...or "What went on in Vegas, surely ends up on the internet..." And that is surely the truth when you're talking about a group of stitchers who blog decide to meet up as part of a Worldwide GTG. There's going to be some long passages... there's going to be some short glimpses - these will not be my finest moments as a blogger....

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Vegas, so I've been told, is filled with lots of strange creatures. Oddly enough, I didn't see any... unless we were the strange creatures being referred to.

It all started on Thursday morning - a week ago - when DH and I got up, got the kids up and loaded the car to start the 500 mile trip to Las Vegas. GameBoys were charged, books and stitching were ready at hand, CDs carefully selected... and off we went. I won't go into much detail about the driving as there isn't much to say, other than this: I've got a new appreciation for the desert. It's lovely in a stark and dry sort of way, but I wouldn't want to live out there. And I have new appreciation for DH who did all the driving for the entire trip, despite my offers to take a shift driving here and there.

We finally got in around 7 or 8pm on Thursday night, tired and hungry. My first BBer sighting was actually me *being* sighted while sharing a light dinner with DH and the kids. Stasha, Margaret, and Lisa dropped in and dragged me off for a walk to Walgreens where water and various other things were procured. In retrospect, I should have picked up some water, but I kept drinking Margaret's (thank you!), but she also had plenty to spare.

I spent the rest of that night attempting to leave Margaret's room at least 3 or 4 times because it was getting late and I was tired. Funny enough, I wasn't tired, but wired. I didn't want to sleep - and I couldn't. I was nervous enough about being there, and my stomach had been doing backflips and other contortions for a few weeks already. After leaving Margaret's room around 2 in the morning, I didn't fall asleep until almost 3, waking again at 5, and again at 6 when a wake-up call that I didn't place rang the room.

That got straightened out very quickly at the front desk.

Friday was spent wandering around with shopping, chatting, and exploring. Saturday, the same, except you have to add me and Stasha running around and frantic about award categories, questionnaires, and certificates. And dinner with TW and the stitchers. And then there was me presenting awards, with a calm clear voice but hands that shook more than California did in October 1989. That one I cannot figure out considering I do presentations quite often, without a hitch, wobble or nerve to be shaken. Of course, I tend to keep my hands in my pockets for those presentations since everything's on the big screen behind me, and I just have to hit my talking points.

Ok... here's where I disintegrate as a blogger, and just give you some of the high points...

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That artwork in Margaret's room on the window... maybe Lisa and Mel should have been in that room instead.

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Getting everyone in the photo at the front of the Frontier... and hoping that we didn't get run over as we posed there. Thanks so much to Stasha's DH for taking those photos for us.

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My DH was amused and confused by it all... and even though it was supposed to be a family vacation, I think he knew I'd be kidnapped and lost to the stitchers. Next time, Vegas will be just me, him and the kids.

Unless I can get rid of the kids for the weekend on some unsuspecting relative.

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I gambled for the first time since I turned legal (I didn't even gamble *then*)... didn't win, but had a great streak on 8 games of video poker in a row because I kept getting three of a kind. I had a $20 limit for the weekend... I barely spent $5 of it.

Ah well, more money for stash.

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Oh, speaking of stash, I have the new TW stocking, and I picked up a Dimples that I don't think I have, and a whole bunch of Anchor (so now I'm not an Anchor virgin anymore) for the freebie dragon (which I'm not sure is supposed to be for public consumption or not, but I'm keeping it close to the vest).

I think the best part was seeing TW hanging onto that basket of silks with a gleam in her eye that any stashinite would be proud of...

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Bellagio, fountains, must see. Nuff said.

Ok, maybe not - DH had never seen the whole show before, because they were always working on it when he came by. It took me being there and stubborn about seeing it that he saw the whole show. Incredible show. Must see.

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I missed Friday's show and tell and the pajama party because we walked and walked and walked to Bellagio, and Mirage and stopped off for the pirate show at Treasure Island. The winds picking up kept us from seeing that show, and I'm told we didn't miss much.

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Speaking of Stashinites... it was incredible meeting faedragon, and I must get ahold of a copy of that picture of the two of us together.

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I almost didn't go the Vegas, as some of you know. I'm very glad I did, even though a discussion that my DH thinks was long past overdue kept us both from our beds for a while...

...I hope it's a discussion that puts us on the right path.

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Getting faces to go with the names was incredibly important and valuable. There are some impressions that I'll never forget.

