What a difference a year makes!

On last year’s trip to Las Vegas and Wildside, I was just getting to know everyone, and the idea of prancing around in lingerie was quite intimidating for me.  Nonetheless, I sucked it up and my concerns turned out to be much ado about nothing.

I had a very nice time, though I must admit I was fortified then by several pretty strong margaritas.

This year, I was among friends.

Until now, we’ve interacted in little groups here and there (excepting the one dinner), but the Lingerie Party was the first big event, where everyone would be together, unrestricted by a seating arrangement at a long table – free to move about and talk with everyone at their pleasure.

It hit me pretty quickly, how many “close friends” I had made over the course of the last year – at the last soiree and then online. Also, there was an open bar…

I don’t tend to call acquaintances “friends,” much less add modifiers that make even more of the relationship, but I truly had the warm feeling of walking into a room full of people who cared about me and to whom I mattered.

I may sound like a blubbering and sentimental fool, but to actually see a person’s face light up at the sight of me is one of the more special feelings I can get.  And there was just so much of that going on everywhere I looked.  And, of course, their smiles were reciprocated by me from the bottom of my heart.

I was like a kid in a candy store, not knowing which way to turn.  My tendencies run toward the loner – or at least a one-on-one type person, so juggling the attention of several people, all of whom I desperately wanted to hang out with and enjoy, was an overwhelming and, of course, impossible task.

…but a happy problem to have…