What a day from hell Jeanne and I had today. Our day started at 7:15 am., when my aunt came to take us to the airport. Our flight left at 9:00 am., and we landed in Chicago at 9:00 a.m. How cool is that! Anyhoo, we tried to find a shuttle to the Convention Center, and finally settled on a taxi. Boy were we silly! Once the cabbie took off and got a few miles down the road, he told us he had only been driving a taxi for three days. Not only that, but he was calling his buddy to find out how to get to the convention center. At one point he messed up the fare box and reset it to zero. Okay, I had been watching and we were at $27 before it turned to $0. He reset it, starting all over at the necessary $2.50 and the additional $2.00. I was counting now in my head and deducting to what the actual fare should be. Jeanne and I did notice a sign in the back seat that there was a flat rate from Midway to O’Hare. To make a long story short, when we finally arrived at the convention center, we both handed over $40 per person and said we hope it covered him.
When we arrived at the Convention Center, Jeanne called our hotel about checking in and a possible shuttle. Since on their website they advertised a shuttle from the hotel to the Convention Center. We were informed that our room was not ready and would not be for some time and NO, they did not have a shuttle. I phoned them back pointing out that their website stated they had a shuttle service and that was one of the reasons we decided to fly and not drive. Tough – I was told that we must work our way back to O’Hare and call them and they would send someone to get us. More shuttles, more walking and more frustrations.
By this time, I was fuming and was seriously checking to see if the Hyatt or any other hotel across the street had rooms and could we cancel the rooms at our hotel. Joe, Jeanne’s husband, helped us get our room, and I didn’t want him to lose anything in the transaction. We finally decided to stay at our hotel, and with the help of Kristi and Vicki from Hanna, they were going to get us to our room. GREAT, problem solved.
It was still early, and our class did not start until 3:00 pm., so we decided to go up a crash the Copic class and visit with all our friends there. Of course, they were on lunch so we really didn’t interrupt the class. There we found the girls from Hanna, Bev Gerard, Leigh O’Brien, Sharon Johnson, Debbie Olsen, Joy Kennedy, Lori Craig . . . Well the list just keeps going and going! It was so much fun to see these girls, give them great big hugs and laugh for a few minutes.
We decided to give our legs a rest and crashed in the hallway outside of our classroom, and waited for our Ranger class to begin. Now lets talk about this Ranger class – All Things Adirondack. WOW what a class! Led by Tim Holtz,
we made 8 tags in 2 hours with all the different Ranger products.
We learned some fascinating new techniques and received tons of Ranger product. We were also given one of the new Tim Holtz stamp sets being released by Stampers Anonymous. Did you hear us scream with delight? Needless to say, it was a very exciting class and one that will long be remembered.
After our class, we met up with Kristi, Vicki, Bev and Candice, all from the Hanna Team, and we went to the Taste of Chicago offered by CHA, lots of great food from different Chicago restaurants. After we ate and socialized, we went with Kristi and Vicki to her van so that she could take us to our hotel. You now how I said earlier, GREAT our problems were solved. Well get this. Kristi had left the cooler plugged into the van. Oh yeah . . . Dead battery, deader than a doornail. Jeanne and I finally decided on getting a taxi and getting checked into our hotel. Once here, we brought up the issue about the advertising of the shuttle on the website. Since we are not the only CHA attendees here at this hotel, and not the only ones to complain, the hotel will be honoring the shuttle service. However, they will only get us to the Convention Center in the mornings. We still have to make our way back to the airport in the evenings and call them to come get us. We will be clarifying that one in the morning!
Now that I’ve babbled on and on, and honestly don’t even remember what I have typed, I think I need to call it a day. We are going to hit the convention floor early in the morning and I understand there are some new Ranger products that are a must see, including Distressed Stickles. I will be reporting back on these tomorrow!
Oh My What a trip & it’s only been day 1! Hope the hotel shapes up and you get lots of goodies from CHA to make up for all your disappointments. Wishing you the best & waiting to see all the fun stuff!
