It was the night before the Big Show…

Hello from Tucson! The bead and gem and jewelry forces of the universe are gathering in this corner of the Earth to show off the best we have to show for the next few weeks. There’s simply nothing else like it. Interested in huge fossils and geodes big enough to hide small children inside? No problem! Want to see more pearls than you’ve ever imagined existed? Yup, we’ve got that! Acres of tents filled with beautiful and unexpected wonders await. Lampworkers have trotted out their best designs from the past year with which to tempt you. And every person I know in the biz is here. I can’t wait for my show to start in the morning!

Here’s how it has been going…
I left Austin on Sunday – had planned to leave by 10am, but hit the road around 11:20. That’s practically early for me! I’m about 45 miles down the road when Mom calls. I jokingly answer the phone by saying, “What did I forget?” Except it wasn’t a joke. I’d left behind a box of jewelry that needed to be with me. ARGH!! So I turned around and Mom met me half-way with the goods. My day just got 40 miles longer, but at least I had the jewelry. Thanks, Mom! The delay meant I was pretty darned tired by the time I arrived at my hotel in Van Horn, Texas at 11pm or so at night. So tired that I tried to check into the wrong hotel! I just knew my reservation was at the Hampton Inn, but they couldn’t find it. So I whipped out my confirmation email…from the Holiday Inn Express. If it hadn’t been pre-paid, I would have just switched to the Hampton. Reloading my luggage in the car and driving the extra quarter mile took my last bit of energy. I hit the bed like a rock and didn’t move for 10 hours.

Monday was a shorter driving day, and I bebopped along the road while listening to my iTouch. Remember my last post about the cables in my world? Well, the saga continues! Since I updated the software on my Blackberry Storm phone, my wall charger no longer works. The only way I can charge it up is to connect it to my computer right now. And the cable I had to connect the iTouch to the car speakers? Yeah. Wrong cable. I haven’t yet stopped to buy the one I need, so I was using my headphones to listen to the iTouch in the car. Why, oh, why can’t they do something useful like make all cords and connectors universal?? WHY??

Anyway, as I was saying – Monday night I got into town around 8:45pm. Dropped my stuff at the Casita I’m renting for the second year in a row, and then headed around the corner for food. I was five min. too late to get the Chinese takeout I’d been hoping for, so instead I stopped at the grocery store and stocked up on a week’s worth of meals. Another 10 hour sleep coma later brings us to…

Tuesday! Set up at the Best Bead Show day. But not until 2pm. Originally I’d planned on driving over to one or two of the other shows for the first part of the day, but honestly I’m pretty well out of money at this point and I knew I’d find things I wanted to purchase. I’m not good with temptation, so I figured it was best to stay locked up at the Casita and chill out.

When I finally got to the Kino Veteran’s Center to start getting my booth all decorated, I was more than ready to get going! Right off the bat I started seeing friends left and right…Rashan Omari Jones, Amanda Jeffries, Janice & John (who’s last name I can’t think of at the moment) from Australia, Susan Nestor, Lori Dixon Greenberg, Margaret Zinser…and I didn’t even go into the main hall yet! I got most of my set up done before my energy just dropped out of the bottom. I’ll finish up in the morning.

So the show opens at 10am! Come see me!!! I know I’ll get to see Brenda Schweder, who will be coming to spend a few hours helping me in the booth. I’m going to pitch a collaboration project while she’s there…iron and seed beads…intriguing… And the various editors from the bead magazines will be coming through too. Jill MacKay is in town and promised to stop by to say Hi. Marsha DeCoster and Shelley Nybakke are in town, and I’m sure I’ll see them at one spot or another. Gail Crosman Moore has made the trek here despite having broken her leg by falling on the ice last week. Can you imagine?? She’s got spunk, that gal does!

I’ll try to report in every few days at least. Wednesday is going to be a loooong day for me, since I need to get there early to finish set up, and then the show is open until 8pm. So after 12 hours in the booth, I’m guessing there will be no update tomorrow night. Although…one never knows…I will have photos!!