Rather than re-invent the wheel....

I am just going to copy and paste the trip details that I sent to a few friends, so some of you have already read this...

What a weekend we had!!! It was fun...though it is not something I need to, or want to, ever do again.

We left from my house Friday at the lovely hour of 0530...the buttcrack of dawn!!! And, in the pouring freakin rain!!! One of the chauffeurs from work brought us from my house to Newton MA where we took the bus from. Actually the day started out pretty interesting. While waiting at the bus station I found an iPhone sitting on the bench. I started scrolling through it to see if I could figure out who it belongs to and how I could return it, and I think the person it belongs to is a Broadway actress in the show "Rent"!!! How exciting! She had a lot of Broadway actors names and numbers in her contacts, like Anthony Rapp, Adam Pascal, Tamyra Gray (I think she was on American Idol at one point) and many others I recognized. I used to actually go to the theater a lot both here in Boston and in New York so I came across a lot of recognizable names. There were names of casting directors, producers, etc., too! Her contacts didn't help much (and at this point I didn't realize it was a she) so I read her email. I know it is a violation of someone's privacy but it was the only way I could find the owner. LOTS of emails about rehearsals for the show and touring. I, uh, saw her bank statement. Then, jackpot! I found an email confirmation for an Amtrak res from Boston to NYC and it had her contact info on it. So we called and left a message and a few hours later her husband called back. He said she was so thankful we found it and we made arrangements to send it back to her when we returned. So now her iPhone is on the way to her!

The bus ride SUCKED....both ways!!! Sucked big hairy monkey butt!!! I am not a fan of buses to begin with but this was just awful. QVC did not rent a great bus. It was a coach bus but not one in great shape. And part of the reason it sucked was the weather and traffic. And to be quite honest...the drive from MA to PA thru RI, CT, NY, and NJ is B.O.R.I.N.G. Freaking boring. NOTHING to see! Ugh! And the other thing....these QVC addicts (and I learned there are ones waaaaayyyy worse than my Mom and her friends!) are all kinds of crazy...and annoying! I slept...a lot, thankfully. That witch Aunt Flo arrived for her visit the day before and my Day 2 was Friday and Day 2 is always my worst. I was not feeling good about anything basically. And QVC schedules in 2 or 3 stops on the way there and home so it just stretches out the agony. We left Boston at 6:30AM and finally pulled in to hotel at 4:00PM. UGH UGH UGH!!!!

But we did it for our Moms!!!

We had all of about a 1/2 hour to freshen up in our rooms since it was back on the hell bus to go over to QVC which is where we spent the rest of the night. We got a private studio tour which was very cool. We saw alot of the studios. We saw all of the control rooms and stuff like that. Then we had dinner at the studio then private shopping time in the QVC store. We got back to the hotel around 10PM.The next morning was breakfast at the hotel at 7:30AM. Then the hell bus took us back to QVC at 9:00AM. Then we got a private insider's tour which many people from the public can't do. We went on to the actual sets, we saw the green rooms where the vendor guests get ready. We saw where the hosts get hair and makeup done. We went to the studio operations area where the hosts and guests get mic'd for shows, receive their blue info cards, where vendors check in and out, etc. While we were standing there Valerie Parr Hill was checking out! A few people chatted with her for a minute or so but she didn't seem too interested in chatting at all. I could have cared less anyway. We also caught a glimpse of Jean Bice from Quacker Factory who gave us all a dirty look and then her "people" closed the door of the room she was hanging out in. Again, whatever! Then one of the hosts, Dan or Dave something came out! I had seen him on shows before but cannot for the life of me remember his last name. He was super nice, very funny, very tall, totally gay! There is a picture of me with him in the picture post! Then Antoinella came out to see us!!! She is is soooo pretty up close even with all the studio makeup piled on. And soooo nice, too!!! We continued on the tour and they gave us a closer up look of the main studio that we saw the night before that unfortunately is not in use right now because of a flood they had last month. They had built this fabulous new HD studio a while back then the building flooded due to a mechanical or builder error somewhere and now it has to be completely rebuilt. So some of the older studios have been made over to accommodate the all HD format QVC has gone to. We really did learn a lot about the inner workings of everything. Very interesting. Then we had lunch at the studio, then the hell bus took us shopping for the afternoon.

We had a choice of going to an outlet mall (boring!) or Kitchen Kettle Village which is the place in Intercourse PA. It was all cute shops and such. We really enjoyed it. The ride out there, though....SNOOZE!!! Corn fields and Amish farms as far as the eye could see. Dodging Amish buggies. The whole bit. This is not meant to offend anyone...just not my thing. One thing I did learn being on this trip is I am so not a rural girl and probably never will be. Even QVC is in the middle of nowhere! So not my thing...nice to visit and look at but couldn't live it. I can see why so people love it though.

Anyhoo, Kitchen Kettle was fun even in the blazing heat and humidity. Got a lot of fun stuff. Then at 4:15 the hell bus took us back to the hotel. We rested and freshened up a bit then we had dinner at 7PM in the hotel with a few show hosts. I didn't recognize the ones they sent over. I guess one was pretty new and is on in like the middle of the night or something. After the dinner we hung out in the hotel lobby for a few hours getting very silly. There was a fun bar there and we had lots of laughs...mostly at our poor Mom's expense!!! The hotel manager even came over to join in...he said it sounded like we were having too much fun and he wanted to be in on it! After our mother's went upstairs we were talking to the manager. While they were down there we had been teasing my Mom and the other Margo (Jennie's Mom) about the trouble they kept having with the TV remote. They could not figure the thing out! It was so funny b/c it was really super simple. When we first checked in they called us over to their room to help them. When I got in there I find they managed to somehow get the TV stuck on the freakin ADULT channel and couldn't figure out how to get away from it!!! OY!!!!! Then Saturday night they slept with the TV on all night because they couldn't turn it off!!! Well, the manager had told us he was going to come on the bus tomorrow before we all left the hotel to thank everybody and he said he would make a crack about the TV thing. So we asked if he would bring one of the remotes on board! He did it!!! And he got my Mom and Margo to stand up while he told the TV story to everyone!!! Then he said something to the effect of how the Sheraton would be happy to provide a seminar on using their TVs and all this other silly stuff, THEN he holds up the remote and said the hotel wanted to give that to our Mom's as a token of their stay there!!! It was soooo funny!!!!!! Our Mom's were so red and laughing so hard we were afraid they may pee themselves a little bit!!! There is a picture of him in the slideshow holding up the remote control on the bus!!!

After that we went back to QVC to get ready for the live show we were going to be at!!! And I know many of you QVC watchers know what show we got to be at, right!!!! Yup!!! It was the 12 - 2 "In The Kitchen With David Venable" Show!!!!!! AND, it was Christmas in July to boot!!!!!!!!! They demo'd a GBP book, Comfort and Joy, and throughout the show passed out samples of recipes made from the book! The live show was fabulous!!! He is awesome!!! Now both times I have seen live QVC shows it has been with him hosting!!! He did come out for a bit before the show started but when it ended he had to run right to the next studio because he was on again from 2 - 3. It was still so cool to see it all come together and all that goes in to it.

After that we had another hour to shop in the QVC store, then it was back on the hell bus to head for home!!! I was sooooo ready to come home! We left QVC at 3PM and got to Newton at almost 1AM. The ride home sucked even bigger hairier monkey butt!!!!! And the sky ripped open in NJ, then again here in Boston. I was so ready to get off that thing and so thankful I took today off from work. I slept till 11AM!!!! I never do that!!!

All in all it was a nice trip, but, like I said, not something I want to do again. I know our Moms will do it again, though.