ATTENDEE COMMENTS/MEMORIES

Debby's Diary

warning-I get long winded when journaling!

Friday:
I was one of the later arrivals to the hotel I think, ironic since I live no more than 20 minutes away on a good traffic day. I was completely nervous and intimidated knocking on the door to the meeting room, especially when it naturally went totally silent when I did! We got over that whole silent thing pretty quick though! Cat introduced herself to me and got me set up with my room key, name badge and gift/goodie box. I did a quick check of my room to dump my stuff and then headed back to the main room (after a couple deep breaths to calm down!!).

Cat and Amy did a terrific job decorating the main room w/red, white, and blue and giving the place that comfy party feel! I'm still amazed when I look at the pictures that we all fit in there! It never felt quite as crowded as it looked!

Around 6 something the sub party started which was a wonderful thing since I'd been too nervous to eat all that day! (did I mention I'd never been to anything like this before??) The key chains were a riot to make! Between the tiny parts and my inability to use the crimpers from Hades, it's amazing I only failed the tug test once!! But I passed it on the second round and love the end result!!

Cat handed out our special gifts and I got a pocket watch with an eagle on the front. Very very cool-my husband collects pocket watches and this one is ALL MINE! Sometime during the evening we watched Ginger's Music videos (SO COOL!) and Serpents since Emily had never seen it before! We ended up watching ROTKT too since.well it had no plot so we could look at the pretty pictures of Tony and still talk all we wanted!!

It was great to watch M7 episodes with others that appreciate them as much as I do! No one was rolling their eyes at my reactions (that I know of)!!

I have no idea when I went to my room but it was late! I shared a room with Emily, Holly and Nancy (Greylyn) and well we stayed up awhile gabbing and laughing. I think it was well onto 3 am when we finally settled down thanks ever so much to the attacking recliner and Holly's explanation of the chicken bomb story. (good thing the room next to ours was the main room and nobody was trying to sleep there) I can't remember who it was- Nancy, I think- who was tormented (if you can call it torture) by dreams of Vin and recliners. NO NOT THAT KIND OF DREAM!!!(at least if it was she didn't share that part!)

Saturday:
Our wake up call came around 8:30am, but we were all up and taking our turns waiting for the shower-hot water even lasted .cool! - No, I didn't make it to breakfast at Watson's, it sounded good but it was too early for me! I had my normal can of diet coke and grabbed a chocolate muffin!

I was in the cyclorama/zoo group and got to ride in Peso (holly's car). We made pretty good time to Grant park (where both places are located) thanks to Wynde's excellent navigational skills! The three cars even ended up parked together!

Those poor cyclorama folks, I think we scared them. They gave us the group discount and everything and I think we were five short of the minimum for it. (yes we were that loud) I'd never been there before and was amazed by it. First we waited in the downstairs lobby, checking out the Train engine from TEXAS before we were led in for a 15 minute history film about the civil war's Campaign of Atlanta. The other tourists there (all 6 of them) looked like they were expecting a miserable time but I'd say we were very well behaved during the actual presentations! Following the movie it was up several thousand flights of stairs (okay little exaggeration there) to view the diorama. I'm not sure there's even an accurate way to describe it and do it justice. The painting of the Battle of Atlanta is over 300 plus feet long and 42 feet high, and they've added a diorama to it. You sit in bleacher type seating while the thing spins or you do (to motion sensitive to figure it out) and the history of it is given, including pointing out different details and stories behind the scenes in the painting. Phenomenal piece!

After the viewing we proceeded to wreak havoc in the museum, took pictures by the cannon and Ezra Church signs and broke the rules by smuggling out Ginger's video camera!

Appropriately enough it was time for the Zoo!! Quick instructions to meet at the cars at 1:30pm and we were off. I think almost all of us went straight back to get a glimpse of the Pandas and then made our way around the park. Holly, Shay and Maude -no comments on the amount of restroom breaks please! Yes, Debby has a mini-bladder- With souvenirs in hand (monkeys for my son) we were back in Atlanta traffic. Miraculously we all made it back in one piece!

There was an afternoon discussion about story development and I learned a lot about RPGing. Also looking forward to the story LadyChris is working on!!! I did grab a few minutes of rest before getting ready for dinner. Called my hubby and made sure he and my son were doing okay (first time he'd been left alone with Nathan for more than just a short overnighter.an earlier morning phone call before we left the hotel, was just Nathan sobbing for me!)

Dinner was at the Old Spaghetti Factory and very good-again I'd never been there before and found it extremely yummy. We were well behaved and I don't think we gave our waiter too much trouble!! Back at the hotel again we had our white elephant exchange. My resulting prize was a The Art of War t-shirt and press kit (though no pics of Michael!) Nobody attempted to steal it.until I got home, still hiding the t-shirt from my husband! The H/C discussion that followed was great and beyond helpful to me! Thanks again everyone for hashing through my ideas and helping me iron out the ending of "he Understands" Your suggestions made a HUGE difference, even my beta was caught by surprise when I changed a part I'd already sent her said the changes made the scene much more powerful and that's a credit to you guys and your advice! My homework from the discussion is an Ezra-hurt, Vin-comfort fic for Kimber.gotta get thinking on that now!

Sometime LATE I made it back to my room again where of course we talked more and then kind of fell into bed.

Sunday:
Up again by 8:30 am though this time I was dragging quite a bit!! Managed to get ready and grab a pack of cookies for breakfast (okay so nutrition has never been my top priority!) before we headed for Stone Mountain. Ginger got a group shot of all of us in out Gathering t-shirts outside the hotel before we split to our assigned cars. Cat told everyone in her entry about the parking fiasco but I think we all rolled with it pretty well. Got a little bit wet but eventually we all met up and boarded the train! Where we got even more wet!! The seats were soaked, thus I ended up soaked I know that much brr, chilly! We had one whole train car to ourselves I think-did we frighten the other passengers or something? The train was loud and a wee bit jarring but a whole lot of fun. I couldn't hear much of what the tour guide was trying to tell us but the carving was gorgeous even in the rain. ( I had seen it before but not from the train)

Following our jolting ride we split up- I ended up in Stone Mountain Village with Amy, Judi and Shay. We ate lunch at this little European place-an adventure for this 'I'll have a Big Mac, please' girl! It was very good and the Irish Cream cake that Shay and I split for dessert was just heaven!! Downstairs I even found something for Mark (Jim Beam marinade). We hit a few of the shops, witnessed a shoplifting and checked out the Christmas House (wow) before heading back to the hotel again.

When I came in the group who'd beat us back were watching Achilles- I walked in during the tablecloth scene, is that timing or what? Followed that episode up with Ladykillers and then I had to go pack. I had to leave early because of Mark's work schedule, etc. so I missed out on Agathas (pout) but I did have so much more fun at this Gathering then I had imagined possible. It was quite the shock going from the hotel to church, where no one really understood where I had been and I didn't even begin to explain it! Once home though I tortured Mark with the details and made him watch Ginger's videos!

It was so wild getting to put faces and names togetherand getting to know folks a little better. (I'm still hoping we didn't scare Emily too much and I'm still trying to figure out an answer to one of her questions - why do we call our baseball championships the world series??? The only other country that participates is Canada right? She stumped me good with that one!) I don't remember the last time I laughed so hard and I'll never be able to look at a recliner or a teddy bear for that matter in the same way again. I have no idea if I'll make it to another gathering in the future but I'm so thankful for the opportunity I had this time around!!

A heartfelt thank you to Cat and Amy for your hard work in planning this whole thing and coming up with the Global Gathering idea to begin with! Thank you. Thank you. Thank you!

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