A Comedy of Errors

Before I begin I want to announce that it's my 500th post!  Yeah!  Kind of crazy.... OK, the kids settled into school and I struggled to keep up.  I thought that when school started life would get a bit easier but with the orthodontist and dentist appointments, my work schedule getting busier and lots of
little things that needed doing and everything we neglected during the summer my life got very hectic!  Mike decided to go to the Virginia Dental Convention to advertise for our vending business and he convinced me to go with him as a sort of working vacation.  I was able to get our superstar babysitter Anne to come spend a couple of days with the kids and we were able to go.  Mike and I drove the 3 hours in our separate cars to this amazing hotel in the middle of nowhere, without incident but from there it just went down hill.  Nothing big, but lots of little things just made the whole trip a bit ridiculous.  We had trouble getting into and out of the loading bay to unload all of our stuff.  In fact at one point we were blocked in and totally stuck.  We finally got our both completely set up and both cars parked.  We decided to go for a hike since we had the whole afternoon and evening free.  We had a great hike and great conversation.  I realized while we were hiking that I had left a stack of our stuff on the loading dock - oops.  I hoped it would still be there.  I also wondered why we had to be all set up so early in the day if we weren't going to be displaying that evening.  We got back all sweaty and dirty and decided to cut through the ballroom and just check on everything.  We found that there was a reception that had started 15 minutes ago and people were in there!  Oops.  We ran out to the car - Mike changed his shoes and cleaned up while I took care of a few last minute details.  I looked awful so I hid in the car while Mike worked the crowd.  I tried desperately to get my phone charged and to find a signal.  My sister had her baby that day and I had been unable to get details or pictures and was so frustrated!  Mike finally showed back up and we drove 20 minutes down the road to the small town we were staying in.  My phone wasn't working and I couldn't remember where our reservation was.  After aimlessly driving around I made a lucky guess and we found our hotel!  Mike checked us in and we went straight to dinner.  It was awful.  Terrible food and totally overpriced.  I just wanted to sleep, I was exhausted.  We went back to the hotel only to find our room was a smoking room and really stank.  We complained, but they were full.  So they made us a reservation at their sister hotel.  We had to go to a third hotel to get our key and check in.  The hotel we were staying at had a 'virtual concierge' which meant that nobody actually sat at the desk.  You skyped another hotel to talk to the manager.  Weird.  We finally got checked in and into our hotel.  I went to bed only to be woken up several times by some random beeping noise in another room.  I couldn't even go complain to the front desk - because nobody was there! I still don't know what was beeping, but it was so annoying!  We made it back to our booth the next morning only to find that it was a super slow convention.  Mike spend a lot of time on his phone in the hallway working and I sat at the booth totally bored.  Not fun.  No internet so I couldn't play on my laptop and no cell coverage in the ballroom.  It was finally time for me to go home.  I picked up my purse and the strap broke.  My purse dropped.  It was only a couple months old- I was so irritated.  I started the long drive home.  I didn't have Mike to follow, he was staying for one more day and my phone didn't work to get directions.  I, of course, got lost.  Not fun.  I finally figured it out on my own and made it home - but not without a lot of frustration!  I finally got some cell coverage but for some reason when I called Mike I couldn't hear him talking to me.  I would call him and talk and then hang up and then he would text me his answers.  Ridiculous!  When I got home I got the kids to bed very late and was so glad to sleep at home.  Mike called me in the morning to tell me he had locked his keys in the car.  He wanted me to research what was cheaper, a locksmith on a Saturday or a new window for his car.  The nearest locksmith was over an hour away - so not an option.  Luckily we found out that in remote counties like that the sheriff will get you into your car, so we didn't have to pay for either!  Mike made it home early.  I was glad to see the weekend end!  We aren't going back to that convention next year!

 Mike at our Treasure Tower booth

 

 

A deer we walked by on our hike