Little Zelda's trip to Southern Comfort, part two

Continuing our story...

Wednesday:

A new thing at SCC this year was a "Girl's Morning Out," aka Princess Day. It was intended for both newcomers, people who've never been out shopping before, or those of us you just love shopping. Since I fall into the latter, I got up early and went to the event at Sephora across the road at Perimeter Mall. Sephora is a chain of makeup stores that carries a wide variety of beauty, skincare and hair products. Perimeter Mall is one of  the nice things about having the convention at the Crowne Plaza Ravinia-it's within walking distance, has a good selection of shops and places to eat. While I miss the old hotel (I'll get into that later), and the mini-mall it had, this is not a bad place...

I was asked if I minded being a demo model for one of the makeovers-one of the models didn't show. So I of course did my part for the group and got a day to evening look makeover. I actually liked the look, and got some ideas for later.

I found my friend Sandra at the MAC store, where she was picking up a few things. While waiting, I snapped the above shot so I would remember the look. And hey, I did look great! We looked around a bit, and I picked up a new pair of cheap sunglasses. I rarely buy expensive ones-I either break them or lose them, and why buy something I'll be upset over? I also stopped by a kiosk that had costume jewelery and looked at a knock-off bebe watch that he was asking $35 for. I didn't like it that much, and he knocked a bit off of it but I walked away, knowing that he was going to bargain and I am a veteran of the French Market where everything's negotiable...

Got the car and drove over to the Nordstrom Rack to shop for a pair of sandals; I hadn't found any I really liked at the ones in Dallas. Bit of a wasted trip-not much in my size, and nothing I really felt I had to have. Drove over to my favorite LGBT bookstore, Outwrite Books on Piedmont. Really, I like the place, even if I didn't find anything I really wanted this time. Headed back to the hotel to beat Atlanta's horrendous rush hour, thinking I'd go to Little Five Points Thursday (I didn't). Like many things this trip, I just didn't do everything I wanted or should have done. That's my biggest regret-I totally zoned out on seeing people who matter, and I can't really offer a good explanation.

Wednesday evening was a mix of missed signals and missing people. Ended up eating (overpriced) fish and chips in the bar because I was ravenously hungry and hadn't made any kind of dinner plans. I did talk to people so I shouldn't complain-meeting people is always a good thing...

Interlude

A brief interlude between memories from SCC:

I was going to try to go out Friday night to Panoptikon, but things conspired to make that a no-go. It's one of the two Gothic club night organizers in Dallas (The Church on Thursday and Sunday is the other) and I have not been out there in ages-at least since they moved back to Club One/Excuses in Deep Ellum. 

I tried posting something to the list I used to use, but it seems like it's gone cold. The moderator of the Dallas Feminine Expressions Meetup-who also moderates the old list-basically told me to use the Meetup instead. I have mixed feelings about Meetup. It's adequate for large events or when you want to invite a lot of people out; it's not so good when you have a last minute dinner/clubbing thing. I got a few responses from Meetup-all RSVPing they can't come. The only person who did show up? Someone who read my post about it on the Feminine Expressions announce list...

I of course ran late getting to the place I'd chosen for dinner-The Bronx Cafe on Cedar Springs. I hadn't been there in a while; it used to be the default choice for Girl's Nights Out until Hung Dinger became the popular spot (I think that the waitstaff does drag may have something to do with it). I wore my black Z. Cavaricci dress (with an asymmetrical zipper on the front that gives it a kind of biker jacket look), black knee-hi socks with a pink seam on the back (because I couldn't find stockings or tights that weren't laddered!), my new black patent heels (Nordstrom Rack, love you!) and managed not to look like a wreck while rushing about! 

Robin was a wonderful dinner companion; I'd never had a chance to chat with her before. Since it was Cruisin' the Crossroads (each of the Caven bars has free cover and $2 well drinks for a half hour) we went by Sue Ellen's and then Station 4. There was a huge crowd out-this is Pride weekend in Dallas. We both chatted with a lot of people, saw some fabulous outfits, and had a wonderful time. After a letdown post-Southern Comfort, it was nice to get out for a while. 

Back to your regularly scheduled reporting soon.

