CFTC, a review of large proportions....
Hi to everyone out in LJ land, its been awhile. I'm cutting and pasting my review I posted @ jujucrew.com. So, sorry for the redundancy if you've already read it. *smooches and hugs* Viv
Okay, well. Let me start by saying the usual, grab a snack and whatnot.
I really don't like to be a negative person and spread negative energy around. So I will do my best to sound positive (and mean it) but don't bet on it.
Okay, So. Landed in Miami around 3-ish. Made it to the hotel around 5-ish. Beat my best-friend (who I will now refer to as Dev) to the hotel. We stayed at The Townhouse hotel which was on 20th and Collins Avenue, they have a website, if you have time, you should check it out...townhousehotel.com. The staff were incredibly nice. Not stuffy, but down-to-earth and helpful. They opened doors, called elevators, suggested restaurants, valeted cars, made sure we knew everything the hotel had to offer which included a Parisian breakfast every morning. TILL 11am!! Which included COFFEE (cue laughter and joy here) French pastries, hard boiled eggs, fresh squeezed orange juice, COFFEE, muffins and bagels! We had full access to the pantry 24 hrs a day. Did I mention the coffee?
It was a beautiful hotel, minimalist, but not in the sense that you feel like you're in a big empty barren space, this felt more like a clean, soft, white cocoon, with splashes of pink and red. I would recommend this hotel to anyone and everyone if you are ever in South Beach. Lemme tell you, it was EXACTLY as its pictured on their website. EXACTLY. What you SEE, is what you GET. As you can tell I was very satisfied with our lodging. Did I mention the front porch with the swings? Rooftop lounge with red water-beds and umbrellas?Yeah, it was very nice.
My plan was to take a nap before going to Mansion for the first event which was the "Tip-Off" party. Well, after Dev arrived we walked to the club, got her ticket and limped back to the hotel. I was finishing Joeys1gal's shawl while Dev was in the shower. Got a call from Joeys1gal, she told me about her horrendous wait in the airport for her friend's flight that had been delayed, but luckily all safe and sound. I told her I was running late and we agreed to meet up at Mansion later. Well, Dev and I couldn't seem to get our shit together till about 1am. The party was supposed to go until 3am so, hey two hours of fun, we'll have a great time... We leave and walk to the club. Again. oh the blisters, but I didn't care, I was going DANCING and couldn't wait to get there and maybe spot the guys from afar.
You have to understand something. I am a VERY easy to please individual. Small things please me. Like, oh say, THE DANCE FLOOR. But it wasn't to be. We get inside and order two jack and cokes, which is Dev's favorite. As the bartender poured the drinks (and Dev is a bartender also) Dev says to her, "I asked for JACK and coke not Jim Beam." Dev is a connoisseur of Jack Daniels, she's been to Tennessee to the Distillery she's a member of some club, She's met the head Distiller at events she's been to and has corresponded with him whenever he's on the east coast. So she knows her shit, and JIM fucking BEAM is NOT JACK. Instead of raising a fuss, and knowing I don't like to make scenes, she tamps down her frustration and pays the 18.00 fucking dollars for our drinks. She would've paid that easily for JACK. so not a good way to start off, but whatever, we were there to have some fun. The club was very full, packed you might say. But not unmanageable. I couldn't wait to start dancing, and the music was good so we finished our drinks and took a walk-about. We found that the entire dance floor in the center of the main room of the club was roped off. Everyone was up against the ropes like "oh please let me in, I wanna see so-and-so..." and I was just pissed that I don't have anywhere to dance. Dev is looking around for celebs cause she thinks that's what I want and I'm worried about space to dance, because the only space LEFT to dance is the space for where people walk by, where the traffic of bodies flow. Not cool.
So I say to myself, "well Vivian, if you had PAID the $745.00 that would've given you V.I.P. access, then you would've HAD a dance floor..." I'm sorry but, UM..no.
