Fun with travel
As it got closer to show time, the final plan (we thought) was that Kelly, Debbie, Karen nobody (who I'll call Dr. Karen in hopes of being less confusing) and I would share a room. Everyone else was arriving on Thursday and I would be coming in on Friday. Then Kelly was delayed, so I spent part of Thursday morning calling around to re-route Debbie to pick up Dr. Karen at the airport. By the way - J.P. at United Airlines in Memphis? Very sweet and extremely helpful. United Airlines customer service staff? Not so much.
Thursday evening I called Debbie and got an update - she and Dr. Karen had met up with Karen from Atlanta, and Cindy and Jerry from Florida. They had already run into some of the band and crew - the party was starting! They didn't know who they were sending to pick me up at the airport, and I said I didn't care as long as someone showed up!
Friday morning, up at 4am. Not easy for someone who usually goes to bed around 2! The sacrifices I make! Luckily I can sleep on the plane. I made my connection and got to Memphis, then started looking around for any familiar face. Leaving the secure area, I saw a face I kind of sort of thought maybe I recognized, and she was waving. I wasn't sure she was waving at me, but then she said, "Kathie?" And I said, "Jen?" It was JenRN, who I had met about a month ago at a show in Wisconsin. She had talked to Cindy and had volunteered to drive me in since she was getting into the airport not much earlier than I would be, and she would have a car. Do we have a network or what?
When we got to the hotel, Dr. Karen and Debbie gave me my key card for the room. Mistake. Any time I travel, if I book a room for two days, the key card doesn't work on the second day. I don't have any strange demagnetizing tricks or anything - my credit cards and I get along just fine (all too well). But somehow hotel people forget to authorize my key to work for two days, so I come back to my room on the second day and find the room holding my luggage hostage. If this happens to anyone else, please write me - I am in dire need of a support group for this! Anyway, I thought since the room wasn't in my name and I wasn't even there the first night, we might be okay, but when we got to the room, Dr. Karen's key card didn't work, neither did Debbie's, and of course not the one they had handed me. We got new key cards (which I was not allowed to touch, look at or think about) so no big deal - just part of the fun!