Chi & Friends
We enjoyed BJDC Austin 2010 , but it took some prep work to make the experience an enjoyable one -- and even so we experienced minor drama. (Like that's a surprise? Those hotel rooms look large until you get 4 people and all of their stuff in the space.)
If you've ever coordinated a trip for multiple friends, located around the state, then you can appreciate the effort ... we planned for months, yet everything came down to the Internet and long distance phone calls during the final countdown to Austin. Who would bring what; who was arriving when; which cell numbers were good; etc. Even so, the fates twisted a few threads just to make things more interesting.
Tuesday night We drove to Mar's home to get her dolls. Many doll designers come to the BJD conventions, so we wanted to show off Sarah's costumes that she made as Lady Fayre this season ... Mar built portable clothing racks, so we drove across Dallas County in order to load the car with goodies ... I'd called Marcia earlier that evening to get confirmation numbers, etc., which caused us to roll up to Harbor Freight 15 minutes after it closed ... SIGH! another errand before we could depart ...
Wednesday Joy left first, since she knew many of the folks coming to the convention ... But before she could go, we drove to Harbor Freight to buy a new hand cart; the one that Karen had bought years ago had slowly fallen apart -- and none of us has the tools to fix it. In fact, I shamelessly played the "unhandy female" card because -- well, I have no rachets to fix the casters in place and we also needed to hit the road. The managar sold us the floor model --for less than it was on sale!! You know we'll return there for more tools ...
Joy arrived in Austin safely and hooked up with Jen and Marseille. They played dolls that evening ... and caught up on details of the doll world. Jen has a very large female doll that Jen decided was in love with Yancy (He's the redhead on the left.); Yancy presented her with a red crystal heart ... and Jen (and others) bought some of the doll jewelry, as well as the human wire-wrapped stones.
Thursday Joy worked on pieces at the hotel while I got things together in Lancaster. It is hot (about 100 degrees) -- so I work on stuff at home. The smallest kitten (the Fee -- Fiona) plays all over the place; she's so much help!
That evening, Joy goes to the swap meet ... many people have culled their clothing collections, so she gets some good buys. Colette now has a new outfit, as well as her Ian.
Friday Sales day at the BJD convention, so Joy gets to move about 8 boxes of dolls, plus assorted boxes of goods to the sales room ... I head over to my mom's house; I've promised to place film on her front windows to reduce sun glare ... just what I need to do on the day of departure! But the task is done, and I'm home before noon ... but Mariann has a "null" reading when she tests a program, so she has to stay at the office until the problem is resolved. Such is life, right?
Mariann arrives between 3 and 4, and we take off for Austin ... It's about a 3-4 hour drive; traffic slows us down a little, but there's nothing too traumatic -- no major wrecks, no serious stop-and-go. You just can't zoom along at 75 m.p.h. Still, the sun is setting as we go under the big loop where I-35 and 290 cross. (Years earlier, we had gone to a convention at a hotel near that location to meet A-Team friends.)
Yet Marcia has not arrived -- she had called Joy to tell her that she had left Flint about 6 P.M. Ouch! That means she's traveling most of the way after dark ... Joy departs for the meet-and -greet while Mar and I chill for a bit. She wants to swim; however, there's a bodybuilder convention at our location. All those ripped muscles are quite intimidating when you're a middle-aged, overweight female ... and so tan! Yes, the spray tanners made a small fortune off the bodybuilders -- all the better to see the muscle definition, you see.
We have a bit of a dilemma as the evening passes -- we call Marcia's phone, but it has no voice mail ... and we can't very well call her mother. I could imagine her reaction -- it would match my mother's: all worry and no ability to DO anything about it. So, we hang in the room ... and Marcia arrives safely about midnight. The Google map (or Tom-Tom) and navigator grossly under-calculated the drive time. Still, we're all in place, and all is well for the night.
But the convention hasn't truly began ... at least, not for Marcia and myself since we didn't buy memberships ... Saturday will be the big day.
Dance quote: "Dancers are athletes of God." -Albert Einstein
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