The condo we stayed at in Sanibel last month had a guest book for guests to sign. This was my favorite signed page:
We had a wonderful while reading this. I was suppose for hours but only sporatically laughed for minutes. On the Island. I also seen lots of lizards and one was dead.
I’m just saying.
At the end of July, I had an unusual but fun mid-week vacation of sorts in Florida. The main reason behind the trip was the CHA Summer 2009 Show in Orlando, which was held on Tuesday through Thursday. Since Tabitha and her family were in Florida anyway, it was a good opportunity for us to attend the show, so I flew out there Monday night and back home Thursday night. That in and of itself was strange, because it meant that I worked only Monday and Friday of that week. I got pretty spoiled over that 9-day period… off two days, work one, off three, work one, then off another two. If only ALL work weeks could be like that!
Getting to CHA this time was nowhere near as eventful as it was back in 2007 when Rita and I went, but there were some typical “Sandra is traveling, so let’s make it hard for her” difficulties. I got to the airport late, had to rush through check-in, security lines were long, and I’d left a giant bottle of contact lens solution in my backpack which meant I got to pulled aside and triple-checked. Then when I finally made it to my gate with only minutes to spare, I was told that my flight had moved to another gate… one which I’d passed along the way. I high-tailed it back to that gate only to hear an announcement just as I arrived that the flight had been moved BACK to the ORIGINAL gate. Sigh. And then after all of that rushing, I ended up standing in the gate area for another hour while they secured a plane. A plane we had to ride a shuttle bus to get to. Sigh again. And of course I was starving by then and there was no food available on the plane except cookies. But at least I got there safe and sound!
In order to take advantage of some free lodging, we all stayed at Chris’ sister’s house just outside of Jacksonville. That meant a 2.5 hour drive to Orlando each day for the show, but it was a good opportunity for me and Tabitha to do some brainstorming and business planning, so it wasn’t a bad drive. I took the morning shift and Tabitha took the evening, and one thing we discovered pretty quickly is that when Tabitha drives, traffic is heavy, drivers are insane, and it will storm like the dickens. It happened daily without fail. If we weren’t in bumper-to-bumper traffic, we were dodging cars that were missing their exits or darting between lanes. And freak storms would appear from nowhere and we’d be struggling through a windy downpour, but her driving prowess got us through every time!
The show itself was a lot smaller than we thought it would be. I’d say it was about 1/3 the size of the Winter show I attended in January, and the giveaways and make-and-takes were a lot less fruitful than in the past. I guess the state of the economy has finally caught up with manufacturers, and there were fewer of them in attendance and fewer freebies to be doled out.
It was still a great show, though, and we made several great contacts, saw tons of awesome new products, and got lots of ideas. I attended two very useful seminars about the online aspects of a business presence, and we’re already incorporating the lessons we learned there.
We even met a celebrity at the show! If you’ve ever watched anything crafty on HGTV, you’ll know how big a deal it is that we got to meet the one and only Carol Duvall, and had our picture taken with her. It was so cool, and she was really nice.
And now, the requisite shot of the loot I gathered from the show! As usual, there were tote bags aplenty, and we did some really fun make-and-takes. Most of the good stuff pictured here came from a “trade show in a bag” activity we did, which required us getting a card initialed from about a dozen sponsoring booths. We turned the card in at the end and got a ton of goodies.
So because the show was smaller than we thought, we ended up not needing the full three days we had allocated to it. Instead, we spent Tuesday and Wednesday at the show, and decided to take Thursday off and visit nearby SeaWorld!
What a fun side-trip that turned out to be. I’d visited SeaWorld as a toddler, and have vague memories of a dolphin-shaped stroller and a plate of whole fish to be fed to dolphins. In fact, check it out:
Judging by that timestamp, I was three years old. And judging by my Dad’s hair, it was most definitely the 70s.
But now back to present day…
When we arrived at the park, we quickly checked the schedule and realized that we’d timed it just right to catch the Shamu show. We headed to the stadium and found a shady seat just outside of the spash zone.
