Going to the Show

Tonight's the night. Tomorrow, I head for the majors and I have my shower shoes ready. Make that my snow boots...

I sit in the relative quiet of the evening preparing mentally for the seven days ahead. I wanted to post one last time in peace before I get swept away. For once, everything on the list was accomplished well enough and in time enough or successfully triaged. No, I did not make it to Home Depot for lights or the office supply store for catalog materials today, but I did get new tires on the van. There is a Home Depot and an office supply store (Staples, I think) just down the street from the hotel in Phildelphia. I will buy a snow brush/ice scraper at a gas station further north where they are common.

I did get the order for the Art Institute of Chicago boxed up and scheduled for pick-up tomorrow with UPS. I did not get the dinnerware commission fused, which will make Tuesday and Wednesday after my return from Philly before leaving for LA exciting (the dinnerware must be in Wisconsin by 3/4 and I will be in California drinking heavily from 2/23 -2/28). I made a cool display stand out of PVC and spray painted it black this afternoon. It is a bit wobbly, but I will cable-tie it to a table and it will be fine.

So I sit here after a few glasses of sangria and I organize my lists. I have a list of glass pieces to show, a list of tools to take, a list of display materials... a list of everything and anything I might need for seven days away from home At The Show. Andrea, my savior, has offered to help me with my website after The Show and I am going to take her up on it. There are just some things woman was not meant to do alone. She and her husband will also be in LA from Chicago for the long weekend of debauchery (2/23-2/28) and I am so looking forward to seeing her.

So back to the show. It is tightly timed, but I think it will all work out. I will take my laptop and printer and finish the catalogs in the hotel and print them all out there. I bought yards and yards of red organza today to drape my booth with. I have white foamcore walls and they have a tacky potential that I hope to mitigate with the red organza. My carpet is also red and my display pieces are black and white. I have a 10 X 15 booth all to myself this time, and I am a bit afraid. But Nancy and Sara will be there, and my Mom is coming with me as my faithful assistant--Igor, Tonto, George AND Bess (get that reference, I dare you), Robin, Toto, Laurel, and Jerry all rolled into one, that's my Mom.

And when I get back I will worry about book contracts and kiln lid replacements and how to get all the orders from the BMAC out while writing a book and building a pond and preparing for a busy art fair season. Tonight, I have my tunnel vision on and all I see is the BMAC...and lots of snow.