Michigan Pro Hockey Tour - February 1998

Hi all!!

Well, January was a MUCH better month, thank goodness. I have LOTS of fun news to report.

First of all, I’m typing this on my new Gateway. This thing is so sweet. 300 MHz Pentium II processor, 32MB RAM, 17” monitor, 4Gig Hard drive, 24X CD-ROM, 56K modem, awesome speakers, SOMEBODY STOP MEEEEEE!!! I love it. It feels good to join everyone in the 90’s with Windows. . I’m now trying to sell my MacIntosh. What a joke. Wish me luck. I’m also listening to Celine Dion’s new CD in the CD ROM drive while I type this. Too cool. She sings the love theme from the Titanic on this CD and I really like it. I saw that movie a couple weeks ago and was so moved by it. It was 3 hours, 15 minutes, and felt like it was over in 30 minutes. I remember being taught about the Titanic in elementary school, but I’ve never stopped to think about what it must’ve REALLY been like. Absolutely terrifying. I can’t even imagine. The movie had a wonderful love story as part of it, of course, but the whole package was very powerful. Incredible movie – I highly recommend it.

My work atmosphere still stinks to high heaven, but I created a bunch of opportunities for myself this month to keep learning and that really turns me on, so I’m hanging in there for the time being. (I don’t know how much more I’m willing to take though, so I’ll keep you posted.) The first thing I did was make an appointment to take a tour of our film house. They’re color specialists and basically they’re a middle man between the agency and the printer. They create the films that create the sheet metal plates that go on the press that prints out the brochures and ads. I won’t bore you with all I learned but it sure got ME excited. I also went to our printer in Kalamazoo and thought it was so interesting to actually see the computerized presses and how the inks are applied to the papers, how they’re folded, cut and bound. The quality control is unbelievable. I also looked at sreeen pictures on brochures that seemed like a perfectly crisp and clear photo, but when you look up close, through a jeweler’s loop, you can actually see all the dots that make them up. The dots are bigger or smaller depending on how dense the color is and each individual dot has more than one color that makes it up. I learned all about 8 color process, mezzo, line screens, ghosting, half tones, the list goes on and on. This is probably boring for the average Joe, I know, but I was fascinated.

I’m on the local speakers circuit now, too. I gave a 30 minute speech at the Business Marketers Association monthly luncheon last week. It was on “The Creative Process.” I was so excited to give it, I really couldn’t pay attention to how well it was received. I think it was good, I got a few compliments from members and requests for more information so that’s a positive.

The highlight of my month was my vacation. Of course it was too short, only a week. I left on 1/5 to go to Las Vegas for business, then took the following week off to visit with family and friends in Vegas and Phoenix. The business portion of it was the CES show. What an incredible trade show! It was so overwhelming, there’s no way to see it all in just four days. I actually had to map out my days and plan which booths I wanted to see and which seminars I wanted to attend.

The first seminar was Steve Forbes. He talked about the economic outlook, of course. His forecasts are always interesting and pretty accurate. Then I saw Scott McNeally, CEO of Sun Microsystems, Inc. He was talking about the chips that they manufacture and how they’re in everything these days. They’re in your coffee maker and there’s about 150 in the average automobile. He talked about taking the smart card to the next level and basically having everything in your wallet on one plastic card with a chip embedded in it. The chip would have all the information on your drivers license, all your credit card numbers, frequent flyer numbers, medical history, everything. He even said that he believed in our generation that we would be embedding these chips in the gumline of a newborn or on the back of their hand. That scared the daylights out of me. I’m not ready for that to happen yet.

The best speaker, of course, was Bill Gates. I wasn’t overly impressed with the hand held and palm top computers until I saw his presentation. I can definitely see uses for them now. I went to the Microsoft booth and their big release this year is Windows CE for the car. It runs in your car and operates the whole system from speaker cell phone to regulating the temperature in the radiator to global navigation. They were having a drawing, giving away a version of it and wrapped around it was a brand new silver Porche. No, I haven’t heard from them yet, so I’m not sure when it will be delivered to me, but I’ll keep you posted.

