CHA Recap

So first, I have to apologize. I can't even remember the last time I went a whole week without posting on the blog! And it's not like I couldn't have scheduled some blog posts for this week but I actually thought I would be able to post fun CHA pics and news every night. But that didn't happen. :( I was really busy, and then I was exhausted and I just had one of those weeks where almost everything seemed to go wrong.

Let's start at the beginning.

• I left the house Monday at 5am. Got to CHA at 5pm. That was after two flights, the train and a shuttle to the hotel. It was a long day.
• Though I missed set up, I heard that the MLS booth fell over...that almost feels like a sign for the whole week. :)
• Monday night I helped with the My Little Shoebox class.
• Like any good scrapbooker, the night before, I had charged my camera battery. Well Tuesday I discovered that I had brought my camera without the battery. I was able to go back and get it, but thus begins the whole forgetting and losing phase of the week.
• Tuesday was spent working at the MLS booth. At lunchtime...I lost my phone!!! It was sitting in the MLS booth and it just disappeared. I still can't believe someone would have stole it, but that is what it appears. I kept telling myself that somebody accidently picked it up thinking it was their phone. But it is still unfound and I pretty much have lost all hope for someone returning it. I can't believe how bad it sucked to not have my phone. And I had just dropped and shattered my phone the week before, so this phone that I lost was literally brand new!
• Had computer troubles and internet access woes, but was able to get it to work Tuesday night. I did discover though, that the disc I stayed up super late creating (that had project pictures I needed to edit, and my Helmar post for while I was gone, along with some actions for Photoshop for my pics) was left behind! Ugghh!
• At least I had a fun time Tuesday night. I hung out with the MLS girls (whom I adore by the way) at Navy Pier.
• Wednesday was another work day at the MLS booth AND the Helmar booth. But I also got the most time off to walk around and enjoy the show too. Even though I couldn't stop thinking about my phone, I met several people I knew online. What an awesome experience. I will be sharing many more pictures in a later post.
• One of the magazines was walking the booths and picked up a card of mine! And it's a magazine that I have never been in before! Submitted lots, but they never picked me up. So I was/am very happy about that.
• I barely got any pictures at the show...I wanted to take so many more. :(
• Wednesday I was supposed to do dinner with the Helmar crew but the CHA shuttles stopped running early. :(
• Thursday morning before the show we checked out of the hotel. I left my luggage with the front desk (important later).
• Thursday was another work day for MLS, and then tear down. We did that quickly and easily. But then I had to say goodbye to my MLS friends.
• Thursday night I rode the shuttle back to the hotel and waited in the lobby for my ScrapStreet friends to come pick me up. Then I stayed the night with them. They told me they were wild, but we just stayed up chatting and packing. It was a good time. :)
• Thursday night I open my suitcase. All my clothes are wet. There is no sign of anything that leaked...still don't know what happened. :(
• Friday bright and early I head to the airport. I tried to get online at Midway but they had no free wireless (I had barely talked to family). I catch a flight to MN and have to wait 4 hours to catch my connection flight. So I try the internet again in MN...no free wireless. Seriously, what is up with that? I've been in many airports where I checked email (on my iphone of course, I had never lugged a laptop around before), was it just different because I did it on my iphone? Usually I just have to click on something that says I agree to their terms and conditions. Anyways...getting sidetracked. So I haven't talked to fam, and can't get online. I decide to just pay for the internet service. I enter in all the information, and my card was declined! I started freaking out, thinking that someone had somehow got that information from my phone that was lost. I couldn't talk to anyone...no phone, no internet...all I could do was worry. Just before boarding my next flight, I opened the laptop to play solitaire or something. And it was still on the screen showing me trying to pay for internet and I see that the exp date I entered was wrong. I could have been online that whole time but instead was freaking out over something that didn't need freaking out over all due to a little error! (Yes, I have since checked bank account online and everything is fine so it really was just an error!).
• So, you think I am headed home, right? Nope. My connection flight takes me to Nebraska for a family reunion. I am so physically, mentally, and emotionally exhausted I just want to run into hubby's arms when he picks me up from airport. But nope, he doesn't pick me up. My father in law does...and absolutely nothing against my FIL...I was simply looking forward to seeing hubs. Turns out he had flight issues and ended up getting in like an hour before I did. It truly made sense for him to just wait around for me. He had a rental car.
• I unloaded my stuff from the rental car, but left my one bag. That bag was the one that contained all my layouts and projects that I made for CHA. On the way to CHA, everything was in plastic baggies. In my hurry, when tearing down and packing up, I just put them all in one carry on bag. Seriously, I carried it with me the whole time, so I wasn't too worried about it.
• Saturday morning, I go out to the rental car to get my bag because I was going to show someone something. Everything is soaked and ruined! The whole floor in the rental car is sopping wet. Perhaps from air conditioner? Hertz said they had shampooed the carpets, but I still think it was something else because there was too much water. You would push on the floor and hear it splashing around underneath.
• At this point, I do cry...I was emotionally drained.
• I make it through the rest of the family reunion and we drive home. Got in late last night. Slept in a little this morning. Really, I just want to get back on my schedule.
• I just discovered that my laptop (which does not hold a battery charge and we just paid $175 to re-sauder the joint from power cord that hooks into computer) no longer works (the cord and joint came apart again). I have all my info on it for my class that begins today. I have to go freak out and try to get it off there so I will have it to post at noon. Uggghhh...it just doesn't end!

Wow, this was a long post! So even though I had a lot go wrong, it really was an amazing experience. I would go again in a heartbeat. I do have more pictures and posts post-CHA...I will do those later. :) And I will get the sketch up shortly! Thanks for listening to me. :)

Just a tease of a photo from the MLS van, first night...I have many more photos to come.

Have a fantastic Monday!!!