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On the last day Stasha told me that "There you go" has been picked up into a lot of people's lingo...

...I never thought that my off the cuff response to general statements (instead of an 'I told you so' or 'Didn't I tell you...' would get picked up like that.

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Spot.

Spot in a box.

Spot getting smushed by Margaret when she walked across the floor of the stitching lounge. Or maybe Spot escaped by then and we didn't notice.

We know that Spot is a she, and we know she was spotted earlier in the day with the word 'Virgin' plastered across her (there is photo evidence of this). I told Lisa we need to photoshop that and add the words 'Born Again'...

...maybe I should screenprint that for her on a shirt.

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A's impression of things: she loved Margaret immediately - and that may have had something to do with Margaret going through withdrawal from little kid hugs.

B's impression of things: Making new friends with Stasha's kids was great, and she loved the pool.

DH's impression of things: We women may have thought that it was a stitching GTG, but the kids knew it was really a GameBoy tournament. An almost non-stop GameBoy marathon, actually.

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The second half of the driving over half of California trip was Disneyland. I'll keep it brief - we left Vegas on Sunday afternoon, arrived in Anaheim around 7pm Sunday night. We walked around Downtown Disney until about 10 and then went to bed. We woke up and spent *ALL* of Monday in the park. Then we went back to the hotel around 10:30pm. We then spent part of Tuesday morning in the park before shopping and leaving around 2pm for home. We got home around 10pm, and went straight to bed.

We slept a lot.

High points: going on Indiana Jones for the first time, and convincing B that Pirates of the Caribbean and Haunted Mansion weren't scary. A actually kept her eyes closed on Indiana Jones after that hour long wait in line - she who loves roller coasters.

They couldn't convince me to go on the Ferris wheel at California Adventure. They threatened me, and teased me, but I held firm, and we never really went near it. Good thing too, because I wouldn't have gotten on unless it was one of the stable cars - there's no way you're going to get me on one of those sliding cars on that ride again. EVER.

The Grizzly River Run, or whatever that rapids ride at California Adventure is, totally rocks. Love that ride. Gotta be sure to ride that one again.

The Matterhorn was actually open for the first time ever when I was in the park. And I didn't ride it. Betcha that was my Vegas luck right there, and I should have ridden it.

We got B to go on Star Tours for the first time - she was scared at parts, but I explained the trick that they were playing with the movement of the seats and the visuals on the screen... that made her feel better. Now, before any of you tell me that I was a spoilsport for telling B this, you have to understand - she was terrified and was starting to get frantic. This was the only way to calm her down, because a swift hug and an "it's all right" wasn't going to work.

Things we remembered from last time (October 2001): never ever give A chocolate milk before going on rides. We almost made that mistake with B - we were going to have hot chocolate in the morning for breakfast on Tuesday, but then I remembered chocolate and milk would be a bad thing before rides. So B and I had apple juice instead... and a Krispy Kreme doughnut.

Autotopia - we didn't ride it. After going through it 5 times last trip with B, we weren't going to do that again.

Not great things from this time:
Tiki Room was closed for renovations - ok, I usually hate this, but DH says it's tradition to go through, and I have to agree.
Aladdin's Oasis was undergoing renovations too.
Space Mountain (which I was gearing up to take A on) was closed and is being retooled and revamped.
Thunder Mountain Railroad (which B was too short for last time) was closed for repairs and testing. A promptly starting telling people that she couldn't go on it because they were fixing it from the last crash.
Cinderella's Castle was being revamped for the 50th anniversary next year... so that shortcut through the park was closed up. I'm thinking that another vacation to Disneyland might be a good idea next year.
Splash Mountain broke down after we'd been in line for the first 5 minutes of what was supposed to be a 75 minute long wait. *sigh* A was reall cheesed off about that one - in tears and yelling at me because we didn't go on it on Monday - it was an over 2 hour long wait on Monday, so we made it our first destination on Tuesday.

So, that's the Disneyland wrapup.

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The really great thing... besides being home...

On the second day that I was in Vegas, I was finally hungry - really hungry - for the first time in weeks. I had that epiphany in the shower... with two words that popped into my head as if they were in bright neon....

WhizGidget's Back...
...maybe not with a vengence...
...maybe not in the same old, same old way...
...but back. Back online... back home...

...and now it's time to go back to bed, and then work in the morning. I'll see you again here on Friday morning.