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Friday, November 7, 2014

Southern Hospitality at BarkWorld: Day 2

Last Friday was my second day at BarkWorld in Atlanta, but was the first day of the conference. Many of us started the day with breakfast at Panera in the mall across the street from the hotel.



When we returned to the hotel, Connie from Tails From the Foster Kittens and I checked in at registration and picked up our swag bags. You had to choose from either a dog or a cat bag. What about if you're bipetual like me? I went with the cat bag since I have 4 cats and only 1 dog, but a combo bag sure would have been nice. It was interesting though, the cat bag ended up being cooler and having more swag than the dog bag (they had lots of extras on the last day, so I got one of those too.) Another weird thing about the bags: the cat bag had poop bags and holders in them, but the dog bags didn't. Very odd.

We then walked around and visited the vendors. There weren't many there, so it didn't take long even after we spent time with each one. One of the tables housed some brightly colored artwork created by a lovely woman from Australia, Carole Stevens Bibisi of Art Harmony Creations. I purchased one of her pieces and made sure to tell others about her. Her work was beautiful! Check out the piece I bought, titled "Peace Lucky Black Cat."


While walking around, I got my big-dog-fix as well. I met Koda and Ossian from theOKdogblog. Ossian, a St. Bernard, stole my heart. There's nothing better than letting a big dog love on you.


Lunch time rolled around and I was kind of excited. They were serving fajitas! You had your choice of steak or chicken, along with rice, beans, and guacamole. I LOVE Mexican food, so I was happy with the offering. Until I started to eat. It was cold. In fact, the guac was still icy from being frozen. Big thumbs down on the food.

I also discovered that Atlanta is Coke-land. No Pepsi to be found. Since I practically mainline the stuff, I had to make a trip to Target to pick up a 12-pack. *snort* Had to. Like anyone has to twist my arm to go to Target.

This was no ordinary Target. It was 2 stories. I've never seen such a thing! And what happens when it's time to get on the escalator to go to the other floor when you're pushing a cart? Well, you put it on the cart escalator, of course!



Later that evening, Waffles was hosting a happy hour in his room. Connie and I waited for a while to go down because we knew it would be crazy and we had already had a chance to try the Mad Kitty cocktail and hang with the Waff.

Happy hour in Waffles' room.

When we went to his room, he was feeling a bit overwhelmed so his mom Debbie asked if he could come to our room to relax while the party wrapped up. Twist my arm again. I think he liked hanging out with us.


Once the party was over, we headed out to dinner. It was raining a bit, but that didn't ruin our fun! We walked a couple of blocks to Maggiano's Little Italy. We had a table full of cat ladies, but we weren't the only big group.



There was also a large group of young men sitting in the same room. It turned out they were a soccer team from Belhaven University in Jackson, Mississippi. We were two very different groups, but that didn't keep us from, uh, making friends.

Paula Gregg initiated the whole thing! I swear!


What can I say? Cat ladies are really nice!

Check back tomorrow for my Day 3 wrap-up.

11 comments:

  1. My human is SO happy you bought something of Carole's - she loves her art too and has known her through Cat Writers for many years. BTW, not to make you jealous or anything... but there's a two-story Target here in Eagle Rock too! You are welcome to come and visit.

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  2. The head peep says you're so glad you got photographic evidence of the soccer players. You should have seen her start laughing all over again when she saw those pictures! We have a Target with a cart escalator here, too, but instead of being two stories, our Target has its parking on top of the building, so the escalator takes your cart up to where you parked.

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  3. You mean that Target was in Atlanta and I missed it? Rules of traveling to conferences if you fly..you reach out to your fellow bloggers and put a order in to have your super juice ready when you get there. I am sure you have seen me putting the call out for RC for ma. We are lucky enough to get to drive to Barkworld and we will be driving to Blogpaws. We can bring super power drinks.
    It was so great to see you. I am working on my post today and I will be including that fabUlous photo of us together.

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  4. that Paula lady....leading all the cat ladies astray. bwaahahaha

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    1. Mom Paula still claims she is innocent! MOL! That is, until you got the photo evidence!!!

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  5. The mom says she wishes she had gone to the Target store. 2 floors? Amazing. And dinner at the Italian restaurant was so good. Those soccer players were so funny!

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  6. lol.. apparently that Target is the hit of the conference..

    And there seems to be a whole lot of arm twisting going on there.. I hope you didn't break anything

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  7. thanks for telling me who the St.Bernard was! I had fallen in love with him! I am "bi-petual too but thankfully the Cat Writer's bag made up for the lack of a bi-petual bag!

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  8. What a FUN evening this was!!! We had a blast at the happy hour and the dinner company (and entertainment) was TOP NOTCH!!! ; )

    Thanks for the Waffle-sitting! I had to check his carrier a few times on the way home just to make sure you hadn't cat-napped him!

    xo
    Glogirly

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  9. I wasn't able to attend the conference because of a previous commitment, but I am so glad I drove down Friday to meet everyone. I'm so glad I was able to meet you and all of the other cat bloggers. I had no idea I would get the reaction I got from the soccer players when I walked over to ask where they were from. The Irish accent and the serenade from the players was fun! I'm still waiting for the photo of Deb Barnes! LOL

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