They did have these risers or elevated platforms, if you will, where you could dance, and as I used to do this in the clubs I went to in my heyday, I jumped up and danced on them. I have to say, that the crowd of people there were a nice bunch. If you got bumped into, people excused themselves, if you caught someone's eye they smiled. Ah humanity, there's hope yet. I told a couple of people that I was unavoidably smashed up against that I feel I ought to at least have a personal relationship with them , and we laughed cause it was really close in a lotta places. I caught up with Joeys1gal in one of the outer rooms, which incidentally, smelled like vomit. Mmm, my favorite. I was so glad to meet Joeys1gal she was so sweet, and I got to meet some of her friends she came with! All in all a very nice meeting, but I got the feeling she was less than satisfied along with me...maybe I'm wrong I dunno, but she loved the shawl I wish we could've gotten a picture together, but next time or somewhere else.... Dev kept drinking, and I kept dancing' we had an okay time, but it was sort of blah. We left at around 4:30am, I was shocked at how late it was. I didn't realize that because we had no V.I.P. access that we would be totally excluded from Their presence. Dev and I limped back to the hotel. I left with a feeling of, "I hope tomorrow is better than this".
Saturday we awoke to our Parisian breakfast, we raided the Pantry and left with our bounty and took it back to our room, armed with lotsa coffee, in fact we shoulda just took the whole carafe, but that's just me. We lazed around all morning, played around with what we would do for the day and that evening and set about getting ready for the day. It was hot as hell out so it was all about comfort. I didn't leave the hotel until 3:30pm. There was a loooooong line at the beach at Collin's Park. It wasn't terrible but it was hella hot. I brought a bandanna to wipe the sweat off cause dang, it was so hot. Did I mention it was hot? Since Dev wasn't going to this event, she left me after walking me there and went to the beach nearby. I finally got in and found my seat. The stadium, I want to say was 1/4 full. They kept saying, drink plenty of fluids, blah-fucking-blah ...I had half a bottle of water with me....it was gone before I even made it into the venue. I sat in the sun and felt my 30SPF fail. I was starting to burn, and even if the shit was waterproof, I don't think it was sweat-proof. I was sweating like a heifer in childbirth mmkay? Nasss-tay. Oh did I mention I spotted Joey1girl when I walked in? We chatted real quick, but I wanted to go and sit down and find my seat so I told her I would see her later. After about 1 hour of just sitting and waiting I left. I texted "Will drop pants for food" and asked where she was etc...I hadn't met her yet, but I was just tired of waiting for the celebs to grace us with Their presence and let her know I was leaving cause it was Africa-hot. BTW the celebs were kept comfortable in a huge tent tucked off to the side of the bleachers, you guessed it, roped off. Wouldn't want the common people to see "Their Majesties." That just wouldn't do.
As I was going to leave, I asked if I could come back after I hosed myself down. Do you know what the security person said? "No. No re-entry."
Exsqueeze Me? A Sphinkter says Whatttt????????????
Now at this point my heart starts to hurt a little. I am so disappointed. The event hasn't started, I am fucking disgustingly sweaty, I mean we're talking Ass sweat and back sweat and any other kinda sweat. And I can't come back after I've gone to my hotel 2 BLOCKS AWAY and come back with my stub and I.D.? all I can think is:
You have got to be fucking kidding me.....
So I leave, cause I'm not gonna get burnt and ruin my fucking vacation. And I listen to the event via my hotel window which faced the direction of the venue two blocks north of me. How fucking sucky is that? I ask you? At this point, I don't even want to go to the Nikki Beach club party, and Dev isn't going to this event so I'm going BY MYSELF in the hopes of bumping into crewbies or meeting some fellow nsyncers. Ya never know, maybe even a personable celeb who doesn't have a fucking ego problem or believes their own hype might walk by and NOD or something...pssht.
So I go, and I get a drink and wander outside into a beautiful breezy night. This club had a very nice lay out and very nice staff, they were very accommodating and friendly. I go outside to have a smoke and I find a nice long table that has an ashtray and I sit down and proceed to take in the atmosphere. I am politely interrupted by a staffer who proceeds to inform me that "the Large Tables are reserved for bottle service". I told her I'm sure she wouldn't mind me finishing my drink and cigarette before I got up and she said "sure". So I get up and go back inside and hang out by the d.j. booth to see if he has a set play-list or if he is just mixing it up. I ask him to play some K.7 or some beenie man. He wants to play the K7 but he doesn't have it...D.J. Epps was OFF THE HOOK! He had MAD CRAZY SKILLS on the 1 & 2's!!!!!!! Its been a looooooong time since my ears had such a treat. Definitely the highlight of the evening! Did I mention that everything was roped off? Stick with me here, its the theme. I left after a bit and went home. Didn't get much dancing in, to my regret, I was too self conscious. So another, well, less than satisfactory evening. I kept telling myself, "Viv, just wait until tomorrow, stay positive, you'll have fun at the bball game, you'll get to hear the guys sing...."
