Another beautiful day in Fort Worth so I take a 5 mile run toward the stockyards. Kathy Wear, fellow IDAL Board Member and runner, directs me to a tree-lined path that goes down by the river. Alas, 2 days later I will not find this spot to take my friend George Hackford running.
This is where I will take George for a run:
The Conference Center is walking distance to our hotel and has a visually interesting atrium. My talented friend Susan Kolesar took this picture and many other great shots of the IDAL Convention. A cowboy hat star!
It turns out that a lot of concrete trucks are circling the convention center to set-up the Concrete Decor Show that is sharing our space. So our time to set up for classes is moved back...and moved back...and moved back. We spend some time at the cool water park by our hotel...
which shows the lovely deployment of Concrete!
We also get manicures:
Well, not this one but it would be perfect for a stencil theme as long has you didn't have to get your hands dirty! We work and ruined our nails the first day. Ah, the glamorous life of an artist!
By the time we can set-up our classroom, I have One Hour before I am going to dinner with our Citadel Insurance Representative, Heather. Now, I am wearing a Debbie Harry Shirt and grab at the last minute some clothes to change into for our very nice dinner. Thank goodness Sue and Jeanette know how I like my class set up because I drive the Balls of Clay truck to the convention center unload about 10 boxes and rush back to the hotel to meet for dinner.
Ugh! I have one minute to change..in the truck (clothing becomes somewhat of a theme later on). What I think are black pants are really black leather leggings. And I forgot my nice shoes-looks like the Leopard Flats on my feet will have to do. I meet this very sweet and nice young woman from Citadel dressed like I am going to an "I Love the 80's" party.
IDAL Vice President reporting for duty!
Tuesday, September 30th
Finally my first class day. We are beginning with the Modern Historian wall
and cabinet finishes. I am not going to sugar coat it-the set-up was nuts. Pole and drape on the convention floor. And plastic on the concrete made you walk like Frankenstein! I naturally have a really loud voice... 
but I was really yelling. This is something that the people in Mave's class
(behind the curtain next to me) will attest to!
They should think of it as 2 for One Instruction!
Well, that is one way to sell it.
OK! So it was loud with concrete mixers going. And I was slip 'n' sliding across the floor.
But guess what? We had a good time and a great class!
Everyone is working very hard-maybe because my yelling scared them but hopefully it is because of the great samples they made!
During a break, I am expected at the Chapter Luncheon with a yummy Bar-b-Que provided by the Dallas Chapter. Now, I have been carrying what I call my "important papers" in a file since arriving on Saturday. As a kid I would have purses filled with drawings, clippings, and such. My Mom would threaten to throw away my "trash" and I would cry, "You can't-those are my important papers!" What 5 year old has important papers? This one!
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The collar is either popped or it's not! Who dressed this kid?
Well this time, the papers matter. They are all the information and surveys I have been trying to collect about IDAL membership. I enjoy talking with the Chapter Presidents and hearing what they want and need from IDAL. And Cindy Andrews the new Chapter Liaison, makes a nice presentation about new goals for Chapter growth and development. Thinking things are going smoothly, I place my folder on the table for this picture with Lyna
and a gust of wind blows everything out of my folder and across the plaza!
One of the things I learned about Chapter Presidents? It turns out they run fast! Thankfully they captured all my papers. I didn't have time to sort them before returning to class which makes me twitch a bit.
This is me after the luncheon and I look a little crazed! Probably because I have not counted my Important Papers! But our class finished 4 wall and 3 cabinet samples in one day-GO TEAM!
Wednesday, October 1st (The day)
2nd day of class and I have two helpers-Sue and we also have Jeanette. She finished her class on Tuesday and is ready to go! Jeanette is a machine with the stencils! That is why I look less crazy this day!
Susan took this nice picture of a Modern Romantic Sample the day before-thought I should tell you this since it looks like I slept in the same clothes! Now I fell asleep with my hands on the keyboard to my I-pad sitting almost upright (Sue thought I had a stroke) but I did change my clothes.
It was so warm I could wear my Fauxy Painter shorti-alls with my favorite pink shirt both days!
 I am really proud that everyone did such a great job in class by staying focused and helpful! All the samples were portfolio ready! We even made up some new samples as we worked! There was only one moment when things got a little too much. Now, the concrete people are lovely talented folks. Some of our decorative artisians are very talented in this medium. I want to just state that I love the concrete people. But one guy in the expo decided it was time for a Hoe-Down and really cranked up a the music. Now normally I love a good dance party, but in the middle of class?  Once again that cardio work came in handy. I bolted from class and really nicely (yes, I was really nice) asked the very sweet young man if he could please turn down the music-which he graciously did. Problem solved!
Wednesday, October 1st (that night)
This is my first General Meeting as a Board Member and like most of the week, I rushed from one thing to the next (good thing I run). I am also anxious. For weeks, I have been sitting in on the Board discussions and, as I noted in my first post, participated in my first official BOD meeting.
It is hard to know that you are getting ready to tell your membership there will not be a Convention the next year. Sitting on stage, I could see the disappointment and questions on people's faces. I also know that board members struggled for a long time with solutions to declining membership with rising costs. Many people on the board had delayed their own personal needs to be at Convention to face the group. It was hard all the way around.
Plus, once again, I have selected the wrong clothing! Sue and I walk a long way (me in heels)from the Convention Center to find comfort food-pasta! I keep fiddling with the ridiculous slip I have on until my OCD goes into over-drive. Now, I played soccer on all boys team so I got pretty good at changing garments in a discreet way.
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I shimmy out of my slip at dinner! It was discreet...until we posted a Facebook pic!
Thank goodness cell phones weren't around when I was a teen.
I am exhausted from teaching two days and attending functions but we are not done yet....
COMING NEXT-THE MAD HATTER AUCTION AND THE Q and A SESSION
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