It's been a LOOONG year.
The year started with a nice, calm New Year's Day followed by two days of work before showtime. One of which was a blizzard followed by some crazy cold days, then a Sunday show set-up followed by two days alone at the ENK show because Claudia got a terrible migraine. I spent those days at the show, writing some orders and worrying that I would be going alone to Atlanta for a week if poor Claudia didn't get better in time for our flight. Thankfully, Claudia rebounded in true Lisa August style. We met up at Laguardia and 'feasted' on some Auntie Ann's (this is unacceptable) for dinner, since everything else was closed. We were the only flight in the airport as we waited for our plane to get there, crossing our fingers for four hours that our plane would not be cancelled like the rest were, stranding us 1 mile from my apartment. Miracle of miracles, we took off around 12:45, landed at 3:45AM and got into bed at our hotel at 5AM, what a day! We slept til ten, set up the show painlessly and relaxed in the afternoon until dinner, a very good dinner which blew Auntie Ann's out of the water!
The next morning, day one of a four and a half day show we were full of positive feelings, hopes and excitement. These feelings were crushed a little, and we quickly remembered how large and maze like the Americas Mart can be. We soon realized that our booth was considered (the following terms were overheard being said right by our booth) "a dead end", "a black hole" and my personal favorite: "blocked". Not blocked! Not blocked! I love a good learning or relearning experience, and I do think we could do really well in Atlanta, we were just not presented well to the buyers.
I also came across a lot of low-end tortoise imports, which I don't have the displeasure of seeing as much in New York since the shows we do are on the high end side, so I'm sheltered a little from the knock offs I felt surrounded by in Atlanta.
All in all, I find the people of Atlanta to be extremely welcoming and friendly. I will definitely miss the southern hospitality when I'm fighting my way off the next subway I take. In particular, the GM of the hotel we stayed at drove Claudia and I to the show Saturday morning in his pick-up when there was flood and tornado warnings going off left and right. That just does not happen every day (the ride and the tornado, because there really was one of course!) There's also some great food there-next blog will be a roundup of places to go in ATL...
This Saturday the 18th will be my first day off since New Year's and I look forward to it, it will also be little Lenore's birthday, so Happy Birthday, partner!
PS-I apologize for the negativity, here's a link to my Thanksgiving post, because I am truly grateful, I'm just exhausted!
Giving Thanks