The show was fantastic, as you can imagine, and included tons of tricks and amazing feats by a half dozen or so killer whales.
Those whales seemed large at the time, but I soon discovered they were just small- and medium-sized. This discovery came the second we saw Shumu appear. That whale is HUGE!
After the show was over, we headed over towards the dolphin area, but on the way stopped to see the rays. You could lean in and pet them all you wanted, which was pretty neat. Their skin had a squishy, gelatinous texture that reminded me of Jell-O. Sam wasn’t interested in touching them, but Tabitha and I didn’t want to pass up the chance.
The other good thing about petting the rays was that it meant having your arm submerged in cool water. This was am important benefit, because by then we’d discovered that it was really, really HOT. The temperature must have been in the 90s for sure, and the sun was beating down on us pretty hard. There were limited options for cooling down: either pay $3 a pop for bottled water, or get by with nasty, warm, water fountain water that tasted like it came from a bathtub. As you can probably guess, we spent a lot on bottled water.
While Sam and I were checking out the rays and visiting a nearby air-conditioned gift shop, Chris and Tabitha took turns standing in line at the dolphin feeding area. The dolphins only eat a few times a day, and we weren’t going to miss the chance to feed them (even at $7 per person).
Once we got inside the area, we were each given a tray of 4-5 whole fish to feed them with, and instructed to hold them over the dolphins’ mouths, then drop them inside when they opened up. This turned out to be much easier than I thought it would be, because the dolphins were well trained in the feeding drill, and eager to swim by with their mouths open.
The only challenge I had while feeding the dolphins came from a surprise visitor of the avian variety. I was holding a fish in the air a little bit too long (posing for a photo), and suddenly I felt a flapping by my head and a scratch on my hand. An onlooking bird had decided that I was a prime source for a fishy snack, so he swooped in to try to grab it! I’m not sure how I managed not to drop the fish, but I held on and the bird got nothing. As I collected myself, my dolphin decided he’d had enough of me and moved on to someone else. Fortunately, there was another one right behind him, who was more than happy to wait on me to drop the morsel into his mouth.
So feeding them was pretty cool, but the very best part was that we were allowed to touch the dolphin! This was amazing. They are huge and smart and playful, and it was fascinating to me to get to make contact with them. Their skin felt like wet rubber, and was perfectly smooth.
This was the only part of the trip that Dennis was sorry he missed out on. I’m sure we’ll be returning the next time we’re in the area, if just to see the dolphins again.
After feeding time was over, we had the good fortune to stumble upon a cave-like entrance to an underwater dolphin viewing area. The best part? It was air conditioned! We got to watch the same dolphins we had fed, and they frolicked and played. It was really neat to watch, and Sam was quite entranced by it. Judging by the pictures Chris snapped, she really seemed to have a connection with them, wouldn’t you say?
The rest of the afternoon included some quick visits to see manatees, crocodiles, and turtles. Soon it was time for me to head to the airport and catch my flight back home. Tabitha and I left (with Molly in tow) and left Chris and Sam behind to finish up the day. I’m not sure of everything that went down after I left, but at some point it appears that Chris put Sammy in a jar and stuck her underwater.
When I got to the airport (of course it stormed on the way… Tabitha was driving, after all), I realized I had two problems. One was that I was hungry. This could easily be remedied with food purchased on the plane, if only I can stop at an ATM for some cash (my last dollars had been spent on bottled water and tolls). The other problem was that I stunk. Badly. Something about spending a day outside in 90+ degree heat, sweating like a pig, and handling raw fish and sea life all day just left me feeling not-so-fresh. So, after another long line at security, I headed straight to the bathroom and washed up and put on a clean shirt. Ahh, much better! Except I left myself with no time to find an ATM, so I had to starve on the plane… again. Oh, and because of the storms in the area all day, the planes were backed up and we ended up sitting on the runway for 45 minutes before taking off. Seems like I can never get a break when I travel!
