Trade Show Obsessing

With the Atlanta Decor Expo trade show coming up (September 8-10), there is a lot of rushing around here to make sure the booth and its hundreds of details will be just right.  We always have one point person in charge – that’s Maureen now – and I’m sympathetic to the position, having lived it for several years.

Trade shows are great events for obsessive people like me, because you can create minutia-filled lists and fixate on packing technique.  Our first show ever was in Chicago, and I had every picture, order form, thumb tack and staple perfectly organized in our car (yes, we drove from Vermont).  Set-up went pretty darn smoothly.  It wasn’t until the morning of the show that I realized I had forgotten to pack my pants.  For some reason, my less organized wife considered this humorous, while I scrambled to find an open clothing store.

Thus began a weird phenomenon for me of forgetting some item of clothing at each show (belt, socks, tie).  I assure you it was not a conscious action; I’m not sure what the psychological implications are.  The low point was finding myself buying briefs, and not the legal sort, in High Point, NC.  I’d keep that to myself, but Laurie has been kind enough to share the story with enough people that this blog won’t have much impact.

I seem to have strayed, some distance in fact, from my original point:  When you see Maureen at the show, be nice to her!