Posts
So here is a week's worth of posts all in one for your reading pleasure. It's really long, I know!
Flights
I flew standby. Before you gasp and reach out to slap some sense in to me, let me explain. If I were to by a flight to Atlanta from Portland, Oregon. It would have cost about $600. A very nice person who works for an airline offered a reduced rate standby option. That cost $270. So - big price difference. Just about enough to pay for my hotel for the week.
I don't regret my decision to fly this way, but it didn't turn out as I hoped. Let me preface this by saying I only slept two hours on the Sunday night before my trip and three hours the night before that. I wanted a redeye on Monday night so I'd get in to Atlanta at 9:30 on Tuesday. I planned to go to the World of Coke and hang out with my roommates if they had arrived on Tuesday.
I didn't make the redeye. So my mom got to the airport at about 12:30 a.m. to pick me up. I was laying down to go to sleep about 1:30 a.m. Unfortunately, I had to get up at 3:30 a.m. to catch a ride with my dad on his way to work to go back to the airport and try for an early morning flight. For those of you math challenged - that's seven hours of sleep over three nights. I need eight hours a night to function properly. I don't drink coffee either, so don't even bring that up.
Luckily I got on that early morning flight to Dallas. I was told that Dallas-Atlanta is easy, it's in and out of Portland that's hard. I got the first flight out from Dallas I wanted and got in to Atlanta about 5 p.m. I lost my day of sightseeing, but oh well. At least I got there the day I wanted.
The return trip was a different story. I didn't sleep Saturday night because I had to get up at 3:30 to check out and head to the airport. My roommates and I talked until pretty late and I just couldn't sleep. I got to the airport at the buttcrack of dawn. It turns they had an opening in first class, so guess who got it? Me! Yay standby. However, when I should have been celebrating my good luck and soon-to-be-blissful-nap-in-comfortable-airplane-seats, I started panicking. I knew that it was a prepayment for a really shitty day. Don't ask me how I knew, but in my gut I knew the only reason I got first class was because the Karma Police wanted me to get some sleep before spending the rest of the day in an airport.
I landed in Dallas at 7:40 a.m. There was a 9:30 a.m. flight to Portland. I was number 14 on the standby list, needless to say I didn't get on. There was a 12:30 flight, didn't catch that one either. I was moved up to number eight on the standby list. I was starting to panic because I only had a 4:40, 5:50 and 8:10 flight left for that day. If I didn't catch any of them I'd be paying up the ass for a hotel room last minute.
At about 3 p.m. I go up to see how it looks for my chances to get on the plane. I had been bumped down to number 14 on the standby list. The guy at the desk (very unfriendly, they all were when they found out I was standby except for the guy at the gate when I left Atlanta), said he didn't see how I would get on a flight to Portland that day, let alone the next day. They were all oversold and I kept getting bumped down the list by employees of the airline. He said I should look into going to Seattle.
I called my dad to see if he could pick me up if I flew there. He said he could and would take a day off work. So I marched back up to the gate, feeling good about my prospects of leaving the Dallas airport that I had been sitting in for nearly EIGHT hours. With no sleep the night before. He looked on the computer and said that those flights were just as full, but there was one leaving at about 9:30 p.m. So if I didn't make the Portland flights I could try for that one, and stay in a hotel worst case scenario.
Um, sitting in the airport for another SIX hours, a total of 14 hours did not sound pleasant. Especially not knowing how much a hotel would cost, I didn't have extra clothes, and I need to work the next day.
I panicked. I called my dad and had him look on Orbitz for flights from Dallas to Portland. Keep in mind the time was about 3:15. There was one on another airline leaving at 4:30, with a layover in Las Vegas. The price wasn't terrible. The problem was getting on the tram and booking it to the other side of the airport to see about buying the ticket. When I got there, there were in fact seats available. It cost me $250 for a flight from Dallas to Portland. It was delayed a bit and had a three hour layover in Vegas. I wasn't scheduled to land in Portland until 11 p.m.
For those trying to keep track of time zone changes and travel times, let me break it down for you. I woke up to leave the hotel at 3:30 a.m. (east coast time) on Sunday. My flight from Vegas was to land in Portland at 2 a.m. (east coast time) on Monday morning. That was nearly a 24-hour day of traveling. Holy shit, I just worked that out myself and that's a lot of fucking time in airports and planes.
I made peace with the decision to buy a ticket, bringing my air costs to $520. It was still less than if I would have bought the ticket in the first place, but time equals money, ya know? I just reminded myself I had to get home for work and it was only money.
Don't worry - there's an end in sight for my tale of bitching and complaining. When I'm on my way to work Monday, I got a call from the person who hooked my up with the standby (he was really nice throughout the process, checking on flight options for me and getting up in the middle of the night to list me for flights). He told me that, *deep breath*, the 5:50 flight leaving Dallas for Portland had 10 seats that were never filled. One in first class. That means that about 20 people on the oversold flight didn't show up and the 18 people in front of me on the standby list either didn't show up, or made it on the place. I would have gotten to fly first class from Dallas to Portland and saved $250. Fuck. Ing. A. Talk about pissing in Cheerios. I don't regret the decision because how in the hell was I supposed to know that the airline Gods had chosen me to fuck with? It's only money, it's only money (yeah right).
Hotel
I had stayed in that hotel for a conference about eight years ago. I didn't remember it being so expensive! A bottle of coke, turkey sandwich and bag of chips ran me about $13. Good lawd that's a lot of money.
The hotel staff I talked to while walking through the hotel were very friendly. The staff in Grandstand and Champions were a totally different story.
