Travel rant

Trying to get back into this.  I swear!  So sorry.  :(  Well I always have a rant brewing in my head, so I'll just put them here.

We're traveling to Florida in just under a month for the wedding reception of my dear Twitter friend Becca and to hit the Wizarding World of Harry Potter while we're in the state.  I'm a pretty fair hand at travel planning, as I had to deal with a lot of it at my old job.  I look at hotel reviews and compare prices like a pro.  But here's the thing: no matter what I do, most of the time the hotel ends up sucking.  We can't afford 5 stars, so we're always taking a chance, but really, why does it have to be this way?

Because booking a hotel is pretty much blind.  You read reviews from people who didn't even seem to stay in the same hotel.  This person says it's spotless, this person found a roach.  You try to go for one with a high average, but your personal experience could be very different.  It could be crowded with teenage girls on a soccer trip.  Your room could be next to the elevator.  Something is broken or someone is grumpy and something is messy.  You NEVER know.

The other thing you try to do is look at pictures.  Yeah, THAT helps.  Because every hotel takes the best possible, and most likely Photoshopped, pics of the property.  It's NEVER accurate.  Our worst experience was last year when I tried to book us a hotel for one night in Maine for the Christmas Prelude.  It was some motel, but with good reviews, and $100 for the night was cheap for the area.  Well, we get there to check in, and it's a total motor lodge.  I wait forever to check in, grab the key and head to the room.  I open the door (marked "nonsmoking") to find two double beds when even my CONFIRMATION stated the king I had chosen, and a room that reeked of smoke.  Back to the desk to ask for a king, oh there's none left, so sorry, so I told her we weren't staying there and I would NOT be charged.  Luckily they were honest and didn't, but jeez!

How do you mark a room as "nonsmoking" when it's clearly been smoked in?  You can't just say it is, you need to rip that room apart down to the studs and re-finish it before you can change a room from smoking to non.  Plus, I always pick a king bed on vacations because we have one at home, so if I'm paying for a bed I want it to be at least as big as ours.  We're not squeezing into a full.  We are not thin people.  I ask for it, it's confirmed, I EXPECT it.  Sigh.

So here we go, off to Florida soon, staying in TWO different hotels for 2 nights each (Miami and Orlando).  To say I'm nervous is an understatement.  I've been burned too many times.  I also worry because I tell Simon to trust me, I'll book it, and if it sucks I always feel responsible.  This is the worst part of travel.  Gah.  Wish us luck.

Twitter-verse

Hi, my name is Sarah, and I am addicted to Twitter.

There's no denying it.  I have 4 accounts (CelestialAxis is my personal one, FollowingLove is for re-tweeting love-related tweets, ManaDump is my geek blog one, and CelestialWeds is my wedding one.  Whew!).  On my main account, I follow 210 people, have 332 followers, and have posted 5,364 tweets.  I tweet from my phone, I tweet from Simon's iPhone (he's reserved his Tweetie app for me), I tweet from home, but mainly, I tweet from work.  I refresh Twitter about once a minute when I'm not working, hence following 210 people so there's always something new.

One of the things I love about Twitter is meeting new people.  I have met some ladies that I seriously consider my friends now (mainly msrib, MoodySanguine, and Tryphyna).  I'm actually going to try to take a trip to Canada next year to meet some of them.  I don't make friends easily in real life, especially female ones, so Twitter helps me feel connected and supported.

It's also the hugest wedding resource ever.  Most of my contacts are wedding-related, and we share an endless stream of ideas, websites, and deals.  I became Thursday's featured blogger on TweetMyWedding.  I am ALL about tweeting wedding stuff.

Of course, there's my geek community too.  I keep up on The Guild, chat with people about WoW, and spy on my fave SciFi celebs.

I keep in touch with real-life friends.  I read about news updates.  I cheer people up.  I network.  What CAN'T I do on Twitter?  I love it!  Do you, and why or why not?

Chainmail chic

I have totally gotten into chainmail jewelry.  It started when I mentioned Etsy on Twitter and someone named MoodySanguine started following me.  I checked out their Twitter and saw, "Crafting, designing, witchy best friends!" and a website.  I liked the sound of that, so I clicked it and found some of the prettiest jewelry ever!  Pretty enough to be girly, but chainmail enough to be kinda geek.  I followed them back on Twitter and bought my first pair of earrings from them:

We chatted on Twitter a bit (Denise is usually the one online, Melina is the other).  We slowly formed a friendship, all the way from Massachusetts to Canada.  They then introduced me to Tryphyna, also in Canada, and many geeky girly happy chats ensued.  I continued to provide an inordinate amount of business to them as I got obsessed with their creations.  ;)

Cool Off From the Heat Earrings

Rhonda Is a Fancy Pants Earrings 

 

Simple Is Sometimes Just as Bloody

Yes, I seriously own all of those, plus more, and two bracelets.  They also sell purses, but I have too many!  I change my jewelry often enough to justify those!

After chatting them up for a while, I got another Etsy follower, 88Links.  I checked out her shop and found more chainmail goodness.  I asked her for a custom pair of earrings, and bought another pair she had for sale.  Here are my newest pretties:

Rainbow Chain Earrings 

 

Fae Crystal Earrings 

 

Wearing those blue ones today!  I'm now a huge fan of Etsy altogether, bought some home decor things and going to be buying all sorts of wedding things on there.  I love that they have a separate category for geekery alone.  I highly recommend people check it out for all sorts of fun stuff.  Plus buying handmade makes me feel good.  =)

 

D&D and WoW geekery

I had THE GEEKIEST WEEKEND EVER! So awesome.

On Saturday, we had three friends over; Chris, Matt, and Don. We usually get together with these guys for LAN parties at Chris's house, but none of us are playing the same PC games right now. Simon and I wanted to host one in our new house, and Matt suggested we give D&D a try. So we did. And we loved it. Chris and Don have played in the past I believe, and Matt DM-ed because he's been dying to find people to play with. Simon and I were noobs. We had a freaking blast. I cooked noms for everyone, cuz I'm an Italian woman and love to feed people. Buffalo chicken tenders, biscuits, and hot dogs for lunch. Freshly baked cookies and piles of chips for snacks. A huge sandwich spread for dinner. Much Monster and Mountain Dew.



We played for about 10 hours total. It was the best. I made a Genasi Bard named Lyrica Lunarflame. We got so into it that by the end of the night I was online purchasing a bard figurine and paints. Matt had tons of minis, but no genasis in there. He used Jenga blocks for walls, and he and Chris had a collection of monsters. It was very easy to visualize with all the props.


They all left around 2:30 am, and we crashed. The next day, we got up at 10:30 (trying not to sleep all day). We were feeling lazy, and I started playing WoW. I decided that's all I wanted to do. All day. So I played WoW...all day. About 10 hours total. I now have a very well-geared level 19 twink hunter. ;-)

That weekend, I never left the house once. On Sunday, I didn't even shower or get dressed. It was freaking AWESOME. I don't care if that's gross. I needed a weekend like that! =)