Day 239 – Fall in New York City.

It rained when I arrived at the Javits Center, and it rained when I left. It rained all seven and a half hours in between as well. You’d think that that would be the perfect trade show weather, but it actually was the perfect ‘I went out for 2 days straight to every party imaginable so I’m just gonna camp on my couch in my pajamas and watch an entire season of ‘The Office’’-weather. And I assume that’s what most people did, as ICFF was merely half the busy buzz it was yesterday. Even SoHo was gray, cold and desolately empty when the cab spit us out at the corner of Broome and Greene for another round of drinks and showroom luster. Gone was the jazzy swing of the night before, and instead of heading to the rooftop of the Gansevoort for yet another NY design week party, we called it a night after the first event instead… so I got home at the reasonable hour 9.15pm nowadays is.

A hot shower to warm the cold shivers later, I’m sitting in my couch, ready to curl up under a blanket and watch Game of Thrones… and prepare for another day of trading and partying ahead.

And hopefully summer.

PS: Our ICFF 2013 booth…

Day 238 – Lies on the windows.

I’m all for quotes and such, but this…

I can honestly tell you is not a very accurate one tonight. I took my shoes off with an ‘aaah’ that lasted for about 5 minutes. I’ve been on my feet since 10am, and almost 14 hours later, I’m about to crawl to my bed that I know will host me in the best nap ever.

ICCF day 1 and a lot of parties later… And we’re doing it all over again tomorrow.

Day 237 – I may not survive this.

In case ICFF doesn’t ring a bell for you: it’s one of New York’s most important trade shows, and so it’s no surprise that my company is paying big bucks  for some square centimeters to showcase our furniture.

By now, you also should know that means my Friday didn’t smoothly flow into a weekend, but I’ll be working non-stop until the next.

This year’s ICFF is even crazier than last year’s, where I just went home at night and to bed early… this year, my calendar looks like this:

And I had to literally PLAN how I’ll run from event to party – and what shoe’s I’ll wear doing that.

The absolute countdown to next weekend has begun. One I’ll be spending in Poconos… I hear there’s nature over there… I may not survive that either. The closest I came to nature recently, looked like this:

 

 

Day 236 – Discoveries.

I enrolled in a couple of writing classes, and as I wanted to push myself to write beyond my limits, I choose some more research-related writing. Also known as ‘articles’. As in ‘for magazines’.

And now I struggle. I struggle so hard, I start sweating even thinking about the assignments and tasks I have to put myself through. Especially since I can  read the material my classmates post in our virtual classroom, and they – clearly – have much, much more experience in the field. Or are at least native Americans. I can tell, because they use words I need to look up in a dictionary.

I tried using my Word thesaurus on half of my efforts to sound more or less professional, but then I remembered that one Friends episode where Joey did pretty much the same thing, and although my life sometimes feels like a season of Friends, I just can’t.

It’s interesting though to meet yourself at a point where you feel like you actually might not be capable of doing something. When that happens to me, it makes me even more eager to at least try – although I do feel like I should start off my assignment with a disclaimer that reads ‘please don’t judge me!’

Of course, my striving little heart has now an eagerness to learn a complete dictionary, and I had to tame it just a bit. Which is why you can now find my at night, on my couch, with a notebook and the list of words that I gathered from the countless books I’ve read in the past couple of months, studying them as I did when I was in highs school. I’m learning 10 to 15 new words a day…

Desultory is not a word in my dictionary.

 

PS: But don’t expect me to write about Darfour any time soon.

Day 235 – Do not disturb.

I left the City of Sin today, for a 5 hour flight back to New York. My mind is buzzing, my skin is as pale as when I left, but my wallet is a little heavier with the dollars I won at Poker. I so kid you not.

I was planning to steal my hotel rooms ‘recuperating’- doorknob sign, but given the fact that I’m already half to sleep, there’s not a knock on my door that’ll be able to wake me tonight. I just know you were hoping for some crazy tales of my time in Las Vegas… but you know what they say: What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas.

Or as I like to call it: the perfect excuse for a short post on a day where I traveled and just want to go to bed already’.

But ‘sssshhhtt!’, nevertheless.

 

Day 234 – Learning, learning

I had a sales training. In Vegas. All day… and then I had a dinner. I met a lot of new people. There was a lot of wine.

Bye now.

PS: see ya’ll back in NYC.

Day 233 – Viva Las Vegas.

I’m not gonna lie. I’m not a good traveler. I’m the girl that never packs lightly, always brings the wrong stuff and always forgets at least something.

I’m not particularly a big fan of traveling. I count the minutes till the plane hits the ground again, while wondering why I didn’t bring some Sudoku puzzles, earplugs or a complete entertainment center.

 

Today, however, I started reading Caitlin Moran’s book “how to be a woman”. It’s quite amusing to read a book that has “I’M A FEMINIST” in capitals in it, especially when seated in between two 50something guys and you feel them glaring at the pages as you read along about what the most appropriate name for our boobs should be. Yeah, that was fun.

 

I have a couple of pages that will lead into posts one day, but what I don’t want you to miss, are the questions that popped up in my mind…

Titled “questions on a plane”

-       who cleans this interior?

-       Does it ever get cleaned?

-       It looks like it doesn’t…

-       What’s that smell?

-       Is that me??

-       Oh. No. it’s the bathroom. No more row 26 for me, please.

-       How many people are on this plane anyway?

-       One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven, twelve,… wait? Did I just say twelve? Shit. One, two, three…

-       Oh. Wait. 26 rows times 6 people. Ok.

-       That’s an ok amount of people if this thing crashes.

-       Are we there yet?

 

And then we finally were. Or were we!?

But yes, we most definitely were.