I was thinking the same thing as Jennifer (above). Sounds like a bad start for your first day, Sherry, but I think the goodies from Tim (and great picture by the way) would definitely have made up for it for me. I hope you have better luck with the shuttle service the rest of your time there. Sounds like a bit of false advertising to me. 😉 Go get’em girl!!
I am SOOO jealous! Hope the travel part of the next couple of days is better than the first day though:-)
I thought you were working the Rubbernecker booth? Sounds like you are playing!!!
Ohhhh Geeesh, this is SO unfair!!! First you Gals get to go to CHA and then you’re getting to hang-out with Tim Holtz again? What is this world coming too??!!! 🙂
I have to say, Tim certainly is pretty adorable and has a wicked smile 🙂 Sherry, make sure you give him a little bum grope ok, so you can tell me if he’s got a firm tushie !!!!
Have a wonderful time Ladies ~ don’t do anything I wouldn’t do ! 😉
And welcome to CHA, lol!!! Crikey, what a day! Well, the worst must be over and the rest of your trip will be smooth sailing (that’s my prediction!) Thanks so much for reporting to us even with how tired you must be! I can’t wait to hear about what new and exciting treasures you find on Friday! Hugs!
Sorry about the hassles. That shuttle LIE is so unethical. And I think it is probably consumer fraud. Seriously. But, you are at CHA and did a Tim Holtz class and I am so freakin jealous I can’t stand it!!!!!!
Whew! I can only imagine the frustration of that ordeal. Tell Jeanne I love her hair cut. I can’t to hear about the Tim Holtz class and all the new Ranger stuff. Do you miss me?
Oh man, what a day. But – it had to all be worthwhile with the t!m demo. Awesome photo with him, hope you gave him a hug for me!
I figured Shelly would be envious of the Tim picture!! haha
What a day! holy Cow – I would have been exhausted from being so ticked off. Hopefully the rest of your time will be less frustrating and you can just relax and have fun!!!
Sorry to hear about all your hassles but sounds like that class was worth it all…..oh my distressed stickles, what are they going to think of next….Enjoy!
I wonder if I can photo crop myself into that picture????!! What set did you get (yeah…I’ve been drooling over a couple of them since Tim gave a sneak peek on his blog)
Geesh….I’m really JEALOUS!! (not of the hassles, mind you) but of the fact you are at CHA, got to play with Tim (that sounds REALLY BAAAD!! bwhahaaa) and got new product (I think I’m going to go sob quietly now in the shower)
Awesome write-up, Sherry!! I almost feel like I was there. *wink* I will be checking back, and thanks for including us in your fun!!
Well it sounds like you survived all your trials. Sometimes great joy (class with Tim) must be counterbalanced with great pain (shuttle issues). Thus Karma is satisfied.
Thanks for the pictures of the tags; they look totally kewl. Looking forward to your next posts!!!
Its so great to have the inside scoop on CHA events! So sorry that you had a rough start – it can only get better- the pics look great – can’t wait to hear all your stories….
wow – distressed stickles??!!! you have got my interest peaked!
Did you say distressed stickles?? Yippee!! I’m sold! Sorry to hear about the problems with the hotel. They had better get their act together in a darn hurry or refund some stinkin money to a lot of people. Talk about some bad advertising.
Gasp…. Tim Holtz – you are one BAD lady Sherrie – want to be my best friend so we can go together next time????
EEEKS! What a way to start your trip. It was so awesome to meet you! What a great pic of you, Jeanne, and t!m. 🙂
I am SO sorry you had such a wretched experience in our beautiful city….I do hope you get a chance to get downtown to enjoy the great weather and the lakefront. I understand your frustration about the Shuttle and the Hotel…..sadly that sort of shuttle is standard…they should have made that clear on their site. I envy y’all being able to go to CHA….since I am an end-user I cannot . Your blog has made it come alive for those of us unlucky ones…looking forward to reading the rest.