Picking up where Part 1 left off.

I woke up somewhat refreshed the next morning. I got ready and headed down to the Starbucks in the lobby a bit earlier than my scheduled meeting with my boss. I noticed a couple of computers in their lounge earlier and figured I could eat a quick breakfast and check my email while I killed a little time.

I approached the computers and read the instructions. Easy enough.  It called for putting your credit card in the slot and they charged a minimum of $5.00 with some hideous rate per minute. I didn’t have a laptop and was seriously feeling disconnected, therefore, I had no choice but to suck it up. I looked for the credit card slot. Keep in mind, I hadn’t fueled my brain with caffeine yet. I looked all over for the credit card slot. The only thing that looked remotely close also looked like a disk drive, so my sleep deprived brain decided what the hell, give it a try. Yep, it was a disk drive and it ATE my debit card. I was feeling very, very stupid at this point and looked around to see if anyone was looking…phew, no one. I wanted to cry for help, but I didn’t want to clue anyone in on my complete stupidity. I ended up having to take 2 toothpicks to pry the damn card out. I was laughing OUT LOUD at myself. Luckily, this was Vegas and almost everyone at that hour was either over 80 or still drunk from the night before. The crazy lady doing surgery on the computer with toothpicks in the corner didn’t stand out.

Disaster averted, I found the correct credit card slot and checked my email while enjoying a Gingerbread Latte.

My head was a little clearer and I was able to handle our booth at the Expo by myself most of the day while my boss schmoozed his way around the exhibit floor. I only felt tongue-tied when he was standing behind me listening in. This was a vast improvement over the first day. It felt worth me being there…whereas day one was questionable.

I met a lot of interesting bloggers. And apparently, there are a number of people whom would love my job. We were approached by quite a few people looking to do research from home for us. Can’t blame them. I have a pretty good gig.

It was interesting to see “famous” bloggers work the floor. Jeremy Shoemaker, aka ShoeMoney, spent a lot of time going around the exhibit floor. He seemed pretty down to earth. He didn’t avoid eye contact with us little people. John Chow, on the other hand, was consistently surrounded by a group of minions. It was hil-ar-ious. He was a walking EGO. Give him a blond wig and a little dog and he could have been Paris Hilton. It was definitely entertaining.

I came across a couple of cool things which I plan to try out on this blog. I’ll try to do a bigger post about each, but in the meantime you definitely should check out:

SodaHead is a new poll site. You can put the poll on your blog and enjoy “social voting”. Looks cool and the president of the company was a

really nice guy. I’ll try it out soon.

TechSelector is an “Interactive Advertising Network”. They were set up next to our booth and I got to know them on the second day. Cool guys. Cool PopUp advertiser to add to your blog…potential to make a little commission money over the holiday season. I registered and am waiting to hear back. I’ll give an update when I get it up and running...for now, click on this logo to join.  Disclaimer: I don't know all the details yet, but I think I get something for referrals.

As soon as the exhibit floor closed, we packed up the booth in a quick 40 minutes. It was merely 4:45pm when my boss drove away. He was heading for FedEx and I got in line for a taxi back to the hotel. I had a 6pm check out and a 10:40pm red-eye to catch back to Boston…or so I thought…stay tuned for Part 3…and why my failed attempts to get home were so ridiculous, it could've been a Seinfeld episode.

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I usually end my posts with a question…let’s get back to my embarrassing little adventure at Starbucks from earlier…ever have a public bone head moment that you’d like to share? Leave a comment.

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