...In every traveling experience, there’s always something that gets left behind. A piece of you, whether it be something you lost, or just the essence of you being there. The same thing happens to travelblogs – there are a few things that I cannot believe that I forgot.

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Seen written on a backpack while I was in the purgatory that is Chicago: "You're truly crazy if you kill your imaginary friends." I thought that was hysterical and immediately wrote it down.

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As soon as I got off the plane and hugged Wendy, Stasha and Kari (in that order, if I recall correctly), everything became my fault. Including travel delays brought on by weather in Chicago, hotel rooms that weren’t side by side, and any other number of things that could go wrong.

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Meeting 1Terry and discussing my hometown and some of the landmarks there (including that her husband and my father both worked at Mare Island, and I'm willing to bet that they crossed paths unknowningly too) made the world shrink very quickly and into a very small place.

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Remember – one must always use the perky puppies for good and not for evil.

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OMG OMG OMG. I totally forgot that we saw the beautiful full moon the first night, and we all howled together upon seeing it (before we picked up Suz from the airport) and the guys above our room howled too. Can’t believe I forgot about *that*!

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Someone hit me... I forgot that I named the almost neon yellow thread that was in the Opps packs that Jo had at her booth – the Yellow Knockered Fairy thread! That was at dinner on Saturday, after I mentioned to Dana (Thutmosis) that if I had more skeins I could *stitch* the Yellow Knockered Fairy – actually, I pondered stitching Petal Fairy with it, since she started that conversation.

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Proving that I am most versitile - I spent time talking with people, with a friend's baby sampler in my hands. I stitched the birthdate of the baby during various conversations, with no mistakes, and finished it while still standing. Yes, I was standing up while stitching (in hand) and so I had a happy dance while at CATS. That reminds me, I have to show that to DH...

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The smarmy guy who hit on me while I was on my way back from the bathroom…. Gold chain, rounded neck black tshirt, under dark olivey green-brown suit…. I was wearing my CATS nametag, and he said “Well, you have two smiles on you, can I buy you a drink?” All the while, he’s looking at my chest. I blinked, and went “ew” as if I was 16 and walked on. Betcha anything I was older than he was…

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How could I forget to mention talking with Terry Nolan and some unknown individual for a few minutes when I came in to get my charts signed because I’d forgotten, and didn’t know I was talking to BuilderLady – until she saw me pin on my nametag.

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Why didn’t I mention 1Terry signing “THE END” on the rear end of the signature cat that medievalneedle brought with her to the dinner? *That* was hysterical.

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Momstitches (Cheryl) and I were arguing at the end of dinner about who’s fault it is ("it's my fault", "no it's not, everyone *always* blames *me*"), because people blame her for everything too. So we’ve decided to share the blame, in 12 hour schedules, starting at noon and midnight, GMT.

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I had so much fun I was wiped out. Literally. I’ve been going to bed around 9 every night (of course, that’s 11 Nashville time, but I stayed on West Coast time as much as I could, so I didn’t fall asleep until past midnight (Nashville), and I woke up at 7 (which is 5am on the West Coast, and when I’m usually up for work anyway). But I’m still wiped out. It’s a sign of a good time.

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I know there are other things I forgot. I'll just have to mention them someday... and some are jokes that happened that I'd love to mention, but it's one of those "you had to be there" sorts of moments.