I went to the goodie room and got lots of free books which I plan to give away on this blog. So stay tuned for that. I just have to figure out how to get them home. Most likely find a box somewhere and ship them!
I then walked by the lounge and saw fellow Harlequin Romance writer and good friend, Shirley Jump. A quick hug and we grabbed a table to chat. At the next table was a long-time ago critique partner who came up with the title for my first book and the first friend I made when I joined San Francisco Romance Writers Barbara Freethy .
Everywhere I turned I saw familiar faces, but I had to meet a fellow PNW writer, Darla Lukenbach, for lunch. Darla and I have a Wednesday lunch tradition at conferences and seeing her was something I've really been looking forward to. We took the DART train one stop and ate at a Mexican restaurant called RJ's. Yummy food and great conversation. We then hopped back on the train, traveled one more stop and walked to Neiman Marcus to do a little window shopping.
I saw a pair of green heels I wanted immediately. They would have matched my new dress perfectly. I made a beeline toward them and smiled when I saw the Sale sign on the rack. I picked up the shoes, recognized the Manolo Blahnik label, turned them over and swallowed hard. On sale for $595. Regular price $7-hundred-something. I saw the seven and put them back. They were cute, but lets just say if I had that kind of money to spend on a pair of green shoes I'd use it to pay for my cat Rocket's I131 treatment instead.
So we went off to look at the purses. Most were over $1000. You could pick up a sale one for around $500.
We perused the jewelry cases oohing and awing over the sparklies underneath the glass case.
Then it was off to the make-up department. I had gotten a little sunburned this past weekend on my face (overcast weather and I didn't put enough sunscreen) and I wasn't liking the way the mineral powder foundation looked. I'm so not a make-up girl so as soon as we walked in I looked right at two women behind the counter. I must have looked lost because they asked what I needed. I told them, and they motioned us over to their section. Bobbi Brown. I ended up sitting down in the chair and getting a make-over.
Make-up artist Fallon, who was named after the character in Dynasty a show I watched weekly back in the '80s, worked her Bobbi Brown magic on me. She also taught me what each item was and what it was for. Special thanks to Darla who played photographer! And, of course, to Fallon who made the makeover so much fun!
Here I am with everything applied. What do you think? I'd never seen Bobbi Brown makeup before. Not surprising since I usually avoid the cosmetic section of department stores. I was impressed with the product though and went home with a few items. They gave Darla and I each a bottle of French perfume as a gift, too!
