Losing/Gaining Time at Bead & Button

So, we left off yesterday having reviewed Wednesday and Thursday.  Except...I met my good friend Carol for lunch on Thursday.  Originally we were going to have breakfast together, but she had a class and although I would have met her in the early hours, I had no problem when she asked me to switch to a lunch date.  We were joined by her sister, Bonnie, and had a wonderful time catching up over the past year.  Carol and I have attended this show since the very early times - she started with the 2nd show in 1995, I started with the 3rd show in 1996.  We've been coming every year since - haven't missed yet.  And we laughed about when we met, the teachers we have taken classes from, and the directions that our lives have gone.  All was good! 

On Friday I started out with a Retailer's Breakfast.  This was an "official" event, sponsored by Kalmbach Publishing, and featured a panel of six store owners on a panel answering questions about various aspects of store ownership and operation.  A friend of mine, Heidi, was on the panel.  I would have liked this more if there had only been four panelists and they had been more representative of the retail members.  As it was, the longest any of them had been in business was 7 years, and four of the six stores were from the Eastern area of the country.  That tends to skew perspective.  I had to leave early because I had a 9am class. 

(Doesn't Sherry Serafini look great in this pic?  She's such a cutie and I am absolutely honored to call her a friend.) 

I wandered over to my classroom and talked with my friend Gwen Berneker - the teacher of the class.  This class was an error on my part - I had intended to register for her Saturday class, not her Friday one.  But, after talking with her for a short time, she told me to show up on Saturday - that the Friday class was far too basic for me.  I happily grabbed my "junk" back and headed back to my room, spending the remainder of the day on the shopping area floor.  I had a vendor get-together in the evening, then had a salad in the bar for dinner, shared some time and some drinks with friends, and topped the evening off by spending an hour or so in conversation and drinks with Sherry Serafini and some of her friends.  My roomie joined me for some of this and we had a great time.  Considering I had only gotten 4 hours of sleep the previous night, I'm rather amazed that I was coherent by the end of the evening - LOL.  Tomorrow's post should bring us into Saturday and maybe even Sunday.