I got home late Thursday night, worked Friday, and then had the weekend to rest and recuperate from a fun and exhausting week. What a great trip!
After I went to the CHA summer show in 2007, I was eager to attend another show as soon as I could. I finally got my chance a couple weeks ago, when I attended the winter 2009 show in Anaheim, California. I was excited about the trip for MONTHS beforehand, and I’m happy to say now that it did not disappoint.
I was lucky to have my friends Rita, Erin, and Mags on the trip with me, which made it that much more enjoyable. (Tabitha would’ve been there too, if she hadn’t been sidelined by a pneumonia/sinus infection combo that left her miserable, weak, and unable to fly. So sad.)
Getting there
The first challenge for the trip was packing. I knew I would be coming home with tons of stuff from the show, and I knew that extra bags cost extra money on flights these days. I solved the problem by bringing my largest suitcase, and keeping my stuff to a minimum so that the bag was only half full. I had to forgo things like a coat, extra clothes, and my camera. While it was nice to not have to worry about traveling with my camera, I unfortunately regretted not having it with me on several occasions during the trip. Fortunately, my friends took plenty of pictures, and I’ve compiled them together in my gallery if you want to take a look.
For all my careful packing, there was one thing I forgot — my toy dinosaur, Skippy. I was so mad when I realized I’d left him behind… he’s never been to southern California! I guess I’ll just have to make sure I return one day, this time with Skippy in tow.
The hotel
Our hotel was awesome, and we were able to get a two-bedroom, two-bath suite with living/dining area and fully equipped kitchen (at a very reasonable rate, too). The hotel had all the amenities you would imagine, including free broadband, free hot breakfast buffet (ohh, the waffles!), and even a free light dinner on weeknights.
Because we knew we would be having the kitchen, some of us brought ingredients for snacks that we could easily prepare. For example, I brought a yummy packet of dip mix that just needed to be stirred in with an 8oz package of cream cheese, then heated in the oven. I figured we could get some cream cheese and crackers at a nearby store and have a great snack one night. When we saw little tubs of cream cheese on the breakfast buffet, though, we knew we had our solution. The tubs were 1oz each, so we needed eight. Everyone was stealthy and grabbed a few tubs to take up to the room, but we didn’t communicate at all, and actually ended up with 17 tubs! It was more than twice what we needed, and for a day or so, it was the only thing in our fridge. However, it did the job. We scooped the dip up with breakfast bagels that I sliced and toasted under the broiler. This hotel treated us so well that we were there five days and only paid for two meals!
The CHA show
The day after we arrived, we went straight to the Anaheim Convention Center (right across the street from Disney Land, which we never went to) for opening day of the show. We were there in time to hear a couple of speeches and to see them cut a ribbon with giant, 2-foot scissors, then they let everyone in and it was on!
We were overwhelmed at first, and took a while to get into a groove. With over 900 exhibitors in 325,000 square feet of space, you can understand why. Just looking at the floor plan on the giant fold-out map would make our heads spin, and when we spotted a giant sign showing our location as a mere speck in the vast hall, I was amazed.
We eventually settled into some great make-and-takes at some fun booths, and found lots of neat new products on display. By the time they closed the doors at 5:30 (after dimming the lights and making an announcement asking us to leave, thankyouverymuch), we were exhausted and had a fair amount of goodies to take back to the hotel. We were also discouraged to realize that we’d only made it through about 1/4 (if that) of the show space in one day. Our plan for the week was to visit the show for two days, then do a tour of LA on our third day. At this pace, though, would we have to choose between the show and the tour? We were a bit worried.
On the second day, though, we returned with a mission and a plan. We knew the booths we wanted to re-visit (because we liked them so much the first day) and we were more comfortable with the environment and had learned lots of lessons. This time we stayed focused and were pickier about the make-and-takes we did, and by the end of the day we ended up walking past all the booths, and stopped at all of them we wanted to. We couldn’t believe how much progress we’d made, but our sore feet, legs, and shoulders did their best to remind us. We were satisfied that we didn’t need to return the next day, and could do the tour we wanted to do. Yay!
