Home Again

I'm home from my first UFDC convention. (www.UFDC.org) What a great education! I participated and learned as much as I could. Driving from Nashville to Atlanta on Sunday should have been easy but getting over the mountain in such a rainstorm and fog about did me in. Thankfully, just south of Chattanooga, everything was clear and I arrived about noon in time to register before they closed for lunch. I was taken care of really well, and shown the ropes, put this here, do this with these and don't lose this, etc., etc. Guess, what I shared something I wasn't supposed to lose, there were no replacements and I was lost. Thankfully, my friends from home came to my rescue. I had lost, immediately, my little book with all the times and rooms where all the events were taking place. (Truly everyone was really helpful and kept me on track.)

Sunday was pretty uneventful for me, but Monday would be busier. So, I familiarized myself with the hotel and my surroundings. The convention was held at the beautiful Marriott Marquis in Atlanta, and I was roomed on the 44th floor. Yikes! I took the first express elevator that came and got my bags up to the room. The elevator had no windows, you know like a normal elevator, and I suffer terribly from sea-sickness, well, you can guess I didn't take that elevator again unless I was going two floors. No exceptions. From then on I took the elevator with the glass wall to the Atrium in the center of the hotel, looked up and held on tight. (No nothing bad happened, but I was shaken.)

See the picture from my room? Way up high. From this picture I am looking somewhat north. The two "hills" on the left are, I believe, Kennesaw Mountain and Little Kennesaw Mountain. I went to high school in Marietta, Georgia and dated my husband there. He's an historian by education and we had to go up Kennesaw Mountain, down it, up Little Kennesaw, down and ... well you get the picture. I had to read every tombstone and sign and listen to the battle as it happened. I married him anyway. But, I digress.

The really COOL picture I took did not turn out. I caught a storm and lightening moving in at my window height. Another unnerving thing, a helicopter flew past a few days later. No camera handy then, but suffice it to say, I could have waved at him and he'd have seen me. Eerie.

I must discuss the food. Delicious. Enough said. More about dolls and the convention coming up. I took some wonderful pictures and learned great things in workshops, attended a splendid luncheon and made lifelong friends. Stay tuned!

P.S. I didn't watch TV at all.


Kathi R. Mendenhall, IGMA Artisan
La Petite Belle Patterns
minipatterns.com