I already had talked to "will drop pants for food" on Sunday morning or early afternoon and confirmed our seats and said we'd see each other there. I left at 3:45 to get to the Office Depot Center armed with directions. I get there and its almost 4:40 or something....(I would like to add that because the Skills Challenge started so fucking late, that the bball game couldn't POSSIBLY start ON TIME so that's why I left late) It was the 4th quarter with 5minutes left...missed the anthem. (Which was part of the reason for coming to CFTC) Left my phone in the car so if "pants" tried to call me or find me...I'm screwed. My seats weren't too terrible, like I cared, at this point. Got to see each of the guys on the jumbotron. . Watched the O.T. I agree the crowd was VERY rude. This is a charity event, and the crowd should have had the class to realize that the people in the game were doing this for children's charities. ASSHOLES. Reminds me of Canada. Anyway....
Yay! I met PANTS!!!! It was such a pleasure! That is MY GIRL!!! Just to have met someone after knowing them online for a while now was great! AGAIN I wish we had more time, it was very VERY cool! And at least I didn 't sweat to death at this event So after meeting Pants, I figure, tonight is gonna be fun, I'm in a better frame of mind, I'm still trying to be positive, after all this is my vacation that I left my family and traveled from Delaware all the way to Miami for, lets make the best of it, right? RIGHT??? But wait! There's more! Show 'em Bob!
So Dev and I get ready to goto the Champion Celebration, I don't know if Joeys1gal or Pants is gonna be there, but I hope so! Now this Party at the Sky Bar @ Shore Club is not even a block from our hotel and is on the same side street our hotel was on, 20th. So around midnight we saunter down to the event, get in and stroll around and find a drink. And ONCE again, everywhere you go is roped off. There is no dance floor except for this gay-ass club that is inside, attached to the Shore Club, which seems to have been patronized by people who cannot dance at all and a d.j. who favors abstract Caribbean jazz music on crack, but that's my opin. So yeah, there was a dance floor at the complete opposite end of the party at the farthest point away from all the celebrities. Is that where I want to be? Well, Christ, if they played any decent kind of music, I would've danced my tail off, but not to the music they were playing over there! And unfortunately, I have given up on dropping acid so, not a chance!
Okay. Did you ever have a best friend who is used to the finer things in life, only wants the best for you, has excellent taste, and wants you to have the best time EVER because you are a wonderful person etc and when you are disappointed she/he gets madder than hell? Oh boy, no? Yes? Well, you're in for a TREAT. Dev is a VERY outspoken individual and even tho she is 7 inches shorter than me she thinks she's 6 ft tall Holy crap I thought she was gonna have a fit or something, cause she saw how lame I thought it all was...? And got pissed, and I mean PISSED OFF! Man does that girl have a temper I'm just glad she wasn't mad at me, and I kept apologizing, like sorry I brought you into this lame madness, and she got even more mad cause I thought she was having a shitty time because I made bad plans for our trip. Well she starts ranting and shouting and I'm waiting to be kicked out at this point. , cause she is LOUD, and people are starting to look...eeeek! I said, "Bump this, let's go somewhere else, anywhere you wanna go, we go, fuck this shit." So we left and we drive down Ocean Ave and find the club she wants to go to...its called Opium Garden and at this point its 2am. This club had a very small dance floor and an arena-ish type Parthenon layout....They played a lot of dancehall which is great, puts ya in a good mood, and everyone can dance to it...Dev has to use the bathroom, I wait for her by the dance floor, cause I liked the song. She comes back 15 minutes later and says "one of the guys is here." While she is gone they had announced that Usher was "in the building" and I said to her describe him, and figured out it was Chris. (well can't say that I'm not surprised.) She said he signed some autographs and shook some hands. And I said "well that would be 'cause he's the most down-to-earth of all of them and doesn't believe the bullshit hype or that he is above all of us simply because he has money or fame. And he also recognizes that all this shit could be gone tomorrow and is grateful everyday