Day 5 Las Vegas, Part II

Now, frankly, most of Monday afternoon is a mindless blur. Walking the trade show floor was confusing and mindboggling. Kathi and Kelli told me how to find Stacy at the Flair booth, and I wanted to be sure to stop by the Ranger booth to lend moral support to Erikia during her first demo of the show. She had mentioned that she was a little nervous -- she hadn't done a demo in a long while. Now, I just took a class from her in August. The girl is brilliant. But who can explain stage fright? I wanted to be there for her.

I also wanted to find the Better Homes & Gardens Scrapbooks Etc. booth, because on Sunday, Melissa had mentioned that she had extra copies of the March issue. And I needed one!

So at some point in the afternoon, I found Stacy and met her. YAY!!!!! She is every bit as nice as I expected. No, that's not true -- she's warmer, friendlier, and *cuter* than I expected! Tiny little skinny California thang -- what a hoot Stacy was! And the Flair products are very pretty.

At some other point, I called Becky T and found her to say hello. She's getting so skinny!!!!!! But her smile is just as engaging as ever.

I also found Kathi and Kelli again. Now, we had all been planning to go to FatBurger Monday night, and I had to make the arrangements. Everyone kept saying, "I don't make decisions," or "I'm not a leader." So I was the leader. I told everyone where to be at what time, and I told Becky (who had lots of obligations because she is the most fabulously in-demand) to call me when she was free, and we would figure out some way of getting her to FatBurger.

Tah dah! Able to organize five people in a single bound! I am SooooooooperBayyyyyyy!

OK, not really. We all had cell phones; we all had each other's numbers. You can't survive a show like CHA without phones!

I swung by the Scrapbooks Etc. booth and saw Katie, whom I'd met the day before with Melissa. She's a sweetheart, and I seemed to run into her every time I turned around at the show. LOL! I'm glad I kept seeing Katie and not, y'know, the pervert who harassed Kathi at one of her demo's!!!! Katie gave me a copy of the magazine, which I promptly carried around with me, shamelessly showing it to anyone who paused. Which, really, was just Becky. I'm so glad I had friends at the show to share this with!

I watched Erikia start her demo at the Ranger booth. She was using the Adirondacks Color Washes for tag-making, and she was completely brilliant as always. When a crowd had gathered around her, I backed away quietly and let other people close enough to enjoy The Art of Erikia. I checked the board at the back of the booth to make sure I knew when Erikia would be demo'ing on Tuesday and Wednesday. I never want to miss a second of Erikia's work. She's the *bomb*.

However, I missed all of Kathi's demo's, and that's a huge bummer. She had been wrangled to demo in the QuicKutz booth, which was right next to Ranger, but I didn't know it!

In the Anna Griffin booth, a clueless sales rep (a man), snagged me and asked me if I was familiar with Anna Griffin products. I barely managed to conceal a snort -- the very first layout of mine ever to be published was made with glorious AG papers. And I once scared the daylights out of Anna Griffin herself. (I didn't *mean* to scare her. And she was really, really sweet.) He tried to sell me on the pretty rub-ons, and I asked if he had any out for demo's. He looked at me like I had grown a second head, so I explained to him that everyone has pretty rub-ons now. The thing we're most concerned with is performance. It isn't enough to be pretty. You have to be able to perform. No demo's? OK, then I don't need 'em. Thanks. Moving on now.

While walking around the scrapbooking room, I kept hearing cheering from the back corner of the hall. OK. Now. Y'all? I have not heard anyone say one thing about all of the hooting and hollering going on back there, but do you really want to know what I thought of it? I thought it was obnoxious. Truly. Sublimely. Incredibly. Obnoxious. It reminded me of the sororities in college. And hey, I was a sorority girl. So I shouldn't be snarky about it, but -- haven't we grown past this sort of self-aggrandizing solipsism? These people seemed to be saying, "We are the in-crowd. You should want to be one of us."

Hey, here's a clue. Not only am I not one of you, but I don't want to be one of you. Get a life.

It was exactly this sort of vainglorious crowing that made me run away from life at the ad agency. I cling to my individuality like a lifeboat. Save me from being the same as all those pompous hacks.

And ProvoCraft made a brilliant, if irritating, advertising move. They gave away Cricut logo-emblazoned lime green roller back-packs if you sat through a Cricut demo. CHA allowed rolling totes at this show, much to my dismay. People have a habit of trailing those things far behind them, and I tripped on no fewer than three bags while trying to walk the floor on Monday alone. Of course it's annoying to have to carry all the stuff you get at these shows. I cursed my backpack on that first day, it got so heavy. But I wouldn't take a rolling tote to a show for love nor money. I just know someone would break an ankle and then sue me for all that I'm worth.

(Which ain't much.)

As for the rest of the show, honestly, I was just overwhelmed with sensory input. Everything looked the same to me. Lots of manufacturers are offering coordinating glass beads with their paper lines. Everlasting Memories has laser-cut chipboard embellishments that are cool because they're more detailed than other companies' chipboards. And bigger. They have 11.5" monogram letters, for cryin' out loud!

I finally made my way out of the hall and headed for the monorail station. At this point in the day, I knew that the Las Vegas Convention Center needs my input in order to improve the place for visitors.

1. They need moving sidewalks from the convention center to the monorail station. My press kits must have weighed fifty pounds. I kept having to stop and rest, then pick up the bags and take four more steps. The plastic bags dug into my hands and HURT.

2. They *desperately* need to put cushioning under the carpets in the aisles of the showrooms. My feet were screaming at me after a day of pounding on that unforgiving, barely covered concrete floor. The individual booths had cushioning under the carpets, and it was a great relief to step into one, but the aisles -- ugh!

Now if only the Las Vegas Convention Center would actually listen to me....

The trip to the monorail was exhausting, and I was very relieved to make it back to my rental car in the Sahara parking lot. Before I knew it, I was at home with Amy, getting ready to go back to the Strip for my much-anticipated trip to FatBurger with my SDC gals. Oh, how long I had waited! And oh, how worried I was that they would hate the food and the milkshakes and would accuse me of terrible taste in burgers and fries!

To be continued yet again....