Tales of Donna Downey- WARNING.. DOUBLE CHIN ALERT (mine)

Hiya sistahs!  Hope you all had a great weekend.  We had an absolutely FANTABULOUS time.. OMG.. it was a dream!  We had a weekend jam packed with art, art and art… I am soooo verrrry tireeed.

So let’s start with before we went to pick Donna up on Friday.  Dena decided to shove every prima flower she could find on a die cut with DONNA DOWNEY written on it to identify ourselves at the airport.  It was a little bit pathetic next to Donna’s Dressform filled with prima flowers  but it’s the effort that counts.. right?  RIGHT!   I think that when we arrived at the airport half of the flowers were missing lol and we were too humiliated to show it!

I ran out and got some balloons to greet her.  Please excuse the CHINS in the picture.. we are trying to work on that.. LOL

So Dena and I get on our way to pick up the Donster.. SO EXCITED.  After walking through half the airport, we finally find the area where we have to wait for her. We are so excited at this point.. then we get scared… VERY VERY scared… what if she’s straight and doesn’t have a sense of humor?? what if she doesn’t like us?!?! OMG we shoulda thought of that before.. no?  So then people are exiting through the gates… and we are practicing.. “Hi Donna, I’m Emily and this is Dena”… “HEY… Donna.. WHUSSUP”… :”So very nice to meet you Donna”.. and then I see a Vera Bradley overnight bag emerge through the doors… AND a pair of white glasses.  It was her!!  All of a sudden after practicing for so long, the two IDIOTS (dena and I) start stuttering “D…..”  “D.D.D.D. onna”.. We couldn’t get the words out..LOL.. Did we look DUMB..LOLOL.. she looks at us and says she has never been greeted that way..LOL.  So of course the first thing I ask her is if she swears.. and she confirmed that she did (not that I am a big swearer or anything *winks* and right away, we knew we were in love.  I swear (not curse) that it immediately felt SO comfortable.. like old friends getting together.  So then I say to her… “WANNA GET YOURSELF A PAIR OF GLASSES?” I thought it would be cool to bring her to my favorite glasses place.. She was so excited.  What a DUMB idea..LOL… So we’re driving, blabbing chatting etc.  and I pass 3 cop cars with flashing lights.. I get to a red light and I see sirens after me… the cop car goes next to me and I point to myself in shock and mouth “me?” and he mouths back “YA YOU”… OMG.. great first impression no?  I got the most OCD officer who claimed I almost ran a police officer over.. LOL (there was no police officer anywhere) .. ANYWAY.. it was a NIGHTMARE and I got a $500 ticket because I apparently had to be 2 lanes over (it was impossible to cross two lanes).. needless to say this ticket will be protested.

Talk about first impressions!  We then proceed to the glasses place and she bought a beautiful pair.. I am sure she will model it on her blog at some point.  We had lunch, lots of chitter chatter and went to the store where she was swarmed and almost MAULED.  LOL.  First class was that night and was so much fun.. we then went for dinner.

Next day was also a full day of classes where in the middle of PRESSED FOR SUCCESS (needs an iron) I asked Donna if she could rename it PAINT for SUCCESS cuz we blew a transformer or fuse or something and almost all the plugs in this room didn’t work .. that was a little panicky for me but we all managed by finding some plugs that worked and we all shared and no one was stressed.. it was amazing!  And then when I left the room and saw that the whole hallway was pitch black, I realized the damage we had done..LOL.. but we had fun!

We took Donna or Korean BBQ that night (Dena and I) and had an amazing time just gabbing like OLD cronies…

The next day Donna almost choked me for all the classes I booked her but I blamed BILL her wonderful other half whom I ADORE!!  He booked her and told me Donna looooooves to teach so I took advantage!  The most amazing surprise was her inspiration journal class the last class of the extravaganza.. we had SOOO MUCH FUN.. and Donna has created MONSTERS out of some of the sistahs in that class.. we are now going to have an INSPIRATION group thanks to her!  I have not laughed so hard nor have I had a really “CHICKY” weekend like this.  IT was absolutely PHENOM.

Donna, I kinda miss you a little.  Will you please come back tomorrow? LOL .  I got used to those white glasses in the store. hmph

I wanted to thank everybody who made this event as special and as “bonding” as it was.  For supporting this event and really having a great time.  I wanted to thank Dena and Helen for being there to support ME before I collapsed a coupla times LOL and for always being by my side.  You two are SO special to me!  I wanted to thank my Sherylabella for being the room consultant and being a great friend.  It was so funny.. I am so not into decorating etc.. when my friend Sheryl saw this room, she immediately asked for us to vacuum it (saw nothing wrong with it..LOL), she brought a “persian” carpet to make it nice nice, garbage cans (bamboo of course), a coffee urn (cuz I never think of details) and tablecloths for the tables (minor detail..LOL) Hey,at least I rented tables and chairs!!.. THANK YOU Sheryl for being there!!!

It was so funny.. I told this to Donna on Sunday.. I equated my looks (and efforts to look nice) to a BUFFET on a cruise.. Now stay with me on this one… The first night you go to the buffet.. you have FRESH BEEYOTIFUL seafood for the taking (that is the first day of the event where I made a huge effort in makeup, hair outfit etc..).. the second night of the cruise, you have the SAME leftover shrimp in some pasta covered with a sauce.. (that was me on the second day.. hair started going up.. wore a little less makeup..LOL).. the THIRD day of the cruise, you have a JAMBALAYA served at the buffet.. the same shrimp mixed with pasta and rice and other shrimp and other seafood.. lots of sauces etc..LOL (that was me on the third day.. A JAMBALAYA..LOL.. MUCH less makeup, hair TOTALLY up.. with a few escapees)..LOL.

As you can tell we had a PHENOM time.. we will be doing this again next year FO’ SHO so start saving your pennies for the event of a lifetime!

Mwah to da sistahs who LOVE my stories

Em