Well, that was short lived...back to a Preemie 
Sometimes it takes a couple of seconds before it "notices" that you're not a VIP. I guess VIP is the default.
Once or twice it's even lasted just long enough (or maybe I was just fast enough) for me to click on and read one topic in the beta forums, but that's about it.
Actually I'm not, however the forums seem to think I am. Logged in and was normal non-VIP status and then a few minutes ago clicked to a new page and the noticed I could see the BETA boards.
Time to quickly go post in all the threads I wanted to that are not in my lame restricted forums as a Premmie