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« Friday Schmiday | Main | We made it! »
Wednesday
Jan092008

Okay, Florida.

Are we ready for a meaningless stream of photos that say absolutely nothing about where I was last week? :) Okidoke. I don't know if it's the cobbler's shoes thing, but it's so hard for me to take photos of my own life sometimes. So, here is Pointless Shot In The Bathroom Mirror, number one.

meinthemirrortampa.jpg

And number two.

dorksintampa.jpg

We met some great peeps. My favorites were Sam and Kyle from Maine. They were hilarious. Sam had us rolling with her unfiltered one liners. If you're ever in San Antonio, you guys better stop by!

Here they are on the bus, on our way to the party at the Aquarium.

samkyle.jpg

At the party. Smack that, get on the floor! And yes, I do have every intention of being that old lady. Don't know what to tell ya, life is short.

dancingtampa.jpg

Chillin' until 3am in the hotel lobby afterwards. WOOT!

samtampa.jpg

And do I have a photo of the actual Expo? Of course not. I do, however have one of our feet sitting on the steps outside of it. Riveting, I know.

tampafeet.jpg

expostepstampa.jpg

My favorite shot of the weekend.

iphoneeye.jpg

Wow, looking at these photos makes me feel like it was a pretty crazy weekend. I promise I learned a lot too. There was a ton of great information, and so many inspiring people. There's just no way I could even begin to touch on everything. My favorite class was a tie between Laura Novak, who talked a lot about vision and business strategy, and Christa Hoffarth, who talked about design. They were both awesome.

So, I could stop here. But you know I have to include the drama. :)

On our way home...

tampaplane.jpg

I missed my connecting flight to get home from Dallas. It was the last flight of the day, which meant I'd have to spend another night in a hotel room. Sounds simple when I write it out now. Like no biggie, whatever. But I was at the END of my traveling rope. You know how that is, when you're so spent you feel like someone has taken a tap to your veins and drained out your life force? I'd had about 8 hours of sleep in 4 days. More information pounded into my brain than I could begin to process. And all I could think about was kissing my babies' cheeks and crawling into my bed. Instead, I found myself running around a vacant airport, with strap burns on my neck, crying hysterically. And begging someone to check me in. The security guy said I had time to make it. But the girl at the counter said she "was off." In that moment, I learned what it feels like to be homicidal. For real. At some point, a nice man appeared and helped me (off the clock) find a hotel and shuttle. I got over the yearnings for my pillow, and was fine. UNTIL I went outside and stood in the dark, murderer's tunnel for AN HOUR. Okay, I will admit that I am a total wimp who has watched way too much Dateline. BUT, I have never felt so unsafe for such an extended period. It was literally me and the Dallas DFW sprinklers. No cabs. No workers. Not one traveler. Just me on the street, and an occasional bus. And the killers in the bushes. And Buffalo Bill in his rape van across the street. I kept trying to remember all those self defense moves, wondering if I really could stick my thumb into someone's eye ball...(welcome to the dark recesses of my mind). Anyway, four phone calls later, my shuttle bus finally showed up and brought me here.

bedtampayuck.jpg

Welcome to the Ramada Inn of Irving, TX. Comes complete with curly, brown hair on the toilet seat (and I'm not kidding) and brown mysterious drips of something on the doors and walls. I set the alarm clock on the table, on my phone, AND had them give me a wake up call. There was NO WAY I would be missing my morning flight. Except for that I DID miss my morning flight. Yep, SWEAR. Apparently when people book your ticket off the clock, they go into the Hollogram file. Moral of the story...don't ever book a connecting flight on two separate airlines, especially when it's really late at night. 

Now, totally changing the subject...if you are one of the lucky girls who is signed up for the Haute Mama shoot this weekend, you are in for such a treat! It's going to rock! I promise I will be sending out all the final details/directions as soon as possible. Please feel free to contact me with any last minute questions. And if you emailed or called about getting in, and couldn't, I am so sorry! The response was crazy. And I wish I could fit everyone in, but it's going to be tight as it is. And I want to make sure everyone gets personalized attention. The good news is that I WILL be doing another one soon. So KEEP A LOOK OUT for dates and times for the next shoot. I have a feeling it's going to book up fast again. 