On our first night the three of us went to Grandstand for some drinks. We sat at a table, merrily talking for twenty minutes or so. No service. Three seats opened up at the bar so we moved. Another half an hour or so go by before the guy took our drink orders. It was ridiculous. That was the story every time we went there. We would watch other people get two drinks before we got our first and when we'd ask for drinks he'd say "just a minute." Sheesh.
The rooms were great though, very comfortable beds. And it was easy to meet people in the centralized areas. I just hope the food is cheaper at the hotel in Dallas.
Roommates
On Tuesday, Elisabeth and I hung out in the hotel room for a while, hoping that our other roommate Alice would arrive before we went out to dinner. After a while our stomachs won and we trekked to Hard Rock in the humid heat (nothing compared to the weather we had in Oregon the weekend before - topping at 107 degrees!). I ordered my favorite Hard Rock meal, a pulled pork sandwich. I also splurged and got a Hurricane and paid for the glass. It was $11, but it equaled about three drinks at any other bar, so a good deal if you ask me. Elisabeth had a Hypnotiq Tea and holy crapola it was yummy!
When we got back to the hotel we decided to walk around and check out the pool. As we're walking on the Garden Terrace level, we hear "Elisabeth!" Low and behold it was Alice! Here is a near-accurate reenactment of the conversation:
Elisabeth: "Alice! When did you get here?"
Alice: "This afternoon. Didn't you see my bags in the room?"
Elisabeth: "No. Did you?" She turned to me. I shook my head.
Alice: "Did you get the notes I've been leaving you?"
Elisabeth: "No...have you been getting mine?"
Alice: "No...uh, what room are you in?"
Elisabeth: "2632."
Alice: "I'm in 609! (or whatever it was)"
We proceed to the front desk to reconcile the situation. It turned out that although we were all supposed to be in 2632, they made a booboo and put Alice in the wrong room. But we got it fixed.
I had a blast with my roommates. We got along great and had lots of fun teasing each other and giggling like fools. All that was missing was a pillow fight in our underwear. They even put up with my newbie energy and helped me with some brainstorming. While we were there Alice found out that her intrigue "My Sister, Myself" hit the Waldenbooks Top 10 list!!! The sequel is at stores now, called "Duplicate Daughter."
People
The literary signing on Wednesday was awesome. Elisabeth, who was interested in the romantic suspense authors, and moi, interested in paranormal authors, walked up and down the rows meeting our favorite authors and taking pictures of each other with them.
A highlight for me was meeting Michelle Rowen. I'm an addict of her blog and books and was jazzed to meet her in person. I got a super cute photo of us (will post later when Blogger stops being a bitch.) And I love the smiley face she turns into an angel when she signs her books. Clever Michelle, very clever.
I wanted to meet Stephanie Rowe as well. But, I was alphabetically challenged that evening and didn't stop to think that Stephanie would be right next to Michelle (Rowe - Rowen.) So I went back there later and met her. She's so nice!
I was also excited to meet Susan Grant. I was lucky enough to get to read "Your Planet or Mine" before it came out. It's fantastic! She's really sweet too.
The next night I went to the Mysteria booksigning at the Border's across town. It was only supposed to be a couple of blocks up from the Marta station. It was actually a few blocks up, several blocks down the hills and several blocks up again. Well worth the trek though. MaryJanice Davidson, Susan Grant, Gena Showalter and P.C. Cast were there. The four of them are fantastic! And really, really, really funny. I can't wait to read the book. I shared a cab ride back with some great ladies from a Seattle chapter. Woo woo PNW!
I also met some of the lovely ladies at Romance Divas. I didn't make it to the event but luckily I ran across several of them throughout the week. It was great to put faces to people I've been talking to for months! I'll post a pic later of some of us, again, once blogger stops being a bitch.
Everyone was very friendly throughout the conference. I'm an introverted person unless I know someone well. But I really felt like I could come out of my shell a bit at the conference. I love RWA.
Workshops
I started out the week by religiously attending the workshops. I had a couple of "a-ha!" moments, but nothing too profound. I felt my time was spent just as good by working on my new book idea. A couple of the workshops I wanted were full. Overall the workshops were okay. By the end of the week I was choosing booksignings over workshops. I still learned a ton over the week though and met lots of great people.
Food
I wanted to hurl at the first luncheon. The salad was good and the rolls, top notch bread. But when the main course arrived, yikes! I don't eat chicken on bones. I don't like cook vegetables. And I really hate mashed, cooked, cauliflower that tries to replace potatoes. At least I thought it was mashed cauliflower. I took a bite, almost barfed, then learned it was grits. Fucking gross is what they were.
I don't eat much red meat either so the steak the next day wasn't very appetizing. Especially since it was mostly fat. Thank god for potatoes though. The desserts were yummy both days.
I loved the sandwiches at Atrium Express. Even though they cost a ton, they were really good for pre-prepared sandwiches. I'm actually craving one right now. Lots of yummy, fresh turkey on a croissant. One night I ordered room service and it was really good. A turkey club. Mmm mmm mmm.
Books
My roommates lovingly call me a book whore now. I ended up with over 100 books. I only bought about 15 of them. Some are going to our chapter for our workshop next month, I'm putting together the goody bags and gift baskets. But the rest are mine, all mine. Muhahahahhahaha! I shipped four boxes home. USPS wasn't open so I couldn't do media mail...my only option was UPS ground. I still don't know how much it cost because the hotel didn't put it on my room bill by the time I checked out. They'll probably just charge me for it later. Bastards. I wonder when they'll even ship the books.
I can't wait until they arrive. I rearranged my bookcase to accommodate my needed TBR space. I'll post a photo once it's done.
Long-winded, I know. But it was an eventful week, even if I didn't crash any cool parties. My new goal is to be on the other side of the tracks by the San Francisco conference in two years - published. I've got myself a great book idea and a can-do attitude and I'm ready to roll.
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