of his life." (So yeah, not surprised.) We walked right by him on the way outta the club, and I mean I could've brushed shoulders if I wanted to. I could have grabbed him. I could have gawked at him, but I'm a little older so..and besides, at this point, after you've been roped off from the people you come to see, maybe meet, and help support their charity, all weekend long, why would he want to meet anyone now? And I'm not the type to treat a fellow human being like they are a God. Its just not my style, I don't gush. We're all human. So we drove back to the hotel. Got ready for the next day and stayed up and talked a bit, raided the pantry and had a snack. Then it was time for bed. Dev left before me and tipped everyone and payed for everything that I hadn't already. She always does that shit! I mean you have to wrestle with her to get the check at a restaurant! So she left at 9am Monday and I left at 12 noon and headed to the airport to return my rental car. Which I did with no problems. Shuttled back to the airport by Alamo bus, what fun, and went to start the process of checking in luggage and going thru security. With plenty of time to spare before my 3:34pm flight, I go about the business of finding the gifts I will bring home to my kids. With that done I head to my gate, bust out the yarn, and relax, have a crochet, and wait for my flight, imagining the reunion with my 4 children and husband. After about the 3rd delay over 5 hours, we left at 8pm and arrived in Philly at 10:30pm. That's right. I was in the Miami airport from 12:30pm till 8pm. Luckily I had a book, cigs, coffee, gum and crochet, or someone would've gotten hurt. I had to call Keith about 4 times and tell him when to pick me up, cause he had the 4 kids with him.
4 kids asleep in a minivan at 10:50pm, leaving the Philly, PA airport to get home. NEVER have I been so happy to see everyone, and never was I ever so happy to be home. I realized after the plane took off that I didn't have my digital camera. Wonderful. Perrrrrrfect. I hope they made a lotta money this weekend for their charity, because if not, NONE of this will have been worth it.
Sorry this was so long, but its me, remember?
Okay, well. Let me start by saying the usual, grab a snack and whatnot.
I really don't like to be a negative person and spread negative energy around. So I will do my best to sound positive (and mean it) but don't bet on it.
Okay, So. Landed in Miami around 3-ish. Made it to the hotel around 5-ish. Beat my best-friend (who I will now refer to as Dev) to the hotel. We stayed at The Townhouse hotel which was on 20th and Collins Avenue, they have a website, if you have time, you should check it out...townhousehotel.com. The staff were incredibly nice. Not stuffy, but down-to-earth and helpful. They opened doors, called elevators, suggested restaurants, valeted cars, made sure we knew everything the hotel had to offer which included a Parisian breakfast every morning. TILL 11am!! Which included COFFEE (cue laughter and joy here) French pastries, hard boiled eggs, fresh squeezed orange juice, COFFEE, muffins and bagels! We had full access to the pantry 24 hrs a day. Did I mention the coffee?
It was a beautiful hotel, minimalist, but not in the sense that you feel like you're in a big empty barren space, this felt more like a clean, soft, white cocoon, with splashes of pink and red. I would recommend this hotel to anyone and everyone if you are ever in South Beach. Lemme tell you, it was EXACTLY as its pictured on their website. EXACTLY. What you SEE, is what you GET. As you can tell I was very satisfied with our lodging. Did I mention the front porch with the swings? Rooftop lounge with red water-beds and umbrellas?Yeah, it was very nice.
My plan was to take a nap before going to Mansion for the first event which was the "Tip-Off" party. Well, after Dev arrived we walked to the club, got her ticket and limped back to the hotel. I was finishing Joeys1gal's shawl while Dev was in the shower. Got a call from Joeys1gal, she told me about her horrendous wait in the airport for her friend's flight that had been delayed, but luckily all safe and sound. I told her I was running late and we agreed to meet up at Mansion later. Well, Dev and I couldn't seem to get our shit together till about 1am. The party was supposed to go until 3am so, hey two hours of fun, we'll have a great time... We leave and walk to the club. Again. oh the blisters, but I didn't care, I was going DANCING and couldn't wait to get there and maybe spot the guys from afar.