During the two days we were at the show, we got to see several stars. Paris Hilton was there for a couple of hours, showing off her new line of ridiculously girlie scrapbook supplies. It was a pink overload, and the crowd was mobbed around her so thick that I couldn’t get close enough to see her. Erin managed to use her height to her advantage and got a shot of Paris within the crowd. It was insane.
Also at the show was Vanna White. She hosted a yarn fashion show, and was gorgeous and poised. I couldn’t help but notice that we were able to walk right up to the show with no trouble, and didn’t have to fight off the crowds. It was disheartening to see a tart like Paris getting so much attention, while hardly anyone wanted to see a television icon like Vanna — a true star, probably for longer than Paris has been alive.
Jane Seymour was also there, demonstrating painting techniques at a paint company’s booth. I’ve never really watched her stuff, but it was neat to see her in person. Unfortunately for her, these days I equate her with that open heart stuff that frankly, looks like a rear end to me. :/
I also got to see Tim Holtz, who might not be an outright “star” to most, but he was to me. I’ve seen him on The Carol Duvall show enough times to know that he’s highly talented, and I was eager to see him in person. We caught up to him at the Ranger booth, but he was so engrossed in his demo that I didn’t want to interrupt him, so I let Erin snap a cheesy shot of me standing behind him, grinning. The girls all made terrific fun of me for days, because I wanted to see Tim. They really had no idea who he was, but Tabitha did, and would’ve been right there with me if she could have!
Many, many booths were holding giveaways, and we were constantly monitoring our ticket stubs and watches to be sure we were in the right place at the right time, so we could hopefully win. On two different occasions, my ticket number was just ONE away from the winning number for really awesome prizes. Once Mags was one number away. It was so frustrating to be so close! Rita got lucky, though, and was the actual winner of the grand prize at one of the booths, and came away with a bright pink wheeled tote full of several hundred dollars in merchandise. It was so awesome.
Erin snapped this picture of me and Mags looking at all the stuff Rita had just won, and helping to arrange it all in the bag, while Rita eagerly told Tabitha about the win on the phone. What I love about this picture is that it looks totally cheesy and posed, but it wasn’t. We really were that excited, and with good reason! And if you know Rita at all, you can tell just by looking at that picture that she was in the middle of saying “I know!”
LA tour
After the show on Monday, we went back to the hotel to try to make arrangements for a tour of Los Angeles and Hollywood on the following morning. While we were able to find several nice-sounding tours online, none of them had decent enough online purchasing systems for us to feel confident that our tickets would be processed in time. Nobody would answer their phones, either, so we didn’t make much progress. We tried again early Wednesday morning, but everyone we reached on the phone was either sold out or just plain rude. Frustrated, I went down to the hotel lobby to ask the receptionist if she had any suggestions. She immediately offered up a brochure for a tour company they recommend, made a quick call on my behalf to be sure they had room for us, and told me we had 20 minutes to get downstairs and they would pick us up. It was just the type of tour we wanted, and we got service with a smile. Fantastic!
We were on our way in no time, and had a very friendly driver who for the first 20 minutes of the drive was quite fascinated with the movie “Speed“. All he kept talking about was Wildcat this and Jack that. Then he talked about the ramp that the bus had jumped, and how it’s actually 15 stories high. Finally I figured out why he kept going on about it… we were about to drive on that very overpass. I saw it up ahead, looming high over the many roads and overpasses below it. I was freaked right on out, let me tell you.
