Editor's note: I'll apologize in advance for this post, along with any other posts I write this weekend. Like Blaise Pascal once said, I would have written a shorter letter, but I did not have the time."
My husband Dan and I flew from Minneapolis to New Jersey yesterday for the annual Readers Studio tarot conference. We've been coming every year for the last ... how long? Eight years, I think. It normally runs over the course of a long weekend -- Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. Over the last few years, however, it's grown, to the point where it includes a pre-conference workshop on Thursday, and socializing that starts as early as Monday and Tuesday. A lot of tarot readers think of it as an annual vacation ... or an annual pilgramage, depending on how serious we are about the cards.
Someday, maybe every tarot devotee will be required to make the journey to Newark at least once during their lifetimes, to circle a sacred deck of cards!
At any rate, Dan and I left Minneapolis yesterday, along with Nancy Antenucci and Barbara Moore. One other member of the Twin Cities Tarot contingent, Melani, didn't want to fly -- so she took the train.
The flight left on time and landed early, so we were off to an auspicious start.
We decided to take a cab to the hotel, rather than the shuttle, because we're very fancy people and we didn't want to travel with the hoi polloi. Of course, the cabbie ripped us off. Every cabbie I've ever had in New Jersey -- all three of them -- have been ripoff artists. The woman at the airport taxi stand told us the ride would be $22. She handed us a little receipt with the price. But when we got to the hotel, the cabbie grunted, "$32." We said, "Hey, hey, hey, the dispatcher said the ride would be $22." And the cabbie replied, "Yeah. $22 for the ride, and $10 for me."
Sigh. Fancy people can't be bothered. We paid the little troll and sprinted into the hotel lobby.
The first person I met was Cynthia Tedesco, a Tarot for Writers writer that I see online almost every Saturday! She was registering at the front desk, too. Hooray! Another auspicious omen!
We checked into our large and spacious room (it really is very nice) overlooking the pyramid-like atrium. changed clothes, and headed back down to the lobby to pass out Ambassador buttons. Nancy A. and I are in charge of the Tarot Ambassadors, a new group of people who are committed to welcoming all the tarot newbies at the conference. Over the years, the conference has grown in length and size. We used to be a very intimate group of 78 or (like the number of cards in a deck), but this weekend, 200 people will be here.
Everyone was in the bar, of course. We saw Ferol Humphrey from the Dallas Tarot Meetup, event organizers Wald and Ruth Ann Amberstone from the Tarot School, Julie Cuccia-Watts of Ma'at Tarot fame, my Facebook friend Carole Volcy, John (who goes by Ezekiel), the infamous Thalassa from San Francisco, and more.
After a delicious plate of calamari and a couple of refreshing ice teas, we went back up to the room so I could change my shirt. Yeah, I dripped calamari dipping sauce all over myself. What of it? I'm on vacation!
Then we headed back down, where we delivered 100 tiny bridal veils to the registration table. Nancy and I spent a Martha Stewart afternoon a few weeks ago, sewing the veil pins that will identify all the newbie "tarot virgins" this weekend. I hope never to have to sew another veil again in my life. Tulle is really, really hard to work with. In single layers, it's almost invisible. And when you gather it, it tends to rip. But you know what? I think our tarot virgins are worth it. Like so much else in my life, I don't regret it. I just don't want to do it again.
We did a little shopping in the conference room, where vendors have set up their tables all around the perimeter. Dan bought me Ciro Marchetti's new deck -- the Legacy of the Divine Tarot. It's gorgeous.
I found my friend Cheryl Sigler from Delaware, and she came bearing many, many gifts. She was thinning out her collection, so she gave me three or four really neat decks that I didn't have yet -- mostly astrological, which will fill a gap in my collection and my knowledge.
At 5:30, Wald and Ruth Ann started their pre-conference workshop on "The Power of Silence." Oddly enough, they talked about it for almost three hours. Hah! An obvious "silence" joke. Actually, they introduced a couple of concepts that were totally new to me: Movement as a form of silent listening, for example. Elinor Greenberg, the psychotherapist who wrote the forward to my book "Tarot Journaling," led us in some Tai Chi exercises to help us figure it out. Since I'm a reserved Midwestern clutz, I felt awkward, but I was pretty proud of the fact that I didn't fall over and start a domino chain reaction that would have toppled everyone else in the conference room, too. Wald and Ruth Ann spent most of the session describing some interesting techniques for getting messages from any inanimate object -- not just tarot cards. We all experimented, and while most of us couldn't decide if we were projecting or engaging in something truly mystical, it was a lot of fun. I tried to get a message from my eyeglass case. My eyeglass case, as it turns out, is fairly witty and wry. It told me, "I am as plain as the nose on your face." Yeah! It holds glasses -- just like my nose! It is plain, too. It's the freebie case that came with my new glasses, so it's red and has a big obnoxious, "Target Optical" logo plastered all over the front. It's hardly the fashion accessory that a very fancy person should bring on a trip to the East Coast, but it was in my purse, so there you go. It certainly had more personality than my Tide pen, though.
After the workshop, we had dinner in the hotel restaurant, with a table full of fun people: Elinor sat across from me, Cheryl on my left ...
I'm running out of time before I have to shower and get downstairs for today's event. I'll just let you know that after dinner we sat in the lobby and drank wine and looked at tarot cards and jewelry until 2 a.m. Jordan, everyone's favorite Ning personality, sat on my right, and he had nothing but good things to say about the Wizards Tarot prototype deck I brought along. I have to say, I like anyone who likes my work! He went on and on, to the point where it was almost embarassing ... but I managed to put up with the praise, and now, he can sit next to me anytime!
Okay. I have to figure out what I'm going to wear and how I'll fix my hair. Psych! I'm going as my usual self today -- although I hear that quite a few people are going to dress up like gypsies for lunch. If only I had followed more closely on the Internet, I could have brought my fortune-teller's costume. Ah, well. I'll throw on a scarf to fit in, and then take pictures.