You have to understand something. I am a VERY easy to please individual. Small things please me. Like, oh say, THE DANCE FLOOR. But it wasn't to be. We get inside and order two jack and cokes, which is Dev's favorite. As the bartender poured the drinks (and Dev is a bartender also) Dev says to her, "I asked for JACK and coke not Jim Beam." Dev is a connoisseur of Jack Daniels, she's been to Tennessee to the Distillery she's a member of some club, She's met the head Distiller at events she's been to and has corresponded with him whenever he's on the east coast. So she knows her shit, and JIM fucking BEAM is NOT JACK. Instead of raising a fuss, and knowing I don't like to make scenes, she tamps down her frustration and pays the 18.00 fucking dollars for our drinks. She would've paid that easily for JACK. so not a good way to start off, but whatever, we were there to have some fun. The club was very full, packed you might say. But not unmanageable. I couldn't wait to start dancing, and the music was good so we finished our drinks and took a walk-about. We found that the entire dance floor in the center of the main room of the club was roped off. Everyone was up against the ropes like "oh please let me in, I wanna see so-and-so..." and I was just pissed that I don't have anywhere to dance. Dev is looking around for celebs cause she thinks that's what I want and I'm worried about space to dance, because the only space LEFT to dance is the space for where people walk by, where the traffic of bodies flow. Not cool.
So I say to myself, "well Vivian, if you had PAID the $745.00 that would've given you V.I.P. access, then you would've HAD a dance floor..." I'm sorry but, UM..no.
They did have these risers or elevated platforms, if you will, where you could dance, and as I used to do this in the clubs I went to in my heyday, I jumped up and danced on them. I have to say, that the crowd of people there were a nice bunch. If you got bumped into, people excused themselves, if you caught someone's eye they smiled. Ah humanity, there's hope yet. I told a couple of people that I was unavoidably smashed up against that I feel I ought to at least have a personal relationship with them , and we laughed cause it was really close in a lotta places. I caught up with Joeys1gal in one of the outer rooms, which incidentally, smelled like vomit. Mmm, my favorite. I was so glad to meet Joeys1gal she was so sweet, and I got to meet some of her friends she came with! All in all a very nice meeting, but I got the feeling she was less than satisfied along with me...maybe I'm wrong I dunno, but she loved the shawl I wish we could've gotten a picture together, but next time or somewhere else.... Dev kept drinking, and I kept dancing' we had an okay time, but it was sort of blah. We left at around 4:30am, I was shocked at how late it was. I didn't realize that because we had no V.I.P. access that we would be totally excluded from Their presence. Dev and I limped back to the hotel. I left with a feeling of, "I hope tomorrow is better than this".
Saturday we awoke to our Parisian breakfast, we raided the Pantry and left with our bounty and took it back to our room, armed with lotsa coffee, in fact we shoulda just took the whole carafe, but that's just me. We lazed around all morning, played around with what we would do for the day and that evening and set about getting ready for the day. It was hot as hell out so it was all about comfort. I didn't leave the hotel until 3:30pm. There was a loooooong line at the beach at Collin's Park. It wasn't terrible but it was hella hot. I brought a bandanna to wipe the sweat off cause dang, it was so hot. Did I mention it was hot? Since Dev wasn't going to this event, she left me after walking me there and went to the beach nearby. I finally got in and found my seat. The stadium, I want to say was 1/4 full. They kept saying, drink plenty of fluids, blah-fucking-blah ...I had half a bottle of water with me....it was gone before I even made it into the venue. I sat in the sun and felt my 30SPF fail. I was starting to burn, and even if the shit was waterproof, I don't think it was sweat-proof. I was sweating like a heifer in childbirth mmkay? Nasss-tay. Oh did I mention I spotted Joey1girl when I walked in? We chatted real quick, but I wanted to go and sit down and find my seat so I told her I would see her later. After about 1 hour of just sitting and waiting I left. I texted "Will drop pants for food" and asked where she was etc...I hadn't met her yet, but I was just tired of waiting for the celebs to grace us with Their presence and let her know I was leaving cause it was Africa-hot. BTW the celebs were kept comfortable in a huge tent tucked off to the side of the bleachers, you guessed it, roped off. Wouldn't want the common people to see "Their Majesties." That just wouldn't do.