After the show, my parents drove up from Phoenix in their brand new motor home. It has a slide out living room so it’s very spacious when it’s all set up. Very plush. Sheesh, I wish I could retire. Ha. During CES, I stayed at the Mirage, which, to be honest with you, is not as impressive as I’d expected, but it was cold out, so I didn’t get to do the pool. Maybe that’s what was disappointing.

One of my good friends, Shannon, lives there now. Her husband is an electrician and there’s so much construction in Vegas right now. He was working on a brand new hotel right by the Mirage, called the Bellagio. Talk about first class. This place is all suites, has a dress code in the casino in the evening, and even has an elevator that you drive your car right onto, and it takes you (in your car) up to your floor to park on that level, get out and walk straight to your suite. Unbelievable.

Shannon and I went out one night to a club at the top of the Stratosphere. That’s the tower at the end of the strip that looks like the Space Needle in Seattle. There was a complete panoramic view of the strip and the city and it was breathtaking at night. It’s 110 stories high and I’m not afraid of heights but when I got up there and looked out over the railing, there was nothing underneath me because of the way it was shaped, and my knees went a little weak. On top of the tower, outside, there’s a roller coaster and an ejection seat. That would’ve been fun to do, but it was actually really cold out, so we decided to save it for the next visit. It was so good to catch up with Shannon. She was one of my three bridesmaids in my wedding and I haven’t really been able to see her in a few years. She’s absolutely hilarious and absolutely gorgeous, too. She’s about 6’1” and about as big around as me. She really turns heads when we go out. We tore up the town and when I got back to the motor home (at 5am), Mom was making my bed up. She told me to go to the back of the bus, because she was up for the day and didn’t want to work around me. Ha.

The Griffins came through town for a game while I was there and my whole family and I went. There were sixteen of us there and we had a blast! Dean’s mother came down for a couple days, too, and she and I were sitting together at the game. The camera focused on us and we got our mugs on the readerboard in the middle of the game. We yelled, “Go Griffins” and waved – too fun. All the guys gave Dean grief about wanting so many tickets for a road game and he just said, “I’ve got fans in every town, boys, get used to it.” Ha. The next night, they were in Salt Lake City and he had to get some tickets for a friend there, too. The team travels in such style, I’m telling you. They were staying at the Luxor, which is my FAVORITE hotel on the strip. We all went over there afterwards to play in the casino for a while and my parents and mother in law and cousins got to see Dean for a little while. That was nice, we had a good time.

My mom started out on one of the slot machines with twenty dollars (80 quarters), and had the machine up to over 600 quarters! She was really on a roll, then my cousin, Shane (ornery brat) came over, with a wicked grin on his face and said, “How ya doin, Gayle?” She said, “Fantastic, don’t touch anything!!” So what do you think he did? He hit the “cash out” button on the machine and laughed like crazy. All her quarters came crashing out and she filled up an entire cup with them. I was laughing so hard. Then we all kept dipping into her cup when we were out of money so the rest of us could keep playing. By the end of the night, it was all gone, but we had a blast. Poor mom. She never gets any breaks. Ha. It’s a good thing she has such a great sense of humor, or we all would’ve been dead years ago. Shane is actually one of my favorite cousins. He’s a policeman in Mesquite, NV, and that night he gave me his coat which has a logo on it for a program they started: D.A.R.E. to keep kids off drugs. He told me he would be HONORED to have me wear his coat. Aaawwww. He’s such a sweetie, eh? He and his wife, Marci, had us all over to their house earlier that week for dinner, too. All I can say is, they have a really nice home so policing in Mesquite must be profitable. Ha.

When I was Miss Alaska, one of my prizes was a cruise from Los Angeles to Ensenada, Mexico. On that cruise, there was an entertainer by the name of Loretta Holloway. I got to meet her at the midnight buffet and we really hit it off, she’s really a neat lady. I never kept in touch, though, and now I regret it because she was performing at the Luxor. I went into the lounge and watched her all night one night. She’s as incredible as ever and still the sexiest thing I’ve ever seen hit the stage. Very impressive.

Mom and Dad and I went to the Star Trek experience at the Hilton hotel – that was pretty neat. It’s a motion simulator ride where there’s a wide angle screen that’s concave and it appears (by optical illusion) that you’re flying through space. The seats we were sitting in rocked and jerked around according to what was happening on the screen and a couple of times, my stomach flipped, even though we really weren’t going anywhere. It was so fun, my parents are such little kids at heart. They’re so much fun to play with.

