Vegas Update

Surprisingly I enjoyed this Vegas trip a lot more than the last one. The weather was warm, sunny and beautiful, not at all cold and windy as it was in January. This time, it was truly t-shirt weather. In fact, I think that many people took the concept of nice weather a little too far and decided that it was tank top, short skirt, flip-flops and hotel pool weather… and perhaps it was, taking into account the array of sunburns I witnessed.

Something that I did not greatly witness this time around was girls in wedding dresses. I only saw one and a half, and I saw half because although she was wearing white, I’m not sure if it was what I’d call a wedding dress. But I guess that if it’s white, it works in Vegas. I also have a hunch that people here rent not only tuxedos (although I did not see one guy wearing one), but wedding dresses. In case of emergency and tight cash flow, why not? Anything is possible in Vegas after all.

I think what made things nicer aside from the weather was the location, the nicer hotels, the wonderful room I had on the 31st floor and the good food we ate. I also finally managed to see a couple of the free shows such as the Mirage's Volcano, so that makes it more of a real Vegas experience. I guess Vegas grew on me this time… although I still can’t get used to people drinking everywhere, on the street, in their cab… everywhere! And there’s so many people! And so much smoke!

But enough about that. The tradeshow went quite well and it being two days instead of three made a huge difference. I did not feel as tired, as much in pain, as bored. It went quite nicely and smoothly, and mostly every aspects. But I will note my top moment at the show, along with my worst memory. Just for kicks.

The major downer was our neighbors in the booth directly in front of us. They sold maps, and they were odd. They both acted in a manner that was off putting, and one of the two seemed to love to put his foot in his mouth. On top of it all, he looked like he spent the night on the casino floor as opposed to in his bed. We’ll call him Bob. He asked if my tattoo was of a volcano and pointed out that his wife and him are volcano obsessed. Please! Don’t blame your looking at my ass on your wife. He also played with a mouse pad obsessively for two days. Makes for a good presentation! The other one is the boss, and is blessed with the shiniest bald spot at the top of his head that I’ve ever seen. We’ll call him Baldy. Bob and Baldy’s annoying behavior was mostly based on their constant, irritating use of “catchy” sales pitches to attract people walking down our isle to their booth. The thing is, they both always used their respective lines and never changed them over the course of the two days, regardless of the fact that it was not working, except at scaring people away. Here are the catchy phrases we had to endure over and over again, until I was ready to scream:

Do you have accounts in multiple locations? [if the passer by said no, then the reply was] Then what kind of customer do you have?

Don’t forget about maps! [this was always matched with an angled pointing finger]

Everybody loves maps! [or, this could be met with a] Don’t you love maps?

Maps make great premiums. [ok, really? How so? Answer:] People don’t throw away maps. [and/or] Maps go on the wall, not on the floor.

Wow! Thanks, boys!

The upside of this show was my pit stop at the American Apparel booth. They have the best, and biggest clothing-related booth I’ve seen at all of the three show I’ve done. They are also blessed with good looking, young staff that transcend everything else at those shows. Regardless, I stopped at the booth to check out their line. A sanity brake! While I was looking through the racks this super hot, scruffy looking guy approaches me and asks if I know about their company. Of course I do! It’s only the best clothing manufacturer there is. So, of course I say yes. While I keep looking, he suggests that I look through the prototype rack and I casually ask if the retail locations carry their entire collection. The thing is, and this is very important at a tradeshow, he was talking to be while knowing that I was not a buyer. Exhibitors get yellow passes, buyers get red or purple. You talk to the reds and purples, not the yellow. The yellow doesn’t get the freebies either. We’re not worth the effort! But he kept talking and being nice, and well, that made me the whole thing even better. In a way, I know that he has to be nice to everyone. On the other hand, I was happy to pretend that he was being nice to me because he liked me… and he was very hot… Anyhow, while I was making me way through to the last rack, he came up to me and handed me two purple wristbands, saying that he got something for me. Now I’m thinking that I’m yellow and that he must really think that I’m special. So this handsome guy looks at me and says:

I think wristbands are cool. Do you think that they’re cool?

And I manage to say yes, weak at the knees and no knowing how to interpret this. At that moment, he could have said that ground-up kittens were cool and I would have agreed.

For the remainder of the show, I’d only walk to and from my booth past their booth. For the remainder of the show, my bossed called him my boyfriend. And while pulling down the booth at the end of the show, I found an American Apparel catalog. And in it I found, yes, you’ve guessed it, my handsome guy.

I chose to believe that he liked me. I don’t care what anybody says. A hot model gave me wristbands.


my gift-giving model. click for a largre image.

* Note: I later found out that they’re each worth $7 CND, so my cute boy gave me something pretty neat I think!