It was bad enough that I often have (oddly non-scary) dreams about driving over the edge of tall bridges or narrow passes (save your analysis for later, kthx). It was worse that the overpasses in LA are only two lanes wide, loop insanely among each 
other, and have fairly low rails on the sides. It didn’t help at all that the bus driver had been driving inches away from the cars next to us the whole time, randomly braking in the middle of the freeway, and telling Wildcat jokes. And the ramp is 15 stories high? Are you kidding me? “Hospital curve” in Louisville had nothing on this overpass. Okay, I wasn’t full-out scared… no shaking or crying or anything… but my stomach tightened up and I looked over the edge and I was SO glad I wasn’t driving. If I lived there, I would just have to avoid that overpass altogether. We didn’t get a good picture of the actual ramp, but here’s a nice one of a similar monstrosity of overpasses that shows a little bit of what it’s like.
Before long, we were in downtown LA and saw sites such as the courthouse where O.J. Simpson and the Menendez brothers had been tried. We saw the amazing and crazy Disney Center, which is covered in tons of curving steel sheets. There were many pretty office buildings, several large fountains, and lots of informational signs directing jurors here or there. What we didn’t see, though, was people. If New York’s people make it the city that never sleeps, downtown LA’s people make it the city that never comes outside.
We had some time to walk around near one of the really large fountains (the Peace Fountain, I think it was?), which had a statue in the middle and hundreds of small shooting fountains around it that came up from the sidewalk. The water would rise and fall, and created rainbows that you couldn’t NOT see. As I watched it rise and fall, I was tempted to try running through it when the water was down, just to see if I could. I finally got up the nerve and did, just a tiny bit. Fortunately for my jeans, I made it through safe, sound, and dry. Woohoo!
Before long, we were in viewing distance of the famous Hollywood sign. Our driver told us it was the most famous sign in the world, which makes sense. It was really weird to see in person, because it had always seemed so magical in the movies. There it was, though. Perched on the side of a mountain, overlooking the otherwise really flat and low city of Hollywood. I’m not sure what I expected, but this didn’t seem magical enough anymore. This is where the famous people live? Really?
Those sentiments were echoed more as we drove through LA, down famous roads like Sunset Blvd and Hollywood Blvd. Everything was sort of gross and run down and didn’t look magical at all. Nothing had a lot of room and all the buildings were short (because tall buildings don’t like earthquakes). Our driver pointed out really odd things, like “That’s where Michael Richards was heckled,” or “That’s where River Phoenix died, on the sidewalk outside that club there.” When we got near Beverly Hills, he said “That’s the tree where Lindsay Lohan crashed her car.”
We drove through Beverly Hills quite a bit (even though the driver pointed out signs saying our bus was over the weight limit) and saw tiny glimpses of beautiful houses tucked behind enormous walls of trees and bushes. The houses were big, but the yards were tiny. Everything is LA is crammed in, even the mansions. Very weird.
A highlight of the trip for me personally was going to see Mann’s Chinese Theater, because of my history of NOT seeing it. See, while in New York many years ago with my sister, we were walking through Chinatown and thought to ourselves, “Chinatown? Isn’t this where that theater is?” It wasn’t, of course, and we later learned that it’s actually in California. Duh. So a few years after that, when we were in San Fransisco on vacation, we found ourselves once again in a Chinatown. Oh, but the theater is not in THIS Chinatown in California. It’s in the one in LA! Sigh. You can imagine why I was so happy to finally see the darn thing.
We did get to see the Walk of Fame, and laughed at a lot of the stars on the sidewalk (Godzilla got a star? Really?). We looked at the hand prints and footprints and wondered how the cement managed to stay intact for the up to 70 years that some of them had been there. We marveled at how tiny the footprints were of the ladies from the old Hollywood days, and how Tom Hanks’ feet managed to dig into the cement so deeply. It was pretty cool.
Speaking of Chinatown, we drove by the Chinatown in LA, which of course is nowhere near Mann’s theater (I know, I know). Having seen the ones in SF and NY, I was quite disappointed by it. The large, bold colors and vibrant atmosphere weren’t there. It was just another short neighborhood with palm trees and not very pretty. I didn’t feel so bad about just driving past it and not stopping.