As I was going to leave, I asked if I could come back after I hosed myself down. Do you know what the security person said? "No. No re-entry."
Exsqueeze Me? A Sphinkter says Whatttt????????????
Now at this point my heart starts to hurt a little. I am so disappointed. The event hasn't started, I am fucking disgustingly sweaty, I mean we're talking Ass sweat and back sweat and any other kinda sweat. And I can't come back after I've gone to my hotel 2 BLOCKS AWAY and come back with my stub and I.D.? all I can think is:
You have got to be fucking kidding me.....
So I leave, cause I'm not gonna get burnt and ruin my fucking vacation. And I listen to the event via my hotel window which faced the direction of the venue two blocks north of me. How fucking sucky is that? I ask you? At this point, I don't even want to go to the Nikki Beach club party, and Dev isn't going to this event so I'm going BY MYSELF in the hopes of bumping into crewbies or meeting some fellow nsyncers. Ya never know, maybe even a personable celeb who doesn't have a fucking ego problem or believes their own hype might walk by and NOD or something...pssht.
So I go, and I get a drink and wander outside into a beautiful breezy night. This club had a very nice lay out and very nice staff, they were very accommodating and friendly. I go outside to have a smoke and I find a nice long table that has an ashtray and I sit down and proceed to take in the atmosphere. I am politely interrupted by a staffer who proceeds to inform me that "the Large Tables are reserved for bottle service". I told her I'm sure she wouldn't mind me finishing my drink and cigarette before I got up and she said "sure". So I get up and go back inside and hang out by the d.j. booth to see if he has a set play-list or if he is just mixing it up. I ask him to play some K.7 or some beenie man. He wants to play the K7 but he doesn't have it...D.J. Epps was OFF THE HOOK! He had MAD CRAZY SKILLS on the 1 & 2's!!!!!!! Its been a looooooong time since my ears had such a treat. Definitely the highlight of the evening! Did I mention that everything was roped off? Stick with me here, its the theme. I left after a bit and went home. Didn't get much dancing in, to my regret, I was too self conscious. So another, well, less than satisfactory evening. I kept telling myself, "Viv, just wait until tomorrow, stay positive, you'll have fun at the bball game, you'll get to hear the guys sing...."
I already had talked to "will drop pants for food" on Sunday morning or early afternoon and confirmed our seats and said we'd see each other there. I left at 3:45 to get to the Office Depot Center armed with directions. I get there and its almost 4:40 or something....(I would like to add that because the Skills Challenge started so fucking late, that the bball game couldn't POSSIBLY start ON TIME so that's why I left late) It was the 4th quarter with 5minutes left...missed the anthem. (Which was part of the reason for coming to CFTC) Left my phone in the car so if "pants" tried to call me or find me...I'm screwed. My seats weren't too terrible, like I cared, at this point. Got to see each of the guys on the jumbotron. . Watched the O.T. I agree the crowd was VERY rude. This is a charity event, and the crowd should have had the class to realize that the people in the game were doing this for children's charities. ASSHOLES. Reminds me of Canada. Anyway....
Yay! I met PANTS!!!! It was such a pleasure! That is MY GIRL!!! Just to have met someone after knowing them online for a while now was great! AGAIN I wish we had more time, it was very VERY cool! And at least I didn 't sweat to death at this event So after meeting Pants, I figure, tonight is gonna be fun, I'm in a better frame of mind, I'm still trying to be positive, after all this is my vacation that I left my family and traveled from Delaware all the way to Miami for, lets make the best of it, right? RIGHT??? But wait! There's more! Show 'em Bob!
