Fun in the Sun: Day 1

I have arrived here on the beautiful beaches of Sandestin and honestly have absolutely nothing to complain about. It is an odd feeling, one I am not very accustomed to, but I think this could work out really nice. Do not get me wrong, I still feel more comfortable when I am bickering about how nobody can do their job as well as I could, but I can change…for a week.

I had three amazing hours in the car day-dreaming I was on stage singing Sugarland one minute and Flo Rida the next. It was just what I needed to clear my head and get ready for the week ahead. I was overjoyed when I received a call from Debbie before I even got to Troy and out of cell phone service to let me know we already had changes. Yes! Needless to say I put the pedal to the metal to get out of cell phone service range and back on stage. Liz did a great job of following me and to my surprise kept up with me most of the way. I think I may have scared Kristin when we stopped to use the restroom at a filling station outside of Elba, AL. It is one of my routine stops. I cannot help it if the bugs like to camp out in there to get out of the heat. I would too.

Everyone here at the Hilton has been amazing. I may have already told about five people I love them. Matthew and I had lunch together and shared Destin gossip. It was great to get a fresh perspective on many challenges I have had from other positions. We ended the meal in agreement, we are new best friends.

Pre-con was great! Everyone was active and not counting the minutes until they could walk out the door. Normally you would not say there are things you love about pre-cons or that you had a great time at your pre-con, but when Liz is involved, they are always exciting. All you have to do is say the word “pyrotechnics” around her and she is sold. It is as if the pocket book just falls open. We heard they have a guy from Tallahassee who does fireworks for them on the beach and within the hour we had him agreed to it and a permit from Walton County to cover it. Now do you know how long it takes to get any sort of permit from Walton County? I do. Not less than an hour!! I have spent years working with Walton County on alcohol permits for various events and it takes at least a good decade. I mean there are hoops you have to jump through and then come back and do a backbend through. Not for this guy and not for Liz! I need whatever phone number they have!!

Once we had the fireworks display set and scheduled, Liz totally called me out in front of the Banquets Manager. Here is how the story goes. We were reviewing the Banquet Event Orders for the Farewell Dinner. I had created the menus and all had been approved by Liz and the client. We all agreed on Mini Crab Cakes. Being the good service provider that she is, Liz read up on all our notes from when we visited the Hilton in February. She remembered those notes mentioned no crab cakes with exclamation marks. She called this to my attention in the meeting stating, “Someone came up to me at the Feb. event and noted to not have crab cakes at the next event. They did not like them.” She kept asking me who that was and if we need to take them off. Finally I just confessed. I gave a little smile and a bashful head drop and said, “Oh. That was me.” The room started howling! You would have no way to know this, but I am quite the crab cake snob and I admitted in front of all Hilton Staff that I do not like their crab cakes. They were just too rich for me and I needed to make a note of it. I just forgot to elaborate on the note. So now, the Hilton Staff are all threatening to place crab cakes in my hotel room!

One more note before I go. If you ever plan to go to dinner with two college girls headed into their second year, do not try to dress cute, because it simply will not work. I realized tonight that I am no longer the cute one at dinner. I am simply older and my style is too. I really showed my age when I started talking about the One Size Fits All CK1 t-shirts that were the big thing when I was in middle school. They of course had no idea what I was talking about and when I explained to them the shirts were cut wide and really short to show your bellybutton, they laughed. In my face. Oh, and did I mention the waiter asked for our drink order and only offered Liz a margarita? What is it going to be, I look too old or too young? I will take too old. At least I can drink!