It just isn’t my neighborhood, that’s all. I am sitting in the Outer Richmond area of San Francisco, on a clear and most likely entirely sunny day. I got eight hours of sleep in a row and frankly I’m not sure what to do with myself.
Here’s the deal:
I have been in SF since Monday morning for Macworld. You’d think it was just because you’ve ever met me ever, I know, but actually it was for work. My day job asked me to come so I have been here all week working in the booth on the exhibit hall floor, demoing software and giving talks. It was fun but I tell you what, four days of Tradeshow Verso is very hard on regular Verso. (:
Yes I got to go to the Stevenote, I got to go last year so I have seen the RDF in full effect, and very nearly passed out as a result, but this year was still fun. I got to sit in a chair for one thing, last year I sat on the floor! So that was nice. Plus this year one of the people from my company who came also got to go, and I hung with him in line so that was nice, last year I was alone and that was not so fun. When you have to stand outside a building in the January darkness of 4am it’s really nice to have someone there with you. Plus I like him, he used to be my boss and he’s a reasonably social person so we get on well. Another person who got to go was my current boss which was awesome, he’d never been and he got to have a little enjoyment I think.
So I spent the days in the booth smiling at people and showing them software, and also giving presentations in the little theater we set up in our booth. It was fun but it’s tiring and it’s VERY hard on my voice. I sound mostly normal today but I have none of the high range of my voice so when I get all excited I now sound like I switched over to a frequency only dogs can hear, I go up and up and then nothing. Last year though I could barely talk by Friday night so that’s a HUGE improvement, considering how this year went down.
Last year I was TOTALLY new to the tradeshow thing (as far as my company goes anyway) and I hadn’t spent a lot of time with any of these folks so I held back a bit, being sort of the new person in the group. We went out to dinner and such, and we had drinks once or twice but that was about it. This year was TOTALLY different! I know it was like this last year too but I wasn’t really up for it being new and all. If I’d had as much after hours fun last year as I had this year I don’t think I would have survived Macworld! I had fun with some tradeshow folks from some of the other companies and one of the guys in our office who is also very capable of a good time, and we partied in a suite one of our guys got upgraded to, and it was all a good time, we had a company dinner with awesome italian food, just all around it was great, there was not one night I ended up spending by myself and I loved it.
As for where it is I’m actually sitting, I’m sure there’s a good name that I’m totally missing out on but here goes. I’m staying with my friend Commander Fabulous whom I adore, and yes I adored him before he offered to take me sightseeing this weekend and let me stay in his guest room. (: He’s working on a film and has some control panels from it in the guest room so I slept in a room wtih all manner of control panels and odd cables and displays which was awesome, but also is why I know there’s a better name than I’ll come up with. I’ll think of something!
So yesterday afternoon I was finally freed from my duties at the booth so I took my stuff to the Commander’s place to get settled and got together with my friend Digital Droo whom you may remember from last year’s post-Macworld escapades. We went to a highly acceptable pizza place and got a chance to hang out and catch up, and I got to see his new offices too. Then I met up with the Commander and we went back to his place and I tell you, full of a great week of tradeshow and awesome pizza it was really easy to get to sleep. So now I’m excited to go spend the day in the city I can see out my window. I can tell we’re going to have the BEST time, I’m SO glad I got to stay and do more touristy stuff. I am not the loveliest of people when it comes to first thing in the AM but I got loads of sleep and I am so looking forward to the rest of the day so the Commander is totally going to be treated to a version of me that does not generally exist, the OMG YAY IT’S MORNING version.