Little Zelda's trip to Southern Comfort

Or, why I suck at trying to blog at an event...

Really, I do. I get so caught up in things that posting about it kind of falls off. It's like taking photos-unless I really think about it, I don't. Which is why I do not have many photos of myself. I know, bad Tgirl, give back your licence...

So, let's start over?

Tuesday

Wake up far too early, toss the last few things in the bag, check the weight with the luggage scale, everything's under, great! Say goodbye to the family, drive to Love Field for my flight. I really like flying out of Love; it's closer to the house, small enough to get in and out of quickly. Park the car and yes, it's now raining. Get to the terminal, queue up for the baggage check in and thank Southwest for not charging fees. Find out that the baggage scale is crap-I'm five pounds heavy. In the middle of the check-in counter I haul out two pairs of heels and move them to another bag. Problem solved-but now I have a broken nail that's too far gone to fix so I snap the rest of it off. Damn!

Queue up for the security line, only mildly irritating. The flight leaves right on time, and we're in Birmingham a little early. I'd never flown into Birmingham; it's not a big airport, which means I get my bags quickly and the car rental counter is RIGHT THERE! Pick up my car (thank you, Hotwire for a cheap rate), pay the rip-off extra insurance (because my credit card won't cover damage) and get a Nissan Versa. It is a basic transport pod, underpowered but adequate enough to make highway speeds if you don't mind winding the motor a bit..

The drive to the hotel isn't that long-about two hours and a bit. The Crowne Plaza Ravinia has been the host hotel the last three years; we've both gotten used to each other. This year, I got a room on my own; first time in years. I do like having my privacy and space. After checking in and getting pretty, I went to my favorite nail place and had the works done-manicure, pedicure, brow waxing. The women there literally jumped on me-I had two nail techs at the same time, which made keeping track of who was doing what interesting. My color of choice? OPI's Lincoln Park After Dark-very deep purple/black. With lots of clearcoat, they were nearly impervious (at least for me-no dents or chips all week!)

Back to the hotel, found friends and ended up in the lounge chatting. That's pretty typical for me-I'm very social at SCC. Which is weird since I'm usually shy. Maybe it's because I am kinda known there, and have a reputation already? Dinner was a salad because I didn't feel like leaving the hotel.

I did see a friend I didn't expect to-there was a death in the family. Her spouse's mom; she was going to stay for the funeral and come down on Friday. These are two people I really care about-they invited me to their wedding, and that was really touching. We ended up closing the bar, and not totally sober...

And with that, I'll post Wednesday in a bit.

ATL

An early start, went to Sephora for a special SCC event. A much bigger crowd than expected (always a good thing), and I got to be a demo model for a day into night look. Really did come out well; must try to duplicate it. No new shoes, a little driving around and I imagine I'll be out tomorrow. Seeing more people showing up-it hasn't seemed like as large of a crowd as we usually have so var but it's early...

So far

Flight went well, checked into hotel,got nails fone, feel much better. Catching up with people, all good.

At the gate

It's a warm, sultry morning in Dallas; reminds me of home. The scale lied-ended up having to move two pairs of shoes around to meet weight limit. Bad scale! Through security, waiting for my flight...

On the clock

Need to finish closing up bags, get the last few things settled in. Not taking carry-on if I can make weight limits. Leave house at 0530, flight is at 0740. Arrive in Birmingham at 0915, get bags and car and drive to Atlanta. Found out that there's major road construction and people are totally nuts driving through it. Will need to add time for that and/or detours, plus the hour time difference going from Central to Eastern Time. Throwing out the plans for tomorrow, just do what I can and try to see people on the fly. Not great, but better than developing cramps like I do when I'm really stressing...TMI, I know...

Nearly done

I am packed. Well, almost. I want to take some stuff out and add a couple of things. Still need to pack stuff like wigs, shoes, etc. I haven't found a pair of sandals I love yet-may have to go to Nordstroms Rack tomorrow. If not, I'll take any suggestions for places to look in Atlanta.

I'm flying into Birmingham Tuesday morning and should be in Atlanta early that afternoon. If anyone wants to get together while I'm in town? I should have time Tuesday evening, Wednesday, and evenings through Saturday. I check out Sunday morning and will be back in Dallas that evening.