Laura Vegas

i think i have just about recovered from CKC st louis last weekend. it seems that any time i go away for any sort of scrapping trip, it takes me a good three to four days to recover. i had worked the first half of the week, and had been busy with the girls activies and all. so i went into my trip being a little tired to begin with. i had to be out the door at 4:00am on thursday morning, to make the hour drive to catch my 6:30am flight.

or flights i should say. i had my first experience with a layover. the first flight was 2.5 hours, then a 1 hour layover, and another 2 hour flight. the time passed pretty quickly. this airline promoted the fact that you got your own personal tv at each seat. which we did. but you had to pay to use it. seriously? i wish i had been as smart as the couple next to me on the second flight. they had a movie downloaded to their laptop. brilliant. this is why i'm still not classified as a "experienced travelor". because if i was, i would have thought about that. i kept busy with my ipod, magazines, going over my classes on my laptop, and some snoozing here and there. i landed in st louis at 1:30pm, losing 2 hours with the time difference. or is it gaining 2 hours? i think it's losing, right? lol!

 
photos all taken by carla and jen. i have a feeling they were all resized when they sent them to me, and i went and resized them again. this might explain the blurriness. sorry.

my online friend, carla, lives in chicago. so she made the 4 hour drive, to hang out with me for the weekend. she picked me up from the airport, and we headed to the hotel to check in and get settled. i checked in with the events people at the convention center. it was fun to see all the same people from when i taught at CKC last year. familiar faces are always good. they are always so sweet and helpful, and put me right at ease about the weekend. and they give me chocolate. what more could i ask for? then carla and i headed out to get some dinner, and then stopped in at archivers. since i don't have any lss's out here, it was really fun to browse thru such a huge scrapbook store.

friday morning, i headed over to the classroom. i taught a total of 10 classes over two days. five on friday, and five on saturday. they were all back to back, with only 20 minutes in between each one. which got a little crazy at times, since you need all of that 20 minutes to clean up from the last class and set out supplies for the next class and hand out kits. most of my classes were super full, maxing out at 54 students. i had some great volunteers to assist me, and carla pitched in here and there too. my class attendees were all great, and made me feel very comfortable.

we ran into jen jockisch at the studio calico booth. jen is a designer for studio calico and also a garden girl at 2peas. she taught one of the studio calico classes, that carla happened to take. and i have to add, that we took this photo at the end of the day on saturday. and goodness, my hair was getting poofy. lol! i think it's the hard water at the hotels. my hair starts getting this weird texture, and poofs up. and yet my bangs went flat. go figure.

i was once told that it was hard to picture me in a classroom setting, teaching to large groups of scrappers. i guess it's because i can be quiet at times. when i was a kid, i was super shy, to the point that i wouldn't talk to anyone. now days, i go back and forth. i have my quiet moments, and times when i'm not as talkative or outgoing. but i also have my times when i'm my normal self. talkative, funny, and more outgoing. and i honestly do think that that is the side of me that shows more when i teach. i could be wrong. lol! but i do feel like i'm myself up there.

i had a few of my blog readers that were at the show, and came by to meet me. joanna and natalie, who are great friends, and were super sweet. excuse my dorky look. i told them upfront that i'm terrible at having my picture taken. lol!

the fabulous kelly purkey was also there for studio calico. i was a total dork and finally went up to introduce myself to her. i have seen kelly a few times before. just this past january, i saw her at CHA. i was standing right next to her, in fact. but never said "hi". that would be my quiet side in action. lol! so i introduced myself, and kelly said "we've known each other forever". which is true. it was really nice to chat with her for a while, as she was finishing up teaching her class.

another photo of jen and i together. we were on the 2010 CK dream team together. there were a few girls from last year's dream team that i never really got to know, and jen was one of them. so i was excited when i heard that she was going to be at CKC. i loved visiting with her, and chatting about scrapping things. btw, studio calico was the only booth that i ended up shopping at. i managed to get about 30 minutes on friday, and another 30 minutes on saturday, to look around the shopping area. i was actually so tired and drained, that i just walked aimlessly around. i would see things, and say "that's cute, but i'm too tired to look at it", and then walk on. lol!

two very full days of teaching, and i was beat. my feet were killing me, since i wore my big boots. i was tired and hungy, since i didn't have time to eat my lunch. but right after the show on saturday, it was time to head over to the airport for my flight home.

this, my friends, is where the craziness of my trip began. flying home. it sounds so simple, doesn't it? lol! let's just say, i ended up getting home a day later than planned. there's a long, hilarious story to this. trust me, it's funny. and long, so i'm going to save it for a post next week. and i didn't plan this at all, but i actually even have a layout about it. just sort of happened, while i was playing with some product this week. so watch for that post next week 🙂