So Dev and I get ready to goto the Champion Celebration, I don't know if Joeys1gal or Pants is gonna be there, but I hope so! Now this Party at the Sky Bar @ Shore Club is not even a block from our hotel and is on the same side street our hotel was on, 20th. So around midnight we saunter down to the event, get in and stroll around and find a drink. And ONCE again, everywhere you go is roped off. There is no dance floor except for this gay-ass club that is inside, attached to the Shore Club, which seems to have been patronized by people who cannot dance at all and a d.j. who favors abstract Caribbean jazz music on crack, but that's my opin. So yeah, there was a dance floor at the complete opposite end of the party at the farthest point away from all the celebrities. Is that where I want to be? Well, Christ, if they played any decent kind of music, I would've danced my tail off, but not to the music they were playing over there! And unfortunately, I have given up on dropping acid so, not a chance!
Okay. Did you ever have a best friend who is used to the finer things in life, only wants the best for you, has excellent taste, and wants you to have the best time EVER because you are a wonderful person etc and when you are disappointed she/he gets madder than hell? Oh boy, no? Yes? Well, you're in for a TREAT. Dev is a VERY outspoken individual and even tho she is 7 inches shorter than me she thinks she's 6 ft tall Holy crap I thought she was gonna have a fit or something, cause she saw how lame I thought it all was...? And got pissed, and I mean PISSED OFF! Man does that girl have a temper I'm just glad she wasn't mad at me, and I kept apologizing, like sorry I brought you into this lame madness, and she got even more mad cause I thought she was having a shitty time because I made bad plans for our trip. Well she starts ranting and shouting and I'm waiting to be kicked out at this point. , cause she is LOUD, and people are starting to look...eeeek! I said, "Bump this, let's go somewhere else, anywhere you wanna go, we go, fuck this shit." So we left and we drive down Ocean Ave and find the club she wants to go to...its called Opium Garden and at this point its 2am. This club had a very small dance floor and an arena-ish type Parthenon layout....They played a lot of dancehall which is great, puts ya in a good mood, and everyone can dance to it...Dev has to use the bathroom, I wait for her by the dance floor, cause I liked the song. She comes back 15 minutes later and says "one of the guys is here." While she is gone they had announced that Usher was "in the building" and I said to her describe him, and figured out it was Chris. (well can't say that I'm not surprised.) She said he signed some autographs and shook some hands. And I said "well that would be 'cause he's the most down-to-earth of all of them and doesn't believe the bullshit hype or that he is above all of us simply because he has money or fame. And he also recognizes that all this shit could be gone tomorrow and is grateful everyday of his life." (So yeah, not surprised.) We walked right by him on the way outta the club, and I mean I could've brushed shoulders if I wanted to. I could have grabbed him. I could have gawked at him, but I'm a little older so..and besides, at this point, after you've been roped off from the people you come to see, maybe meet, and help support their charity, all weekend long, why would he want to meet anyone now? And I'm not the type to treat a fellow human being like they are a God. Its just not my style, I don't gush. We're all human. So we drove back to the hotel. Got ready for the next day and stayed up and talked a bit, raided the pantry and had a snack. Then it was time for bed. Dev left before me and tipped everyone and payed for everything that I hadn't already. She always does that shit! I mean you have to wrestle with her to get the check at a restaurant! So she left at 9am Monday and I left at 12 noon and headed to the airport to return my rental car. Which I did with no problems. Shuttled back to the airport by Alamo bus, what fun, and went to start the process of checking in luggage and going thru security. With plenty of time to spare before my 3:34pm flight, I go about the business of finding the gifts I will bring home to my kids. With that done I head to my gate, bust out the yarn, and relax, have a crochet, and wait for my flight, imagining the reunion with my 4 children and husband. After about the 3rd delay over 5 hours, we left at 8pm and arrived in Philly at 10:30pm. That's right. I was in the Miami airport from 12:30pm till 8pm. Luckily I had a book, cigs, coffee, gum and crochet, or someone would've gotten hurt. I had to call Keith about 4 times and tell him when to pick me up, cause he had the 4 kids with him.
4 kids asleep in a minivan at 10:50pm, leaving the Philly, PA airport to get home. NEVER have I been so happy to see everyone, and never was I ever so happy to be home. I realized after the plane took off that I didn't have my digital camera. Wonderful. Perrrrrrfect. I hope they made a lotta money this weekend for their charity, because if not, NONE of this will have been worth it.
Sorry this was so long, but its me, remember?