We also watched the pirate battle and ships sinking at Treasure Island. I didn’t get to see that last time I was in Vegas – what a neat little show! It’s actually very elaborate for being something they do every hour for free. You can feel the heat from the cannonballs and all the good looking pirates (without shirts) fall off the ships into the water and fight it out with each other. Whew. I REALLY enjoyed that. Tee hee.

I also did the Fremont Street Experience downtown with my mom and mother-in-law – more lights and sound effects and very “Vegas” feeling. I liked that, too. Then the next day, we had to say good-bye to mom-in-law and my parents and I hit the road to Phoenix to spend some quiet time with my Grandparents. We saw Hoover Dam on the way, too. It’s a good thing they have all that hydroelectric power from Lake Mead because I can’t imagine what the electricity bill would be for one of those Vegas casinos. While I was in Phoenix, I did make time to see one of my high school girlfriends who just got married last summer. I saw all the wedding pictures and caught up on her life. I’m so proud of her, she’s about to finish her PhD at ASU and really found a terrific guy, too. (Hi, Fran Fu)

Bill was going to be in Vegas the last day before I had to head home so I flew from Phoenix to Vegas a day early so I could hook up with him. It was so good to get caught up and we had such a blast! I realized that I’m really just homesick for my friends, more than anything, not so much the state (and definitely not the weather.) We went out to dinner at the Harley Davidson Café then went to a piano bar at New York, NewYork. That place was such a hoot!! I can’t remember the last time I laughed so hard. The piano players were so talented, they played songs like Sweet Home Alabama, Old Time Rock and Roll, Shook me all night long, and New York New York. They took any and all requests and did just about anything you wanted them to. During NY, NY, they made the crowd stand in a circle around the pianos and do a kickline. During “Joy to the World” they had hand motions that went along with it that were too risque to mention here. Ha. One guy had a birthday and they made him sit on top of the piano while the whole crowd sang (to the tune of itsy, bitsy, teeny, weeny, yellow polka dot bikini) “He’s got an itsy, bitsy… I’ll let you fill in the rest. They sang all kinds of songs where they changed the words like that and made them hilariously filthy. I laughed so hard all night, my stomach muscles hurt the next day. Those guys really had the crowd rockin and they never slowed down all night. They jumped up on the piano to dance and the room was just packed. We didn’t shut it down until about 4 am. We met a newlywed couple in the kickline – her name was Patti and his was Furman. I couldn’t remember Furman because it’s kind of unusual and I kept calling him Femer (as in the thigh bone) He was good natured about it, though, and they bought us a couple drinks. I’ll never forget that place as long as I live, what a fun time!!!!

I REALLY didn’t want to come home the next day, I wasn’t done being on vacation. I had waayyyyy too much fun there. I told my friend, Cindy Greig, that it’s a good thing the laws are looser in Nevada, because I was pushing it!!! Ha. I don’t know if, even yet, I’m out of vacation mode. Next month, I’m going to Orlando, Florida for a long weekend with Colleen and Kristin. The guys have a couple games there and we’ll go to one of them, at least, but for the most part, I plan on picking up where I left off on the last vacation. Wahoooo!! I’m loving all the cheap airfare from Michigan. Flying anywhere from Alaska is so cotton pickin expensive that it makes a lot of travel unaffordable. I warned Dean when we moved down here that I wanted to do some travelling and he said okay. I think he regrets that now. Ha. Colleen emailed me last week and said she saw a rate in the paper for a round trip ticket, DC to Madrid, for about $300. She wanted to know if Kristin or I were interested in another long weekend trip. My hand shot up!! I felt like a kid in elementary school, saying, “Ooh, ooh, pick me!!!” I hope it works out, we’re going to talk about it some more in Orlando.

When I got home from Vegas, I had 87 emails waiting for me. Yikes! If I haven’t answered you yet, please be patient, I’m working my way through them one at a time, and trying to get this letter finished so I can get it out before February is gone.

Angie Richards had her baby, she’s the one who miscarried twins a year ago and was so supportive for me during our miscarraige last month. In fact, her husband, Travis had to fly home from Vegas early because she went into labor. They had a healthy baby boy, and named him Riley Richards. I’m so happy for them, they’ve been panicky and anxious the whole pregnancy, hoping nothing would go wrong this time. That was such a blessing because they were so worried.