We also stopped for a little while on Rodeo Drive. Moments after getting off the bus, we spotted Michael Douglas walking into a restaurant down the street! We weren’t fast enough to get a picture, but it was definitely him. Those few seconds were the most exciting of the time we spent on Rodeo, which was full of stores we couldn’t afford and hardly any people to be seen.
On Rodeo, there was a man dressed in a costume consisting of a red coat and top hat, calling himself by a clever name that I’m sure he made up and I refuse to state here, lest he get any more publicity than he deserves. He got on my nerves almost instantly when he yelled to us from across the street and asked where we were from. When we said “Kentucky” he reached into his bucket of location-specific comebacks and said “It’s ro-DAY-o, not RO-dee-o!” Thanks a lot dude. The only thing you can say about Kentucky is that we’re STUPID? What about horses? bourbon? fried chicken? SOMEthing that’s actually relevant to Kentucky would be nice. While I’m sure he was charming at one time, he was clearly on minute #2 of his 15 minutes of fame, and was so full of himself that I hated him. He made us pose with him individually, putting his arm around us in a manner that made me check for my wallet afterwards. He waved us off with a “Put me on Facebook! Tag me!” Hate.
But on to a better subject… beaches. We did get to stop at a couple, including Santa Monica beach, which was really pretty and had a surprisingly wide sandy area. The famous pier was there, but we only had a few minutes at the stop and couldn’t explore it. Erin got to put her feet in the Pacific for the first time, which was really neat.
Venice Beach was our next stop, and was quite a spectacle. All the brochures promised that we’d see roller-skating guitar players (check!), surfers (check!), and “muscle men and woman pumping iron”. It was always phrased exactly that way, in every brochure, and it was the one thing we did not see.
At one point, while the girls were taking pictures on the sand, I had turned back to look at the expanse of grass, populated by homeless people, sea gulls, and a man reclining on his back with… a giant hole in the crotch of his pants! I was mortified, as evidenced by the photo Rita just happened to catch of me as I turned my back to him. Don’t be afraid to look at the picture, though — it is worth looking at just to see my funny face, and fortunately for the viewing audience, the branch of a nearby tree managed to just block the hole from view in the shot. That dude knew exactly what he was doing and was aimed right for us. I got the girls together and we made our way back to the bus, with the dude grinning at us the whole time. *shudder*
The highlight of Venice Beach (besides Rita’s jewelry purchase — hehe!) happened while we were sitting on the bus, waiting for the last few tourists to come back on board. The entire street was decorated in a particularly Mexican-looking vibe, and we thought there was just a high concentration of Hispanics in this otherwise hippie-loaded area. Then we saw a lady go up to one of the posters on the wall and squirt brown inky water onto it and rub it around. She was distressing it. This was a set! That was a Universal Studios truck next to us! They were going to film something here!
It didn’t take much coaxing to get Rita to go ask the set decorators what was going on. She came back a few minutes later with news that they would be filming a scene from Heroes there the next day. The episode takes place in Mexico, so they were transforming this street as best they could. She also proudly announced that “the uncle from Spy Kids” was there. We looked him up later and remembered that his name was Danny Trejo. We can only assume he’s going to be in the episode. That means I’m going to have to start watching Heroes again, after having finally made peace with my decision to give up on it a few months ago.
We also stopped at the Farmer’s Market for lunch, and that hour went by way too fast. I think I could’ve spent all day there, looking at all the fresh produce, yummy pastries, and exotic ingredients. There were also many food booths, and we enjoyed sampling items from several. As with most things on this tour, the farmer’s market didn’t look like I expected it too. It was dense, closed-off, and covered. It was neat, just different.
We made one final drive-by, at Marina Del Rey. Honestly, I hardly noticed it at all, and I could be convinced I’ve never seen it. It was a long tour and we were tired, but it was exactly what we wanted — we saw all the highlights in one day and didn’t have to drive to do it. I’m really glad we found the time to fit it in.
