I can sum it all up in one word: WOW!!

When I was single and in my twenties, I worked in the event industry and traveled to trade shows often. On a basic level, I knew what I was getting myself into…long hours, lots of talking, the stress of traveling, etc. I completely underestimated just how exhausted my post-Mommy self would be.

Quick recap in case you haven’t been following along. Last Tuesday my boss contacted me to help out with the company’s exhibitor booth. I lined up my husband and mother-in-law to stay with the kids. I was SO excited for a little alone time and to surround myself with adults for a couple of days. My flight left Boston Wednesday night. I was giddy.

So, how did it go?
I flew Jet Blue for the first time…and they totally ROCK! They have individual television screens on each seat and offer 20 network channels. I watched real TV the entire flight. Oh, and the earphones were FREE. The crew was hil-ar-ious! Whenever the Captain came on to update us on flight status he would end it with an Elvis-inspired, “Thank you. Thank you very much.” They actually came around 3 times during the 5 ½ hour flight and offered drinks and snacks. The snacks were beyond the normal peanuts. They had about 15 different options to choose from, including those 100 calorie snack bags…quite impressive for today’s standards.

I arrived at the Stratosphere in Las Vegas at 1am local time…that would be 4am “my time”, ouch. They only had smoking rooms available at that time, ICK. I was a little frustrated, but honestly, the room didn’t smell that bad. They offered to change my room the next night, but I decided to stay put.

I had to meet my boss in the lobby at 8:30am. THE Daddy forgot (?) the time change and called me before the kids headed off to school…that’s 7:30am here in NH…4:30am Vegas time. After a wake up call from “Britney Spears, y’all”, I managed to drag myself out of bed on time and prayed that I would find a Starbucks. There was NO WAY I would be able to function without my daily Pumpkin Spice Latte fix.

Luckily, our designated meeting spot was right next to a Starbucks, score! I got in line and noticed that they had switched everything over to Christmas (!) flavors…which meant NO Pumpkin Latte. After a slight panic attack, I decided to give Gingerbread Latte a try…not quite the same, but it did the trick.

I saw my boss for the first time in over 5 years. I’ve been working for him for over a year this time around, but our communication has been 100% via email. We hadn’t even spoken on the phone since he closed his original company. This was back when I was pregnant with now 5 year old Princess…kind of crazy.

We got to the exhibit hall and quickly got to work putting together the rest of our exhibit. We had about an hour before the show opened and still had a lot to do. As the first people began approaching our booth, I realized that I didn’t know what our “pitch” was. I’m so behind the scenes doing research from home that I didn’t know how to describe our site, never mind customize the pitch for the type of person: blogger, speaker, PR firms. I spent most of the day listening in on my boss giving the pitch. I tried a few times to help out by the end of the day, but I was sooo exhausted that I felt as if my brain was thinking faster than my mouth would allow the words to come out. I was very tongue-tied.

The opening reception that night was a big pajama party. My boss recognized that I was exhausted…or perhaps he felt how useless I had been that day…so he offered me an out to skip the party and go back to the hotel. I felt a little guilty for not having the energy to network with him…but I honestly was useless at this point, so I jumped at the chance to sleep, vowing to myself that I would be able to man the booth by myself tomorrow.

I grabbed some take out dinner at a 50’s diner on my way back to my room. It was the type of restaurant where the servers actually sang requested songs. Princess would have loved it. I was so busy all day that I truly didn’t have time to miss Princess and BamBam. Waiting in the diner…it hit hard that I was there and they were at home. I understand a little more how my husband has felt having to be away from us when he’s away for work. Kind of sucks.

I got in my room, ate my dinner and was sooo very tired that….I couldn’t sleep!!

I sucked up the $10/99 and rented “I Now Pronounce you Chuck & Larry”. I giggled…at times laughed out loud…and happily went to sleep…snuggling with Princess’s teddy bear and BamBam’s kitty.

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