On Super bowl Sunday Dean finally got to go snowmobiling. Bruce Ramsey took my sled and went with him – I guess they had a pretty good time. They came back soaking wet. I thought it would help get it out of his system, but it just made him want more. They’re already making plans again for next weekend. My girlfriend (Bruce’s girlfriend, too), Jen, won the football pool that night and got about $400. She was so excited she jumped up in front of a room of about 40 people and did a little victory dance. I was howling. The assistant coach had the party at his house and earlier that day all the guys were playing football in the snow. I guess it got pretty rough but they had fun. I had some projects around the house to get done, so didn’t show up until later, but didn’t mind because I’m not really the cheerleader type anyway. Ha.

I went to a luncheon put on for the wives at Centennial Country Club two weeks ago. We all were given a gift certificate at a local salon and I’m thinking about using it to get another massage. Sigh. What heaven. Also at the lunch, they had a guest speaker that was a handwriting analyst. She had everybody draw a tree then diagnosed the picture based on whether we drew bark lines in the trunk, individual branches or leaves, knotholes, flowers, apples, birds, squirrels, etc. According to her analysis of my tree, my family is very important to me (because I drew roots), I worry a lot, have a strong desire to deal with the public, I act a little bit more like my father than my mother and I’m very competitive. I began to break away from my parents and establish my independence at the age of eight, and never had any traumas that affected me in a major way. When I showed her my signature to analyze, she took one look at it and said, “Oh my. Oh my goodness, yes. This signature screams confidence in every aspect. You’re very comfortable in your own skin and all the other traits that you have are very strong, also. In other words, you’re not somewhat confident, you’re extremely confident. All the other traits you have are just as powerful. You’re fastidiously organized, fiercely competitive, don’t like change unless you’re the one who initiates the change, you’re very decisive, independent, very emotional and VERY affectionate. You’re highly intelligent and probably never had a problem academically and you’re very good with numbers. You’d do well in banking or finance or accounting.” I kind of made a “blech” face when she said this and she said, “It doesn’t matter whether you’re interested in it or not, I’m just telling you that you’re good at it. Also, because you’re very confident, you may not feel a need to always be social because it doesn’t bother you to stand alone at a party or social function and it may make you appear somewhat standoff-ish so be aware of that.” It was very interesting, I felt like she was pretty on target, but then, just about everything she said was positive and, of course, I want to believe her. Ha. She said to do a full, in-depth analysis, she needs about a full page of handwriting. I wonder what she would charge to do that, I think it might be a great way to get to know yourself or your spouse better. Dean said he doesn’t know if he buys it or not, but this woman had some pretty high credentials. She’s been doing this for 30 years and has done FBI work, analyzing ransom notes, suicide notes, even Secret Service notes threatening the president.

Okay, well that’s the news for now. It’s been a pretty good month and I’m keeping it on the right track so far. I’m going to end this letter a bit abruptly because I really need to get it out to y’all. Have a great February and keep those emails comin – I LOVE them!!

Take care,
Tiffany

PS - I took a short walk on the wild side the last week of the month. I
don't know what possessed me but I decided to go MUCH blonder than before
with my hair and I also got a gold bellybutton ring!! My girlfriend Jen,
has one and every time I've seen it (at the gym or when she wears cropped
tops) I have just thought it looks so sexy. It's very subtle, you don't
notice it unless you're looking for it and I absolutely love it, but I
think I've really shocked some of my friends and definitely my family.
It's pretty far out in left field for me, and Dad, Mom and Tracy were just
laughing. Jen went with me when I had it done and took me to a place that
smelled of incense and had a big iguana in a corner cage. There was also
somebody groaning behind a wall and I asked what that was, Jen said they
were getting a tatoo. Talk about the total experience, I was laughing and
giggly the whole time. Jen took pictures for me so it's forever documented
thanks to Kodak. Yes, it hurt like the dickens for about five seconds,
then was over and now it looks great! I've never liked my belly because
that's where I gain weight when I put it on, but now I'm looking for short
summer tops already! Ha. I can't wait for the weather to warm up!