Back From RWA!!!
And I'm exhausted!
It all started out as a nightmare…(queue some sort of scary music)
I get to the airport in Newport News, VA. Walk in. Flight has been delayed by one hour, which wouldn't be bad except that the delay screwed with my connecting flight in Charlotte. (Note to interested parties: a box full of promotional magnets in a suitcase looks just like a steel bomb case through TSA's X-ray machine.)
So I finally get on the plane–well beyond the original hour delay time–and naturally get stuck on the runway because of an inbound in-flight emergency 20 minutes out. So we wait. And finally take off. Get to Charlotte, where I hang around during my five-hour layover while I wait to see if the airline can squeeze me onto an overbooked flight to Dallas that night. I tell them I'll sit in first-class if I have to, but they are unmoved.
Finally, finally, they mash me onto a flight and we head for Dallas. The flight seemed to be running unnaturally long, and sure enough, the pilot eventually says, "You may have noticed how the plane has been slowing down for the last hour. That's because Dallas is experiencing bad weather and has shut down. We're diverting to Houston."
Oh, fun.
So five hours after I was supposed to meet Steph at the hotel, I call her.
Steph: Finally!!! Are you in the lobby?
Me: Nope. Guess where I am. And the answer isn't Dallas.
Steph: Are you still in Charlotte?
Me: Houston
Steph: Um…you realize the conference is in Dallas, right?
Eventually, we re-fuel and get into the air again. We land in Dallas and all looks good. Like, OMG, I'll get to the hotel before midnight!
Not. So. Much.
The nightmare has only begun.
I get into the cab I'd paid for ahead of time. The driver starts muttering incoherently about how a "single passenger is bad luck." That's about all I can understand, because he doesn't speak English very well. And I think he had a speech impediment to top it off.
He circles the airport over and over, stopping when he sees groups of people and tries to drag them into his cab. We spend a half an hour doing this, and about the time I'm ready to get out and just pay for another cab, he gets a call to pick up five women going to a Mary Kay convention. He's happy, because now he doesn't have just Bad Luck Larissa on board.
He picks up the women…but they are going to a hotel in Fort Worth, which is in the opposite direction. So now he has to get rid of me. So we circle the airport again, looking for a cab to take me to Dallas.
An hour later, I get dumped, and finally, over two hours after landing at DFW, I get to the hotel, where Sharon and Steph, bless their hearts, have waited up for me.
Later, I realize that I've forgotten half my clothes and my curling iron at home.
Yes, it was a wonderful first day.
The rest of the conference was much better, except that I fought a migraine the entire time. It nearly killed me on Saturday, but aside from that, it was great. I got some wonderful pics, which will be posted on the new Sydney site, which should launch early this week. In the mean time, I'll just post a couple of favorites (meaning fun, humiliating, and in no way professional) here…
Steph and Sharon feeling the love…
One…two…three…okay, Alison and HelenKay, close your eyes!
I like to call this one…WTF???
Our waiter, posing as a romance cover model. Yeah, he needs some work. Or at least a kilt.
Steph, Sharon, Amy and Justin Knupp–note how Amy is trying to not fall out of her chair.
That would be the lovely Beth Williamson's butt.
This would be Steph, and the WTF picture #2.
And on that note, I need to go write. There's that pesky challenge thing hanging over my head…
Clearly we need to have a chat about this to avoid future photo-taking issues.
I so didn’t let you get a picture of me right?
It’s good to hear that the rest of the trip went well.Thanks for sharing pics,love Beth’s pic too. 
