i think bullet points and instagram are going to have to save me when it comes to organizing my wppi experience. ready? highlights:

-riding down with ryan muirhead, tavis johson and becky earl, during which ryan serenaded tavis pretty much straight for 6 hours. bonus: we didn't die on the snowy roads.

-amazing mentoring session with kimberly dunbar and tamara campbell in which we photographed brooke of brooke askley photography. gotta love the mentoring sesh's where you take away as much as you give.

-dancing with my favorite group of crazies at airhorns and blazer for 3 straight hours. holy sweat. holy moves.

-meeting jose villa and forcing him to take a picture with me, then emarrassing myself by asking him if he wanted to photograph me after he complimented the braids in my hair.

-meeting yet another one of my fav photog idols, jill thomas and finding out that on one day we wore the same skirt (failed at getting a photo ,darn it), which i took as a sign that we're soul mates. she just doesn't know it yet.

-replenishing my wardrobe at forever 21. yes i took time to shop at wppi, and let me tell you the freedom of getting some new threads without my 3 little lovlies fussing the whole time was liberating. plus the new clothes boosted my confidence level and increased the watts of my sparkling personality. what can i say?

-sharing a bed every night and late night laughs with the one and only becky earl. i love that girl more than words can say.

-bbq pizza from mgm's food court. don't judge. it was spectacular.

-meeting so many of my online friends in person making me feel like less of an internet dweeb and more like a real live human being. plus getting a real life dose of the personalities trumps online interaction every time.

-reconciling once again with my infamous hater todd reichman of the a man to fish blog. see picture below.

-facing my fear and singing karaoke at jon canlas' finder dinner. this was also extremely painful, but i'm chalking in up as a win.

-stealing becky's rz and holding it as i walked around the tradeshow and subsequently getting checked out by every guy there because of the radness and girth of that beauty. ha!

regrets:

-not having my marty with me for every step of the way. except the step where i shared a bed with becky. awkwaaaaard!

-not getting to meet up with even 1/3 of the friends i wanted to. you know who you are. why is there never enough time in the live long day? i don't think i'm going to ever get over this.

-not having a pass to get into the actual platform classes. i'm a nerd and love to be inspired by anyone i can be in this industry. i firmly firmly firmly believe you can learn something from everyone, depending on how hard you try. of course i attempted to play it off like i was just too cool to go to the classes, but really i lacked the dollah billz.

-not shooting in the desert with dylan howel and sara k byrne. i know the shoot was awesome because THEY surpass my standards for coolness time and time again.

-not shooting in downtown vegas with some other good peeps.

-gosh darn it, just not shooting in general

-not finding internet access to blog every day! daaang gina! you would think big time hotels would just include some free wifi, am i right?

-consequently getting waaay behind on emails and biz stuff in general.

in conclusion, wppi 2012 was a rip roaring success. there were highs and lows, i walked away with amazing memories, and also some painful blisters on my feet. but overall, i can't wait to head back to sin city next year. did you go? how was your wppi experience? no really, i want to know!

the car ride down