WHAT WE DID!

FRIDAY

For me (Cat), the Gathering started earlier than most others. Wednesday, the 10th, I left Montgomery at 11 am and drove towards Atlanta. The plan upon arrival was for me to go to the Party store to pick up: two white boxes, a plastic boot, and a shotglass. The boot and shotglass weren't available, but I did end up with the boxes. I noticed with amazement that the store had lots of 4th of July stuff....and they even still had it marked at 50% off. I was rather impressed with that. Then it was off to Amy's. Most of the boxes had been assembled last month, with just a couple of items--the zines and the flag pins--not being available yet. Those were added, and the "Welcome to Atlanta, Y'all" boxes were sealed and tagged. Amy got home and we wrapped/stickered all the white elephant presents and then loaded up the Saturn. Amy showed me how to run the VCR and we watched something or the other while eating pizza.

Thursday was fun. We checked into the hotel and unloaded the cars. Then it was off to Sams. Amy and I had a blast there. Our shopping list: Water, juice, meat tray, cheese, bread, and anything that made us go 'oooooooo' I'm sure most of you noticed that a LOT of things made us go 'oooooooo' The adventure here was also the encounter with the bonus bees. Sam's attempted to give us some extra protein with the meat trays, but we were unimpressed. Probably for the best that we had to return the meat. The Saturn was filled to the gills. So we headed back to the hotel and once again, unloaded. Then it was off to Krogers (to order meat) and Long John Silvers.

Soon we were having a blast decorating the room. We laid everything out, and then said hello to the first arrivals: Emily and Lisa. Emily was pretty much out for the count because to her, it was midnight when we met, even though it was only 6 pm to Amy and 5 pm to me. (And probably 3 pm to Lisa ) I invited the two of them to accompany me to pick up the meat tray in the morning, so that they could get any room munchies they needed.



Friday: 9:15 am. Emily, Lisa, and I hit the Grocery Store. Em had not been to an American grocery before, so we had to show her the whole thing. We convinced her to get an American cake mix (and Emily will have to tell us how she likes that chocolate cake) and frosting. I got the meat tray, we headed back to the hotel, just in time to greet Jilly, Nee, and Tracy around 10:15ish. People soon began arriving left and right, and I think almost everyone had arrived by 2 o'clock, and we had not plans until actually 6 pm--with dinner. I'd shown all the zines, and nearly sold out of them. (Ya'll spent about $675 on zines, by the way. Keep in mind, one of the publishers had a 10% discount going, so I'd say we had about $750 worth of zines available.) One by one, the rooms became available, and people were allowed to go in and get settled.

At 6:00 pm, the Global Gathering 2001 - Atlanta Branch convened with a build-a-sub dinner. Generally speaking, I think everyone enjoyed their meal. We had plenty of selection, with ham, turkey, beef, and chicken meat; cheeses of colby, cheddar, swiss, provolone, and cojack...plus probably some others, lettuce, shredded carrots, condiments, etc. There was also the vegetable tray and fruit tray, plus many different chips. This is what happens when the two most finicky eaters in the world buy food. (There would have been onions, but neither Amy nor myself were inclined to cut the things ) After dinner we had cupcakes.

Then we really got down to business. Amy and I distributed the Gifts we had been buying for everyone over the past year. Gen got a Tanzanite and Iolite ring; Jilly, Wynde, Robin, and Debby got pocket watches; Holly was *really* happy with her brass spyglass; I didn't think Maude was going to let go of that autographed picture of Michael Biehn, and I think that Kelly was just as thrilled with an autographed Stud Boy Dale in leather; Nee got two authentic dime novels, not reproductions, printed in the late 1800s; Amy had a set of movie jail keys; Judy and Cat got writing guides; Tracy hit the jackpot with two Dale VHS movies (Any Place But Home and Toothless) and one Dale DVD (Air Bud 3); Deb grinned when she opened up her Navy Seals Press Kit; Kimber got an Emmy Consideration copy of Andersonville (but I'm sure she really wanted a pocket watch....sorry If I'd have known, I'd have gotten another); Emily got a bizarre compilation: two little ceramic boxes...a canon (with little canon balls) and a pulpit (with a little Bible) and a mousepad with MacGyver on it; Lisa was excited about her CSA Flask; Nancy really got excited about her civil war maps (and yes, ladies, Ezra Church IS on her map) of the Atlanta Battles and book about the Secret Missions of the Civil War, a book the civil war buff actually didn't have!; Shay got a set of western spurs which were rather detailed (I don't know how many of you got a good look at these, but they are 'dress' spurs); and Ginger got the truly odd gift: An Irish Toasting mug which required demonstration.

Then we made our key chains. Perhaps two crimpers would have been useful . Everyone finally passed the tug test and got their key chains made. I thought they looked really cute.

We talked, and then watched movies, and Ginger's music videos. (Ginger's Vids Rock!) Ginger also offered to make us a memories video, and I am certain that that is going to become something that all of us will treasure. Who knows what time we gave up the ghost for the night and went to bed.

Saturday Sunday Monday

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