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Dunneback.com - Friends - TTP VII - July 11-13, 2003
My weekend started a little earlier than others, so enjoy the report!
Thursday
I actually got my rental car Wednesday evening and drove it back to school through the heavy storms that were moving through the region. The rain wasn't great, but the light show was terrific! <G>
Thursday started with me rolling out of bed too darn early considering I got in the night before after midnight. I had to load the car though. Dumb me should have carried her apartment keys with her instead of just the car keys. After taking an hour to get the spare set of my apartment keys from my brother, I was able to load up the rest of my stuff, take a shower, take out the trash and get out of town with only a couple of more stops. Susan (Sally00 from the ADWOFF messageboard) called me when I was only 15 minutes out of town to let me know that she and her SIL were going to stay at Longaberger another night and asked if I wanted to meet up with them to make a basket there. I said yes, I could give it to my mom for Christmas (so, Mom, if you're reading this, forget that last part <wink>). I got into Columbus where I was staying for the night with the only problem being I-71 through Columbus to get to the motel. I was behind this chick (yes, chick) in the heavily congested traffic for 20 minutes and I swear that she had at least one hand on her steering wheel for only two of those minutes. The rest of the time she had her arms up and running both hands through her her hair, playing with it. Oy!
What was cool about the motel, other than the rate, was that there appeared to be a classic car convention in town and a lot of the attendees were staying where I was at. There were some really, really cool cars there. I wished that I had taken pictures.
Friday
Started off the day with a COLD shower. I didn't mean to take a cold shower, but there wasn't any hot water! I figured I deserved to win a basket at the raffle for all of the problems I had starting the days out so far <G>. On the way out of town to meet up with Susan, I saw this billboard that rotated between three ads. The first: "Indulge Yourself. You both deserve it. Lingerie, Leather, Heels." The next one was along the lines of: "Looking for God? Come check out our church!" The third was just an ad for a restaurant down the street <G>.
I actually made it to the Longaberger factory right on time. When I pulled up to where I was directed to park, there was a white Mustang convertible with Utah plates next to me. "Hi, Susan!!" Susan and her SIL are really great, funny people and I was glad that they shared this experience with me. I'd never heard of Longaberger before, but it was a lot of fun, and I total recommend it to anyone interested in woodworking, crafts, or Longaberger baskets.
We hit the road for Hagerstown when we finished, winding through Ohio, West Virginia, Pennsylvania, back into West Virginia, and finally Maryland. I love this area soo much. It's incredibly beautiful and I wish that I had my camera up front with me so I could take pictures as I was driving (bad, I know, but sooo beautiful). When we got into Hagerstown, we hit the hotel right away and checked in. After I delivered the t-shirts and my basket to the hospitality room, I went to take my junk up to my room. Dawn (dawnqls from ADWOFF) was helping me and we ran into my roommate Beck right away. She told us that they had given us a king size bed instead of two doubles. Now, Beck is a wonderful person, but we had just met <wink>. I was able to get that little problem taken care of quickly. Now, it was time to party. I headed back to the hospitality room with my books huge pile of books and said hi to everyone. It was great seeing old friends and meeting new. I eventually wandered down to the bar area where Dawn (sugarfoot from ADWOFF) and her husband were DJ'ing. They were great. Suz and Jen (Suz and Jenarg from ADWOFF) did a foot-stomping rendition of Proud Mary. Carla and Jeannie did the lighter tribute. Everyone got involved and looked like they were having the time of their lives, alcohol-assisted or not ;) I finally dragged my poor brain-dead self off to bed so that I could get up in the morning to make the 8:30am breakfast call.
Saturday - The Signing
I did it. I got up early! That was with a couple of wake-up calls and the alarm <G>. Beck and I headed downstairs to meet up with Jeannie, Kelly, Susan and Jen (Jeannie, Ke77kat, Sally00 and Jenarg from ADWOFF) for breakfast at Bob Evans before heading to TTP for our numbers. Breakfast was good if a little slow. When we got to TTP, I saw that a line had already formed at the counter (it was 10:30 and the store opened at 10), so I grabbed an audio copy of Birthright for the ride home from RWA next Sunday. I said hi to BW who had that harried look he gets when we descend upon him and his store. I then paid for the CD's and got my line ticket. I was in group D, which didn't bother me since the signing didn't start until 1p and I could head back into Hagerstown to Barnwood Books to see if I could score any used books. Well, after getting on the wrong road (I knew exactly where I was, just forgot where I needed to be going), I got to Barnwood and got myself a hardcover copy of Janet Evanovich's Hard Eight. Since it was 12:30 by this point and I was tired of driving, I decided to head back to TTP so I could just sit and relax.
When the signing started, they started drawing the door prize winners. Phyllis (PhyllisL from ADWOFF), who is the basket raffle coordinator, was picked first and got an ARC (advance readers copy) of Nora's Remember When which will be out this fall. Jeannie (Jeannie from ADWOFF) won a copy of Imitation in Death which is the next In Death book. A few other people were picked, but those were the two big prizes. When my group was finally called, I had given into buying a store canvas bag which I had all the authors sign and will have authors at future events sign. My friend Edith gave me a belated birthday present, a stuffed Ty Zodiac snake which I think is incredibly cute. I didn't show that to Nora since she loathes snakes. Another author friend, Donna Kauffman stopped by while I was in line. I got to say hi to her and she said she wished I had told her I'd be there since she had mailed a package off to me before she left for TTP for the day. After I got my things signed by Nora and the other attending authors (Rebecca York, Robin D. Owens, and Nero Blanc) I headed off to meet up with some of my friends at the Creamery where Donna was meeting up with us.
It was back to the hotel for a little rest to prepare for the evening's entertainment. Once again we gathered primarily in the bar where dancing was again the order of the night. This time Angela's (Angela from ADWOFF) little angels joined in on the fun for a little bit. The did a great job accompanying the dancing crew on Proud Mary and YMCA. These girls are just too cute!
Sunday
The day of the brunch. I finally pulled myself out of bed after a late night chatting with my roomie Beck. I headed down to the hospitality room to see if anything needed to be done and picked up the last of the baskets to take to Asaro's where the brunch was being held. Beck had to leave, so I had to say goodbye to a great roomie :(
Asaro's was packed outside since they were still setting up inside. Those who were dropping off baskets were allowed inside <G>, but it was hard to find places to set the baskets down since there were so many! Lunch was a wonderful lasange, spaghetti, salad, garlic bread and fruit feast. Dan and Stacie did a wonderful job feeding us.
Soon it was time for the baskets. Phyllis announced that we were able to raise just over $4400 for the Nora Roberts Foundation. Go Noraholics!!
Gerri (Gerri from ADWOFF) won the first basket and she picked the basket with the advanced readers copy of Remember When. Becky (CajunMama from ADWOFF) was picked second and she chose the basket put together by those who went to the trip to Ireland. I really wanted that because of a great pencil drawing by my friend Nancy Ottis of St. Declan's Monastery in Ardmore, Ireland. Then I hear "Of course, Katie". Nora picked me!! Yeah! I chose the basket put together by the moderators on ADWOFF. It's got tons of great stuff and two small Longaberger baskets. Too cool! Especially as I had never heard of Longaberger before this trip <G>. I kind of stopped paying attention to who got exactly what after that, but Phyllis won a basket, Nancy Ottis won a basket, and so many others.
A fun time was had by all. More stories and photos can be found on the ADWOFF Message Board in the TTP Gatherings forum.
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updated 7/13/03 KMD
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