Getting home
For a while, we were afraid we wouldn’t be able to make it back home as planned. While we were strolling around in sunny LA, Kentucky had been hit by an ice storm. Everything was covered with a couple inches of snow, three inches of ice on top of that, and then another couple inches of snow on top of that. The snow-reo had the state in a state of emergency, and Cincinnati was supposedly even worse. Fortunately, our flights took off on time and landed on time (even if Rita and Erin’s luggage didn’t), and we were happy to be safe and home. However, I was regretting not packing a coat!
The most exciting part of the trip home happened while we were sitting at the boarding gate for my flight. Erin looked up and saw none other than Cheech Marin walking towards us, carrying a bag of McDonald’s food and whistling. He sat down right behind me, and we had our backs to each other. We didn’t know what to do! Should we say hi? Should we leave the poor man alone? Nobody was saying or doing anything. We decided to just sit there and giggle and let him be.
A little time passed, then Erin and Rita then left to go to their own boarding gate (they were on a different flight than me, and Mags was in a totally different area of the airport). Moments later, there was Chong! I called Rita to tell her, in my oh-so-secretive whispery way, that the eagle had landed. “Hey, remember that thing we were looking at? There’s another one now!” She burst into laughter, and sadly didn’t have time to come back and see for herself. Then Chong left again, presumably to find some food or magazines.
I decided I really wanted to get a picture of Cheech, but still didn’t want to be a nuisance. So I put my cell phone in my right hand, extended my arm out along the backs of the seats, turned it back towards myself, grinned, and clicked. Sure it’s goofy, but I like it. About this time, the lady sitting across from me noticed I was up to something, so I stepped over to her for a minute and explained. She and her friend got very excited to be so close to a celebrity. When they began boarding first class passengers (including Cheech), they walked up to him and asked if they could take a picture. He obliged, and she offered to e-mail it to me later, which I thought was very nice.
With Cheech and Chong (who had returned just in time) on the plane, I whipped out my phone and called Dennis to tell him who was on my flight. He immediately asked me to get their autographs, but I didn’t think I would have the chance, since they would surely be disembarking the plane well before me in Cinci. I figured I wouldn’t see them again.
But when I got to baggage claim after the flight, there they were, sitting on a bench and waiting for their bags. I knew I had to make my move. I pulled out a little notepad from my backpack — one that had a cardboard backing strong enough to make it easy to sign. Unfortunately, it also had a goofy puppy photo on it, but it would have to do.
I walked over to them, held the pad and pen out to Cheech and said, “I hate to ask, but would you mind…” and he said, jokingly (I hope), “If you hate to ask, why are you?”. I didn’t know what to say, but he took the pad with a smile and asked me who to make it out to. I told him “Dennis” and he signed it. While he signed, he asked me where I was flying from. I said “Los Angeles. I was on your flight, actually.” He said “Cool” and handed the notepad off to Chong.
Chong took the notepad and seemed to concentrate very hard on writing his signature, which was admittedly pretty elaborate. I said something like “How was the flight up there in first class?” and he said “It was great. Were you on the plane too?” When I said I was, he said “Did you have those little TVs back there?” We did. “Did you watch them?” I had. “Those were pretty neat, huh?” he said. They were indeed. Then I said, “Thank you both, and enjoy your time here in Cincinnati, or are you flying elsewhere?” Chong said “We’re here til tonight. No, tomorrow night. Yeah.”
It’s hard to put into words how the tone of the conversation went, but talking with Chong was pretty much exactly like you think it would be, ifyouknowwhatImean. Cheech was more… composed. They were both very nice, and I was happy to meet them. Dennis was thrilled to get their autographs.
I did receive an e-mail from the lady at the boarding gate, but it didn’t contain the photo I was expecting. Turns out that she and her friend rode the airport shuttle with them to baggage claim (I had walked), so they got several fun pictures at that time. (I fuzzed her face out in the photo because I don’t know if she would want me to show her picture or not.) I have no idea if they knew the first picture was being taken or not… it sort of looks like they were caught off guard. I really like the second picture, because it shows that they were having fun with it.
