Ms I 1999
By Jabber
Thursday evening:

My plane from Dallas stopped in Memphis on the way.  If you'd never been in
the Memphis airport, it's really pretty cool.  The moment you step off the
plane, you see warm brown brick and you're greeted by Memphis real pit
barbecue smells.  Thus the stage was set for a cool weekend (in my mind).
I'd told Signa York (our Columbus resident) that she'd lied to me as she
said Columbus wouldn't be that cold that time of year.  Quite frankly, it
was about the same as it was in '95, that time of year, only it snowed this
time.  Anyway, gave Signa York ample warning to head for the hills if she
chose to, as -jabber was coming to town. :-)

Upon arriving in Columbus (which is now synonymous with the Arnold Fitness
Expo Weekend in my mind), I hung out for a spell at the Doubletree, the host
hotel.  Although there were plenty of folks to see that whole weekend long,
I'll only give you a few highlights, no offense if I omit someone here.  I'd
seen Michelle Bellini for the first time in person, ever.  She was wearing a
sweatshirt cover-up, and I found her to be totally gorgeous in person.

In any shows I've seen of her on tape, she was always slight looking, but
very attractive and quite defined and muscular, but not huge.  In person,
I'd mistakenly not realized she was going to be in the show the next day, as
I observed her size and figured she was off-season, putting on some mass.
She looked a bit reminiscent of Summer Kalish to me (and you KNOW how I'm a
Summer Kalish fan).  Ironically, when I saw her at the show the next day,
she looked about the same size as I'd seen her previously.  Point being, an
"average" size fitness girl, seen up close, in sweats, can look pretty good
sizewise.  I was very pleasantly surprised to note this.

I'd spent a good portion of the evening shooting the bull with Mr. Kenny
Kassel, who I'd first formally met at the WSE '98, but we'd recognized each
other by sight previously.  We'd simply discussed many upcoming events and
so forth.  A good way to pass the time, but since it was getting late, the
passersby in the Doubletree lobby were becoming few and far between, I'm
sorry to report.