Home again
Vegas was Vegas. sigh. It really is a town for boy-men. It seems to have dropped the attempt to court families and just gone whole hog into the Sin City deal. There are pretty much naked women on bill boards plastered everywhere.
On our walk to the Convention Center we passed a bank of 6 newspaper boxes. The first day I was thinking about getting a paper. I stopped and looked and there were 6 different "girlie" publications available. Amazing.
We checked into our hotel room with a kitchen and went to Trader Joe's and got food and snacks for the week. We did go out to a fairly nice seafood place on Friday after we got the booth set up. But for the rest of the week we just came back to the hotel and ate and relaxed with books and bad TV. I did miss the TIVO function of being able to pause live TV and skip commercials. I also missed the "info" button to tell me what I was watching. But mostly it was okay. We put on the History channel and enjoyed what came up. I finished a book and started another one.
The show is in it's second year so for being so young, I think it went fine. We were up 40% from last year. We sent out some advertising and took out a full page ad in the show program. I think people really looked at it. They seemed to "get" what it is we are doing better than usually.
Also, the fact that we are using recycled copper for our jewelry is finally of interest. For years we have been saying that and getting a big yawn in response. It's nice to have people care. I just think it's too little, too late unfortunately for the human race. But that's another rant.
The drive from our place in Colorado to LV is really lovely. It's about 12 hours which was okay going out and long coming home as I wanted to be there now! It's through some amazing geology. I wish I knew more of what I am seeing. I have a book on the geology of Colorado written as a technical coffee table book which allows me to sort of understand what is going on. I took absolutely no geology at any time in my schooling. bah. How could I let that happen? My wonderful 6th grade teacher, Mrs. Larsen, made sure we were taught some basics but that is all I've ever had. Now I am interested. In my defense, it's easier to be thrilled with geology when it's in your face the way it is in Colorado. There's just not much geology in Iowa. (Yes, I know there is some - it's a question of scale....)
Last year on our way out of Vegas, I made us stop and go to a casino and spend $1 in the slots and eat at a buffet. I have this compulsion that requires me to experience all that I can regardless of my actual interest in the experience. We went on a cruise for our honeymoon and I ran myself ragged doing as many of the classes as humanly possible. I can now make an elephant out of a couple of hand towels. But it wasn't very restful and I drove my husband nuts.
This year the month leading up to this show has been so stressful that I gave myself permission expressly and out loud to not experience Vegas. And permission to not feel guilty about it. I managed the former but not the latter. I still felt guilty as we were driving out of town about all the things that I didn't do while I was there.
I don't know if it's the brain injury or just getting older, but I am a lot less adventuresome than I used to be. I don't like that about myself.
But the good news is that we are up 40% from this show last year. We signed on a dozen new stores and got some good re-orders. Life is good!
On our walk to the Convention Center we passed a bank of 6 newspaper boxes. The first day I was thinking about getting a paper. I stopped and looked and there were 6 different "girlie" publications available. Amazing.
We checked into our hotel room with a kitchen and went to Trader Joe's and got food and snacks for the week. We did go out to a fairly nice seafood place on Friday after we got the booth set up. But for the rest of the week we just came back to the hotel and ate and relaxed with books and bad TV. I did miss the TIVO function of being able to pause live TV and skip commercials. I also missed the "info" button to tell me what I was watching. But mostly it was okay. We put on the History channel and enjoyed what came up. I finished a book and started another one.
The show is in it's second year so for being so young, I think it went fine. We were up 40% from last year. We sent out some advertising and took out a full page ad in the show program. I think people really looked at it. They seemed to "get" what it is we are doing better than usually.
Also, the fact that we are using recycled copper for our jewelry is finally of interest. For years we have been saying that and getting a big yawn in response. It's nice to have people care. I just think it's too little, too late unfortunately for the human race. But that's another rant.
The drive from our place in Colorado to LV is really lovely. It's about 12 hours which was okay going out and long coming home as I wanted to be there now! It's through some amazing geology. I wish I knew more of what I am seeing. I have a book on the geology of Colorado written as a technical coffee table book which allows me to sort of understand what is going on. I took absolutely no geology at any time in my schooling. bah. How could I let that happen? My wonderful 6th grade teacher, Mrs. Larsen, made sure we were taught some basics but that is all I've ever had. Now I am interested. In my defense, it's easier to be thrilled with geology when it's in your face the way it is in Colorado. There's just not much geology in Iowa. (Yes, I know there is some - it's a question of scale....)
Last year on our way out of Vegas, I made us stop and go to a casino and spend $1 in the slots and eat at a buffet. I have this compulsion that requires me to experience all that I can regardless of my actual interest in the experience. We went on a cruise for our honeymoon and I ran myself ragged doing as many of the classes as humanly possible. I can now make an elephant out of a couple of hand towels. But it wasn't very restful and I drove my husband nuts.
This year the month leading up to this show has been so stressful that I gave myself permission expressly and out loud to not experience Vegas. And permission to not feel guilty about it. I managed the former but not the latter. I still felt guilty as we were driving out of town about all the things that I didn't do while I was there.
I don't know if it's the brain injury or just getting older, but I am a lot less adventuresome than I used to be. I don't like that about myself.
But the good news is that we are up 40% from this show last year. We signed on a dozen new stores and got some good re-orders. Life is good!
Comments
As to not wishing to dive into Vegas - I doubt that it has anything to do with your injury. And not age, directly - just experience. Experience of life that is wide enough and rich enough to know when something as thin as Vegas will only leave you hungry for reality. It is, at best, weak commercial beer, watered down to be acceptable to the lowest common denominator. Why bother?
Again, welcome home, and congrats on the business progress!
Jim D.
I think we will plan ahead and get tickets for Circ du Solie (sp?) next year. One of the artists was quite spellbound by the performance she went to.
Looking forward to your visit!
love,
spike