I've arrived.....

.......at Ranger Headquarters in New Jersey, where I will be camping out in the Education room for the next couple of weeks, alongside Tim and Mario. We are here getting ready to teach 2 weekends of Ranger U and also tons of product development...

As usual, with me, there is always a bit of a crisis involving the journey. The day started early, so we could miss the morning traffic, only to get stuck in every set of roadworks possible. Every detour led to more roadworks and more delays. With the clock ticking, Mr Babe of Deliciousness took his apprehension at me missing a flight and materialised into into temper at other inconsiderately rude road users. After a wtf from me, tempers flared even more with the result of me jumping out of the car at kerbside and making a run for it...straight into the wrong terminal with not a lot of spare time.!! So was the other terminal close..?? No it frikkin wasn't. Apparently it was a 25/30 min walk. Well considering I had two, on the limit, suitcases, carry on, lap top bag AND not a lot of time before gate closing I obviously wasn't going to make it. Cue lots of  hysterical panic hyperventilating.

Rushing outside to find a taxi was proving unsuccessful as they were all lined up waiting for people. Was it possible to order a taxi...? No... Aaaaargh.

Suddenly one of the taxi drivers got out of his cab and came towards me. "Are you Caroline..?" he said. I can be who ever you like if you take me to terminal 2, I relied laughing. Amazingly enough, after I had explained my situation, he agreed and bless him, whizzed me round there quick as a flash, only charged a couple of quid and refused to take a tip...Get in there.....thank you, thank you, you will be rewarded in taxi driver heaven.!!!

So in I go and check in by the skin of my teeth. Quick upgrade to economy comfort and I was off on the first 9 1/2 hr leg of the journey. We landed in Atlanta to a massive immigration queue..  After an hour more panic set in when I realised that there was an extremely good chance I wouldn't make the flight. Oh well here goes. Out of immigration, queue to pick up baggage, queue to re check baggage, queue to go through security again. Set off alarms at security with a lone hair grip, wait to be searched by female, waited and waited, hyperventilated and waited a bit more. Eventually when no female was forth coming I was sent back through the scanner minus offending hair grip and happily processed through to the other side. 

Straight to information desk....Where does Newark flight leave from..??  it leaves from gate 48 terminal B...cool which terminal are we in now. Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeek we are in E terminal. So how do we get there.?? Down a floor, run down the corridor, wait for train shuttle, fight your way in, stop at every other terminal along the way. Eventually reach terminal B, run back along a corridor, up a flight , ask at information, find out you are still a long, long way away, realise you are going to have to kick up your Dr Martens and make a run for it.....

Cue one mad women in fifties clothing, nostrils flaring, wild scary look in eyes, beehive bobbing ten to the dozen hurtling herself extremely ungracefully down the corridor, taking out unsuspecting passengers, right left and centre, with her carry on case. I arrived at the gate at 4.12pm and flung myself over the counter pleading and praying that the 4.20 flight hadn't closed. It was a wonder the poor women didn't have me removed immediately. I was panting, taking deep breaths and trying to explain, whilst all the time the only thing I could say was..." Have I made it, please tell me I made it..." only to receive the reply "Yup, its been delayed 2 hrs...??? Wtf...??? you mean my heroic Marathon sprint, which lets face it, that's what it was!!!!!!, and at my age deserved the very least a standing ovation and a bouquet of flowers...!!!...was all in vain.?? Bejeezus...how ruuuuuuuuuuude.!!

Any hows I finally made it to New Jersey and was greeted with a Chinese and a bottle of beer, don't mind if I do..lol.

Today started with a quick trip round the supermarket for supplies...mainly Diet Dr Pepper, lol and then it was straight to HQ. First thing I wanted to do was run up and down the shelves of my product and announcing to all and sundry..."These are mine.. yes mine, my name, look...can you see yes it's me.!"  Eventually I realised that the only person remotely interested in my overexcited witherings was me, so I breathed into a paper bag, regained my composure and carried on.

But I did sneak some pictures just so I can prove to myself it's really true, lol.

Here's where some of the inks are

boxex and boxes of stencils

Some of the staff who pick and pack the orders

Boxes of stamps

Complete outers of the ink sprays

And whats this...?

Heres a clue...

No.? Okay how about now...

 
Yup , they are mixing up a whole vat full of melted chocolate ink. Tomorrow I am going in whilst they are bottling and I am going to see the procedure from start to finish. Soooooooooooooo frikkin excited, I can tell you, lol.

Here's the lovely Justin

  and the lovely Alain

Always great to see the lads, but just wait till you clock this. Unbelievable to see it, in person, in all it's glory.

What is it...? I hear you cry...

It's only the actual coat Alain was wearing in his extreme stickling video. you remember...the one where he got a vat of Stickles poured over him, from a great height.!!!

 Here's the gorgeous Sherri, who's in charge of the whole pick and pack department, and ensures that all my Dylusions are delivered correctly to the stores.

And here she is with her extremely gorgeous daughter, The lovely Elizabeth. They are just so darned cute, the pair of them.

Nearly had a serious melt down when I thought I had lost the files with all the work for my How to book. Again, cue hyperventilating and severe gnashing of teeth. I knew there was no way, if completely lost, that I could start again from scratch at this late date. On the verge of tears and with every available swear word known to man, on the tip of my tongue, we trawled and trawled through the files. Just as I was about to admit defeat...there it was. Thank frikk for that was about all I could muster as the tears now turned to tears of relief, lol. Things soon settled down after that as I staked my claim to a large area of the \education room. I was a bit like a dog, marking out my territory, although I did draw the line at cocking my leg up at the comfiest chair. Once I got into the swing of things there was no stopping me working and creating, so I stayed for a few hours after closing. I could have gone home, but wanted to crack on seeing as \I was in the zone, so to speak. |well, |I was greatly rewarded with the arrival of |Tim and Mario and the news that we were going out to dinner at my favouritest restaurant.

Oh yes the one and only sawa....sushi restaurant extraordinaire...what a result..!!!

Topped off with a McDonalds flurry and a quick putting the world to rights, we headed on home. And here I sit, freshly bathed and moisturised, blogging, whilst listening to the dulcet tones of their snoring, lol. It's a glamorous life and someone has to do it.....so it might as well be me.!!!!!

Enjoy xx