Meet my new friend, Margie

Here is my new friend, Margie Higuchi and Norma at our hotel room. This is Chicago pizza at its best! Look at all that yummy grease!

My stomach started growling as soon as I saw the picture of this pizza. Isn't that funny? I'm like Pavlov's dogs. Ha ha!

Ok, I have got to tell you about my new friend, Margie. She is one amazing gal. She's fluent in English and Japanese. She is married to a Buddhist monk. Who knew monks could get married?? Anyway, I booked the room with her sight unseen. I didn't know what to expect. When we arrived in Chicago our room wasn't ready yet so we left our bags with the concierge. We left to work the show. We hadn't yet had a chance to meet Margie cuz she was in the convention hall already. I wouldn't have know who she was cuz I had never seen her. When we finally got into our room, Margie had already been there but she was gone. Waiting on the bed for me and Norma was a little goodie package complete with cool Laserline chipboard, Japanese candy (which I scarfed right away), mints, gum (what're you trying to say, Margie? hee hee) and what not. I mean, is this the most thoughtful girl? She also brought us snacks like Snickers, granola bars, Reese's bars, bottled water. I really felt taken care of. I was like, "Is my mother here" while looking under the bed. That night we had pizza. She took care of the ordering and arrangements. There are not alot of places to eat near the convention center. The place was designed so that business travelers could fly in, convene and then fly out again. The airport is like 5 minutes away or something really close. The only places to eat were the hotels- expensive. Downtown was like 20 minutes away. Not an economical taxi ride, besides, there wasn't really any time. Next year I'm flying in on Thursday and staying until Sunday night. On Saturday, we decided to eat at a really nice restaurant called Gibson's (I think). It was really expensive but oh, so good! The highest item on the menu (I always check) was the surf and turf (a HUGE lobster tail and huge steak) was $163!! No, I did not get the surf and turf. I wanted to splurge, but that was more than a splurge. Besides, 4 people could've eaten off that plate, it was so big. The girls at the table next to us ordered dessert. It was a macadamia nut turtle pie. I'm not kidding. It was huge. It was $14! It was at least 6 inches high and about 1/4 of a 10 inch pie. The four of them each had a slice and there was still a ton left, so they gave us the rest. The three of us ate from it and there was still so much left. Can you believe 7 girls could not finish it? We were lucky we didn't have to pay for it. The girls are from San Antonio. One of them was opening a new LSS there.

On Friday night, 2peas sponsored a reception complete with sweet treats and drinks. My name was drawn to win a package of Chipboard cookies from Sonborn (I think they're new) and a pkg of large green sticker letters. I gave them to Margie for being so sweet to us. There were a bunch of garden girls there. Joann Bolick took our picture. She's bubbly and sweet. Very friendly. I was surprised to see how young Tia Bennet is. Kelly Crowe is so cute. She looks like she's in junior high. She's tiny.

We had a wonderful time thanks to Margie who took care of us. Being a resident Chicagoan, she knew her way around.

Thanks, Margie!