This week was supposed to be amazing! Going on my third year of selling Chalk Paint®, this was going to be my first trek to the Annie Sloan Stockist Conference in New Orleans.

There she is, Annie Sloan herself and there I’m not!

Michelle Black and I trekked out of the house at 4:30 am on Monday morning to make our way to LAX, board a plane and head to New Orleans, the city where Annie Sloan Unfolded is located.

We had an 8:00 am flight which was going to get us into New Orleans just after 3:00 pm local time.

But…the pilot didn’t show. Another plane had mechanical issues. Our flight was delayed 30 minutes…then 60 minutes…then two hours…then three hours. Finally, four hours later at 12:00 pm they allowed us to board a plane. But wait, we sat there…for two. more. hours.

At this point, we had already missed our connecting flight in Dallas plus two additional connecting flights that had been re-scheduled on our behalf.

We finally land in Dallas to head to our connecting flight terminal that was scheduled to leave at 6:30. But, that was delayed to 8:10. With 44 people on the flight stand by list, we decided to wait in line just to make sure we had seats on the plane. 45 minutes later and at the front of the line, the flight was cancelled. Cancelled I tell ya! Next flight out; 5:00 pm on Tuesday. Oh, and by the way, all of the airport hotels are booked.

The real question was, do we wait in the airport for another 18+ hours to catch a flight on Tuesday night in hopes that it will in fact leave at said time, arrive to New Orleans to attend the conference for just one day (because I already had to cut the last day short to return home) OR do we try and head home.

I think you can guess what we did…

Back to LA at 9:30 pm…errr….11:05 pm…just kidding, 12:15 am.

Michelle and I did make some use of our time in the hours of idly sitting by.

We worked on some marketing materials. We did some planning on launching our rental line. We talked about opening another store. But, we didn’t go to the Annie Sloan Conference for which I am completely and totally bummed out. Finally, at 2:37 am I pulled into my driveway…just 1.5 hours later and it would have been a full, 24 hour day.

While I have my week completely open (which NEVER happens), I am catching up on some big initiatives. One of which is meeting with some leasing agents and potential landlords for a new and second location in Claremont. So far, I haven’t been successful in sealing the deal for a Claremont store, but I am being picky and figure I have all the time in the world to find the right place, at the right time, for the right price.

I toured several available store fronts in the Old Schoolhouse in Claremont this morning. It’s a beautiful building in a gorgeous location so we’ll see what comes of it.

As for the rest of my week, I have a birthday party for my daughter to plan which will be fun to photograph and some sleep to catch up on. Plus, the June BAZAAR in a couple of weeks and the end of school. Isn’t it amazing how quickly and open calendar can fill up?

BTW, in case you are wondering, we were flying American Airlines. They told me I wouldn’t get a refund. They haven’t heard the last of me!