Okay, tonight is girls night out, and I need to get ready! 

See ya'll tomorrow! :)  

 

 

Reader Comments (18)

PHEW! I am glad you are back! What an ordeal! Flying sucks. Kelly has to do it all the time and he is so fed up with it.
Happy New Year and can't wait to see pics from this weekend!
January 9, 2008 | Unregistered CommenterJen Heffel
ugh what a miserable ordeal! glad you finally made it home, though.
January 9, 2008 | Unregistered CommenterLeah
Maile, I REALLY FEEL SORRY ABOUT YOU MISSING YOUR FLIGHT,BUTTTTT,TEARS ARE ROLLING DOWN MY FACE FROM LAUGHTING,I AM HAVING A FLASHBACK OF MY FIRST TRIP TO HAWAII AND OUR SHORT STAY IN MEXICO.REMEMBER? ANYWAY GLAD YOU ARE HOME.
January 9, 2008 | Unregistered CommenterGRAMMY
for me, it would've been the dark curly hair on the toilet that would've pushed me to the dark side. I'm so sorry that happened to you! Wishing you pubie-free toilets and mite free pillows and wonderful, jelly stained cheeks to kiss. :)
January 9, 2008 | Unregistered Commentercathy
I love how you can make friends with anyone, where ever you go! Glad you finally made it back safely.
January 9, 2008 | Unregistered CommenterTasha
Oh my gosh! Sounds interesting to say the least. Thanks for the links though.
January 9, 2008 | Unregistered CommenterStacy
i can't begin to tell you how happy we are to have you back.
January 10, 2008 | Unregistered Commentertz
Love living vicariously through your adventures. All of it just too much fun.
January 10, 2008 | Unregistered CommenterSSH
It looks like you had so much fun! In perfect Maile fashion! You are a skinny minny by the way!

Love,
Melis
January 10, 2008 | Unregistered CommenterMelissa
It looks like you had a great time...until you arrived at that hotel! NASTY!!!!

Did you two coordinate your outfits in the BW photo? You guys look fabulous!
January 10, 2008 | Unregistered CommenterMaya
Wow... the way you describe the Ramada Inn sounds a lot like our hotel in Tampa. Yuck... but it certainly got better once we met so many awesome people. Ok. Two awesome people! Glad you finally made it home!
January 10, 2008 | Unregistered CommenterSam from Maine
More!
January 10, 2008 | Unregistered CommenterKal
Oh, and I wanted to add, thanks for that awesome photo of my husband... This will surely keep all the other women at bay... man looks like a molester in that shot!
January 10, 2008 | Unregistered CommenterSam from Maine
Wow what a fun trip minus the airport part. Chad just sat today for 3 hrs in the Greensboro NC airport, now he gets to get home at 10pm!!!!
January 10, 2008 | Unregistered CommenterJen Smith
People everywhere will now be haunted by my "lazy eye", thanks to you, my dear. And about the pube at the Ramada, well, I think God was just trying to make things even in that category for us. =)

Hugs to you and I can't wait to hear about the Haute Mama shoot. I may call you Sunday eve. if that's ok cuz I want to get the lowdown.
January 11, 2008 | Unregistered CommenterKate Mefford
Hey, this is another Leah, the one from North of the 49th Parallel, the one who's also related to you. Just wanted to say that your friend (Sam, I think it is?) looks like Toni Collette in the black+white shot, which coming from me is a compliment. You're both gorgeous! Seriously.
January 12, 2008 | Unregistered Commenterleah
OK, I should add, Toni Collette doing a bug-eyed thing and a funny thing with her hand.

January 12, 2008 | Unregistered Commenterleah
Those are great photos! What fun.
That first shot is so good of you...adorable girl.
Is that for your shutter sisters bio???
: )
January 13, 2008 | Unregistered Commentertracey

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