Shadowlane: A Wallflower's Perspective Part 1

I haven't figured out how I'm going to organize my writing about Shadowlane. Chronologically is logical, but everyone is writing chronologically it seems. In the end, it'll probably wind up being somewhat in order since things get to be so hard to remember.

Leading up to the party I was more worried about the travel details than the actual party. Sure, I was plenty nervous about the party and what mysterious things would happen there, but I was MORE worried about the travel stuff so it overshadowed that. I had major panic attacks when all the flights the day before leaving the airport I was flying out of were delayed by hours. If I'd been traveling on Wednesday rather than Thursday I'd have been so screwed. Of course in my mind I wasn't thinking, "Oh good thing I'm traveling on Thursday, aren't I lucky?", I was thinking, "OMG what if this carries over to Thursday?!". I'm also driving phobic to a degree and the 2 1/2 hour drive to the airport in another province had me worried. There is a bridge I have to cross with a metal deck on it that I hate going over, even as a passenger. The vehicle shimmies across it, it seems, and it makes weird noises. I hate it and you can't close your eyes when you are driving! There are also some windy mountainous sections that has lots of crashes and people killed on it. Plus, I was worried about wildlife leaping in front of me. It happens plenty. Anyhow, I made it to the airport without incident (other than missing the turn into the airport and having to turn around and wend my way back to it).

In the end, all my flights were on time and the actual flight connections were smooth sailing. I had 2 flights: to Calgary and then to Las Vegas. When I went to check in my flights, I got an upgrade offer for quite cheap to upgrade the Calgary to Vegas leg of the journey to executive class. Being cheap and broke, I wasn't going to, but then decided I'd pout the whole trip if I didn't and end up wishing I had. I'd never sat in executive class before, so it was quite the treat. Lots of pampering and service. Wow! What fun! It's been so long since I was served a meal on a plane that I had forgotten what that was like and the meal was really tasty. I had a nice chicken dish. There were a couple of other choices: pasta and a salmon dish. I'm allergic to fish and seafood, so the salmon was obviously out.

I arrived at Vegas on time. I didn't realize there were two terminals there and of course I landed at the other one. I had to figure out how to get to the other terminal. My friend Rich was supposed to land 15 minutes after me, but his flight got in about 30 minutes early and was full of Shadowlane people so they ended up renting a limo and heading to the hotel and were gone before I got in. I had to wait about an hour and a half for the shuttle. The hotel hadn't given me any information on the shuttle so I had figured it would be easy to find until I found the shuttle area and saw a sea of spots out there. So then I had to find the hotel number (which I didn't have on me) and phone them. I really wish my cell phone would have worked in the US because it would have made my life much easier. Finally I found out the shuttle bus information and then settled in to wait. That is when the party fear really started to build!

By the time I got on the shuttle and got to the hotel I was literally bouncing with fear. My stomach was in knots. I was positive I was going to be spending the entire time alone in my room. Everyone would hate me.

I got checked in and up to my room and was immediately bored so I unpacked my computer and agreed to the exorbitant, highway robbery price of the internet connection at the hotel since I needed to connect with people and find out where they were. I sent a message to my friend Kat who had arrived earlier (but a day later than she had planned) to find out where they were. It turns out that she and Aurora were only 4 rooms away from me. The rooms there are massive and really nice. There is even a phone in the bathroom, plus a comfie seat to sit on and do your makeup. The room had a huge-ass TV too.

I unpacked, showered, changed and then headed over to Kat and Aurora's room. I lucked out in meeting up with Aurora. For a girl who claims to be shy, she knows absolutely everyone and had invites everywhere. So I just tagged-along. I was the tag-along girl. We headed up to a suite party. I was petrified walking in. I was positive the host would be yelling, "get out interloper" or something at me, but instead I got a drink and settled down to chat with people. I was too nervous to play yet and really just wanted to settle in and meet some people, chat and get to feel a bit more comfortable around everyone. I did get asked to play, so that was awesome, even if I didn't play yet. Being asked is always nice for the ego. I'm always thinking, "He doesn't think I'm a troll, yippee!"

I forget everyone I met and some people went by one name, but had different scene names (which sometimes confused me when later on their name badge said something different). I did meet Tony Elka there who seemed to know who I was which surprised me. He's hilarious and it was nice chatting. For the rest of the weekend, whenever he saw me, he'd yell out "iggy!". I think he just liked saying it! The evening was a blur, but I was starting to relax and think, "OK maybe this won't be a total disaster."

It turned out there were more people there who I knew or had met before than I realized were going to be there. Whenever I saw someone I knew I'd get all excited and be thinking or sometimes even saying, "I know you!" Sarahfl43 and Headmaster Tony were there from the FMS - there was actually a strong Florida presence there. I met sarahfl43 at the last SSC as well. She's a hoot and a great girl to hang around with. After the suite party everyone seemed to congregate by the elevator foyer on one of the floors for an impromptu elevator party as people resisted going to bed. It was a lot of fun.

Eventually I headed to bed (it was late, but I forget exactly how late). I read for a while, pinched myself to see if I was really there or if it was a dream and sure enough, the pinch hurt!

I slept for a bit and was up around 8:30. Sleep was something that was in short supply over the weekend. After getting ready for a new day, I thought, "now what?". Kat and Aurora didn't get up until the afternoon. I wandered off to the casino to entertain myself and/or see what sort of mischief I could get up to.