN!!!!! layouts all made, and they were gorgeous, and I was so tickled. And sold. ALSB rocks!!!!!!! Karen asked us when was the last time we made 10 layouts in one sitting, and I yelled, "NEVER!!!!!" Puhleeeeeeeeeze! It takes me two weeks to make *one* layout!

And I really do think the Knoxville ALSB kit is the best ever. CSHQ remixes different ALSB kits for *every* Rolling Retreat. Every single one of 'em. All of 'em. If you go to an RR this year, you'll get your own special ALSB Remix. And I'm so sorry, too, because the Knoxville one is the best. Ever.

Just sayin'.

After the first class, we had a lovely long break for shopping, cropping, and eating. I went back up to my room to put away my gorgeous ALSB pages. I also called my sister in Las Vegas because I forgot she was three hours behind me, so I woke her up early on a Saturday to tell her all about how cool ALSB is. Then I got confused and wandered around my hotel room for a while. OK, seriously? I don't know what I did, but when I arrived at lunch, I was the last person there and had to search for a seat.

Lunch was *incredible*. They had ham & cheese croissants with pasta salad and chips. Wow, those sandwiches were good! I know -- y'say, "Ham and cheese croissants? C'mon, that's *ordinary*." But these weren't! They were really, really good! I think they must have rolled 'em in cookie dough or something. Yummers.

Next class!!!! Group B (for Best) moved to Salon D for a class with Dinah. The queen of class! The project was the CD Booklet similar to the one in the Fizz CStamp kit. I confess, when I got that project, I was scared of trying to assemble the locking mechanism, so I made a single CD-folder booklet and didn't use the clasp. I'm so glad I got lessons in lock assembly!!!! And OMG, the Retreat kit for the CD Booklet is sooooooooo cooooooooool!!!!! It utilized the Extra Extra kit, one of my all-time favorites, and lots of Bookbinding Glue. I love playing with glue. No, I didn't sniff the glue!!!!

But I did manage to glue a whole piece of cardstock to the table because I got too much glue *on* the table. Dang it. Dinah was really nice and gave me another piece of paper to replace the one I wrecked. And she didn't once refer to my specialness. But I think we all know... yeah, I fit into that class.

I have to also say, although she isn't on this yahoogroup yet, that my guest Carrie was a sweetie and was totally loving the classes. Every once in a while she would turn around and yell at me, "Thank you!" The first couple of times I asked why, and she said, "For telling me about this!" Carrie is from Indiana, and there was a large, lovely contingent of Indiana ladies there! And of course, there were some young and energetic people like Carrie. I think she had a good time at Retreat.

Well, at the end of the class, I had a completely lovely CD Booklet of my very own, and I'm happy to report that I didn't infact attach the whole shebang to the table. ...

I gotta quit writing on this... I'm tired!! I'm so tired. More on that later. I will try to finish the trip report tonight, but I just gotta take another break and maybe get another little nap....