It was a great trip and I’m so glad to have gone. We packed a lot of fun into just a few days, and got to see more sites (and people) than I expected to, and of course the CHA show was phenomenal. I can’t wait to go to the next one!
* The song referenced in this post title was stuck in my head THE WHOLE TIME. It got worse when I realized Mags was headed to San Jose for a few days after LA. Rita just kept doing the “La la la la la la la la la laaaaaaaaa” part :)
I was recently discussing household moves with a friend and it reminded me of a funny tale I thought I’d share.
As many of you know, I grew up in a military family and we moved a lot. So often, in fact, that sometimes boxes would get moved to a new house, never unpacked, and then moved again a few years later. It was just these sorts of boxes that we put directly into our shed when we moved to Puerto Rico. When we moved back to the states nearly three years later, several of those boxes got moved again, without ever being opened.
Those boxes were packed into a truck by movers contracted by the military. They were then unloaded and packed into a shipping container, which was put onto a barge which sailed from Puerto Rico up the Eastern coast to Virginia. From there they were unloaded onto another truck and driven to Kentucky, where they were then brought to our house and unloaded. It was quite a journey, and quite a long time (several weeks) to be without most of our household items.
That move turned out to be the last for the family, though, because we moved back to my father’s home state of Kentucky, where he was to retire. The finality of that move gave us incentive to unpack everything this time and really go through it for good. We dug through boxes, removing layers of tape and many of those little numbered moving stickers (my Dad’s best shovel still has two or three of those on it).
My sister and I opened a particularly large box one day and slowly but surely emptied it down to the bottom. And there in the box, in the very corner, was… a tiny lizard.
Anybody who has spent any time in the Caribbean knows that lizards are everywhere, and Puerto Rico is no exception. It’s not uncommon to see a tiny one scamper across a kitchen floor, or several of them scurry into the bushes when you step out onto your porch. So it was not surprising at all to imagine that a lizard could get into a box in an outdoor shed.
It was slightly more surprising that the lizard wouldn’t leave when the movers moved the box
It was even more surprising that the lizard would stay in that box for the weeks it took to get it to our house and for us to unpack it.
The most surprising thing of all was that it was still alive, after weeks with no discernible source of food or water.
We were so excited to have this little lizard. We scooped him up and put him into a little plastic tank we used to use for hermit crabs (which are also abundant in Puerto Rico). Then we hurried to find some information about how to take care of him. I was so happy to have this wonderful little reminder of the country I’d loved so much, and I wanted to be sure I did everything I could to keep him around.
This was before the days of instant internet access, before Google, and before we even had a computer in the home. My only source of information was an old set of encyclopedias, which didn’t tell me much. I supplied the lizard with tiny bits of lettuce, celery, and water, and even tossed in some meat and cheese. I didn’t know what they ate, and I didn’t know what it took to keep a lizard alive. In a few days’ time, I would’ve gone to a pet store for more information, but despite my efforts, the little guy was dead within 2 days.
So that lizard survived for weeks in a box with no food, but only two days under my watchful care. Way to go, huh?
I spent the weekend of July 20-22 in the Chicago area, on an unusual but fun trip with my friend Rita. The primary goal of the trip was for me to attend the Craft and Hobby Association (CHA) Trade Show — a semi-annual gathering of craft and hobby merchandisers and buyers from around the country. The show is not open to the public, but because I am a member of the Design Team for a local scrapbook store, I was lucky enough to get an employee pass, and I was super eager to go. Even though my best attempts at getting a second ticket to the show failed, Rita agreed to go with me on the trip. Just seeing Chicago (one of her favorite towns) was enough for her, and I was thrilled to have the company. Of particular interest to her was the fact that we’d be able to stop at the Schaumburg IKEA on the way home!
