>I’m back. I survived Nat’l and had a great time, but the telling of it requires a little backtracking. So bear with me, okay? An upper respiratory infection has kept me from blogging earlier in the week, but the doc gave me great meds.
Let’s go back in time to…Tuesday, July 10th. I’d already been in Dallas several days, visiting friends and my youngest older brother (I’ve got two.), so I returned my rental car to the airport, caught a pre-arranged shuttle ride to the hotel and checked into my room. Those Hyatt bellmen certainly do angle for the tips.
May I tell you about our restaurants and amenities?
May I fill your ice bucket?
Is there anything in the area you’d like to see?
Now he was a cutie, albeit a tad (ok, a lot) too young, but I had places to go and people to meet. (I did get him to tell me the quickest/cheapest way to the West End though.)
I’d finished unpacking and sent out a few phone messages when my roomie showed up. We squeeled, hugged, and chattered while her bellman tried the same number.
Here’s your bucks, dude. Now scram! We have catchin’ up to do.
Morag’s unpacking was a tad…er, more extensive than mine. For instance, sho
es:
es:Yep, that’s the stash of an even dozen for a maximum of 6 days. And not a closed-toe in the bunch, seeing as she’s from Hawaii.
Eventually, I got responses to my messages and Morag and I had drinks at the bar before heading our separate ways for the evening.
Oh! Picture of my roomie. I have one from the booksigning.
Here we go…
Here we go…
Ain’t she cute? There was some snafu with her books – nearly all the Dorchester authors books actually – and all she ended up with to sign were her new cover flats for Perfidia. She doesn’t look too broken up about it. Of course, I wouldn’t be either if I were published and had a seat at the RWA Nat’l booksigning. Must be nice.
Okay, so where was I? Met friends. Yes. Elisabeth, Brooke, and Randy Jeanne. I LOVE these gals! (I’ll have to find a link for Elisabeth when I unearth her card from my suitcase.)
We ended up at Gator’s in the West End. My suggestion since the few times I’d been there it was a really packed, fun place. Only this was a Tuesday. We were just about the only patrons in the joint, which meant attentive service (mostly). My Cajun Crawfish Nachos were yummy and the Alligator appetizer Elizabeth ordered was too. Can’t say much for the piano entertainment later on. Maybe he sounds better when there’s lots of noise and laughter in the place? Just for grins, Randy and I went up to the rooftop patio and took pics of each other and stuff like this Gator’s sign.
The picture above is of the last night. The one below is Randy with the too-cute outfit. Of course, she’s got the figure for it.
And that’s Day 1 of Nat’l in Dallas. We’ll skip the other pics, since I have boocoos with either Randy or me in them. You’ll get your fill of us before this recounting of my RWA Nat’l experience is complete.
Let’s see…tomorrow there’ll be famous authors, a woman with a swan hat on – no, really – and more shoes!
I know, huh? Always leave ’em with a cliffhanger.
CAROL BURNSIDE / ANNIE RAYBURN 
>LOL, Carol! Why am I not surprised that Morag had so many shoes? 🙂 It was great seeing you both for lunch, though I never caught up with Morag again except to see her at the booksigning and run into her in the hall. I also enjoyed our Friday dinner with Sally.And, like the biggest blonde dummy in the world, I forgot my camera!
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>Not only did you forget your camera, but I got home and discovered I didn’t have one pic of you! I looked for you at the awards thingy, but what a crowd! I didn’t stay long after.
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>Yeah, I was up at the front with the Heart of Dixie ladies. I just followed them blindly at that point because I figured they knew where they were going. Afterward, we didn’t stay at the reception long. We went up to the bar and sat there for a while. I AM considering M&M. I have to talk to my husband about it, see if he’d like to go hang out in Atlanta with me or what. The hotel rooms are so darned reasonable after Dallas. LOL!
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>*waving*Hi Carol! It was really nice meeting you at RWA! Have you recovered? I’m still in a semi-vegetative state. *g*We’ve got a pic of you up on the Sydney Croft website–and it’s a gorgeous photo! 🙂
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>Hey, Larissa!A gorgeous photo of me is beyond the stretch of my imagination. Gotta go check this out!
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