Start of Something Good

Wondering what this week’s blog is about? Me too. I know I want to write about my trip to the Romantic Times Convention but who knows where this blog may go. Hell, we all know on my best blogs, I ramble so let’s put on the Allman Brothers Band and let the journey begin. (If you're too young to get it, look it up.)

As a few of you who read my blogs know, I was extremely nervous about this trip. I have met Tara Clegg and Mia Ashlinn a few times. The unknown was going to be our fourth, Lori King (Wow, does that sound naughty). I know I have talked to Lori for months, but it is still strange meeting someone for the first time. You never know if they are going to be the same person when they are standing in front of you that they are online. In the past, I have been burned by meeting someone that I talked to for years. She was totally different in person. So yep, I wanted to turn around and stay home a few times. I knew though, that in the end, Lori would be an experience I wouldn’t want to miss. So I sucked it up and left my house.

I headed down I-55 to St. Louis so that I could pick up my partner in crime, Mia Ashlinn. The drive was nice and peaceful, but that could be because I decided to rent a car, which happened to be brand spanking new so no strange rattles and the sound system was perfect for jamming to some Maroon 5. As I headed to the airport, I hit construction on the bridge across the Mississippi River. You know what that means. Yep, traffic congestion. Mia called me to let me know she had landed, and I was moments away from the airport. As I pulled up, she had no idea where she was at so I told her to just head outside, and I would find her. Then she found a sign that told her that she was by pickup 11. By now, I had passed her and was all the way down to pickup 18. I parked and told her to find me because I am evil like that. Not to mention, I would have had to leave and circle back around because Lambert Field loves their one way drives. She asked what kind of car I was driving and, me being me, I had to get out to look. Hey, don’t laugh. I knew it was a VW, just not what model it was. By the way, it was a Passat. 

I was getting ready to go and hunt for her when I looked up, and there she was standing by the passenger door. I jumped out and opened the trunk, which had my big huge honking suitcase in it. I tossed hers in next to mine and then I did the most evil thing to her. I HUGGED HER! Yes, in that moment I feared for my life. In case you didn’t know, Mia is not a hugger. 

After that, we jumped in the car and headed out. Now she landed at 4:45. That meant we were going to hit St. Louis traffic so we decided to stop and grab some grub before we hit the road. Trying to make a decision with Mia is like pulling teeth. She is a foodie so I never know what she would want to eat. I figured Bob Evans would be a decent choice. We pull in and I find out that all Bob Evans are not the same. The food was okay but not what I am used to here in my town.

Next step, in our journey is to get back on I-70 and head on to Kansas City. No problem. I chose a restaurant close to the interstate for a reason. We made sure the GPS was programmed for the hotel and off we went. I was not surprised that talking to her in person was just as comfortable as talking to her on the phone. There was nothing that was off our conversational limits. We talked about everything under the sun. I think it helped both our nerves to have a long drive to calm down. We were both anxious to get to KC. 

As most of you heard, there was icky weather for RT. Yep, May in the Midwest was showing off so I had fun driving through rain and snow and a wonderful mixture of the two. 

We pull up to the hotel and try to find parking. I drive into the parking garage and took the first turn and then saw several signs saying that it had reserved parking. I looked where I pulled in and no signs. So I said Fuck it and parked. Now came the fun part— pulling all our stuff out of the car to drag into the hotel. We decided on just the necessities. You know, our suitcases and laptops.

We headed to the front desk, and I started to get us registered when the man told me we had one king sized bed and a roll away. I looked at him like he had grown a second head. I told him I had reserved the room months in advance and had requested two double beds. He said that people had stayed longer so that room was not available. Can you say I was not happy? I told him I wanted on the list for the next days first available double room.  I figured that with just me and Mia, we could share the king bed no problem. 

We headed up and dropped our crap in the room. We sat for a few moments then decided to get the lay of the land. We went down to look around and found some swag tables and the lobby was hoppin. We went down there to look around, and I saw JENN LEBLANC!!! She was so cute in her pj’s. I was going to go say hi when she headed to the restroom. I wanted to wait outside till she came out, but Mia said it was creepy. The bitch. I wanted to wait so I wouldn’t have to approach her while she was with a group. I didn’t know anyone else in her group so it was more comfortable for me to catch her alone. But since Mia said no, we headed on back to the room. When we were safely ensconced in the room, we changed into our pj’s  and then sat there for over an hour, probably more like two or three, winding down and getting ready for meeting strangers.

I think I have rambled on enough for one blog so I am going to make this a two (or three) part blog. So look for more details next week. And on Mia’s blog.

Sinfully Sarcastic,

Shmuttmeister