(this was me expressing my desire for Melissa NOT to take my picture. As you can see, she didn't listen ;).

Melissa would not comply by flipping me the bird so we could match.

 

On to RT...

 

Melissa and I arrived at RT on Thursday at about 2pm. We would have gotten there sooner, but I was driving. Which means, I got us lost. This happens every time I drive, by the way. Melissa is amused by my chronic failure to ever get to a place in one try, and usually settles in for a good laugh as I curse and mutter about traffic signs not being clear enough (hey, that's my excuse, and I'm sticking to it ;-).

 

So we check into our hotel, which was the Omni, the overflow hotel. And let me just say, yay for being in the overflow hotel. The Hilton is lovely under normal circumstances, I'm sure, but they were renovating. Example: no bathroom on the entire first floor. The bathroom on the second floor? It was the men's room. I kid you not, the hotel just switched the signs. I walked in, saw a line of urinals, and quickly walked out before realizing that no, I hadn't gone into the wrong place (side note #1: looking at those urinals made me very glad to be a girl, because damn, some things should be done in private, and IMO, peeing is one of them).

 

But onto the rest of the day. Rachel Vincent met us in our hotel room, where, along with my sister, we had a blast forcing makeup onto Melissa (side note #2: Rachel LOOKS like a sweet girl, but when I yelled, "block the door!" as Melissa was trying to run from my blush brush, Rachel took a commando stance and Melissa Did. Not. Escape.) Then we went to a paranormal panel, where Rachel, Melissa, and other authors (including OMG, Kelley Armstrong!) were speaking. After that, I went to the Alternate Realms panel and Melissa went to the YA panel. After the Alternate Realms panel, I met up with reviewer Jill Smith from RT magazine. Jill was the lovely lady who gave both Halfway to the Grave and One Foot in the Grave Top Pick reviews. Yes, we loves Jill, precious ;).

 

After that, Melissa, Rachel and I congregated at - where else? - the bar, with Jocelynn Drake, and the Duchess of Cuntington (that's the name on her business cards, folks, I swear). Much fun was had, especially since my migraine meds were kicking in, making me relaxed and giggly (side note #3, Melissa has since sworn to crumble up my migraine meds in my Diet Coke as a substitute for my not drinking, but I am onto her evil plan and will thwart it). After some time at the bar, we moved out into the hotel lobby, where we met Caitlin Kittredge, Mark Henry, Richelle Mead, and Jenna Black. There, someone mentioned a desire for pizza. Rachel's agent Miriam Kriss ordered the pizza. It was never delivered to us, but when Miriam later called to ask where the it was, she was informed that it had been delivered and paid for by someone else. Yes, folks, someone stole our pizza! (side note #4: whoever took our pizza, we will FIND you).

 

Then Melissa and I went to the faery ball, where we ran into Patrice Michelle. While Patrice and Melissa shook their groove things, I sat and stared at the sexual assault enthusiastic dancing of some of the female patrons with the RT male cover models. I mean, whoa damn, some of those women were rubbing on those models like cats on a scratching post. Patrice later said that watching the shocked expressions on my face was more fun than dancing. I'm always happy to please, of course.

 

Finally, after midnight, I convinced Melissa that it was time to go back to our hotel (side note #5, she pouted, because she still wanted to dance). She thanked me later, though, because we both had to get up early the next morning.