I've decided to give something up to advancing age: no more early flights! You can't sleep the night before so you start off at a disadvantage that's getting harder and harder to make up! (I'm writing this after a two-hour nap Wednesday afternoon that didn't put a DENT in my exhaustion.)

Oh, well...anyway...so I hopscotched over the Western U.S. yesterday, stopping in Vegas and Lubbock on the way. Can't remember now whether I mentioned it in this morning's brief post (see, that's another thing that's going--my memory) but, anyway, the 70-minute change of planes in Las Vegas was a fruitful one...to the tune of a $250 jackpot! Squee!

The rest of the trip was uneventful. Not until I stepped into my taxi at Love Field, did stuff start to get interesting. That's when I heard the touching story of a man robbed of the love of his life 21 years ago by a scheming rich uncle. (I got a clue when he said into his cell phone, "Just know someone out there LONGS for you.") Well, I'm on my way to a romance writers conference, I had to ask, didn't I? Long story short, the rich uncle married the girl himself, spawned five children, went on to other women, then died. Now my taxi driver, married himself for all these years, is getting divorced and hoping to resurrect the relationship with his true love...who lives in Nigeria.

Ack. Tangled webs and all.

Arrived at the Hyatt and immediately saw a familiar face: Nora Roberts. Not that I know her personally, or anything, but I almost feel like I do, she so's friendly and approachable.

Immediately located friends Brooke, Elizabeth, and Lori. Wow...if you ever need a way to measure how quickly a year goes by, join an organization where you only see people once a year. We caught up quickly, though....let's see...the rest of the night is kind of a blur (again, please blame the lost sleep)...didn't even have time to unpack before we were boarding the Dart for a quick trip to the West End and dinner at Gator's.

Flash forward to the important part of the story. I noticed a few ants on the floor in the bathroom before going to bed last night. Then, this morning, I was getting ready for the day when....EEEEK...I realized the bed was INFESTED with them. (Gee, maybe that's the biting sensation I kept feeling last night.)

Okay...more later...gotta go......