I'm Back!
I had planned on blogging from Comdex. Unfortunately although I was in a convention center with approximately 50 billion computers all running at the same time, I couldn't get close enough to one to blog. Here is a quick rundown of my week in Vegas.

Saturday 11
We flew out of Rochester in the morning, Aaron through Cleveland, Andy and I through Chicago. Everyone else was either already in Vegas or coming later. I'm no mathematical genius, but I should have been able to figure out that our flight was 5 hours long, not 8 due to the 3 hour time difference. Sad, sad, sad.

Andy and I almost missed our connection in Chicago because we were lured by the siren call of Cinnabon. But we all made it to Las Vegas. On our shuttle ride to the Flamingo, where we were staying (everything is pink), I nearly had a Pokemon seizure from all the lights. No one in Vegas has to own a flashlight.

Sunday 12
My feet! My feet! Today I started working at the Las Vegas convention center. I roamed about the convention center taking pictures of dazed attendees so they could then go to our booth and send picture postcards. Not even my years of waitressing in college prepared me for the repetitious chanting of "Hi! Can I take your picture for Faces of Comdex? Blah, blah, blah" over and over. Plus, I was decked out in a blaze yellow polo shirt with KODAK in huge letters across the back. Some people actually had to ask me "So who do you work for?" At least I wasn't in a film canister costume.

At least I learned something today. For all of my 27 years I believed the word "avocado" to have two "D's". I entirely thought the fruit? vegetable? was "advocado". That's how I spelled it. That's how I pronounced it. Until I saw it spelled out on a menu at Dive with Tina, Tony and Andy. I asked them to confirm the true spelling and now I think they are in doubt of my intelligence. The shame.

Monday 13
Oh my feet. I am meeting some interesting characters too. Two people took MY picture. Some wanted their picture taken WITH me. Ugghh. But most people are friendly, even if they don't want their picture taken. I have met folks from England, France, Italy, Kuwait, India, New Zealand, Australia and Chili. I think they came for the free T-shirts.

After long day Aaron and I slid up and down the strip checking out the sites. Vegas is like a Disney World for grown ups. They are losing money on us because we aren't gamblers. We went to see the pirate show with sinking ship at Treasure Island, the volcano at The Mirage the canals and gondolas at the Venetian, and the amazing fountains at the Bellagio (my favorite). Dinner on the set of "Batman" where the batsignal kept blinding me, at the Warner Brothers Studio 16 restaurant and I was done for the day.

Tuesday 14
My feet! My feet! I can no longer feel my feet. At least today, we altered one of my badges to sneak Aaron into the convention. He spent the day cruising the exhibits snatching up freebies. He acquired quite a collection of T-shirts and pens. After the convention we were all obliged to go hear our CEO, Dan Carp give a keynote address. I get choked up every time I hear that "True Colors" song.

I would say the highlight (for Aaron) this evening was eating at the Harley Davidson Cafe. We hardly even talked. He just gazed about with an awed look on his face. I did managed to pry him away and we went to see the roller coaster at New York, New York, the dragon show at Excalibur, the Sphinx at Luxor and the lions at MGM Grand. And hallelujah, Vegas has Crispy Creme!

Wednesday 15
I have been here so long people think I am a Comdex info guide and ask me for directions. Sad thing is I DO know how to get to the Handspring exhibit.

Tonight the company took everyone from kodak.com that was at the convention out to dinner. At first we flinched at the prices but then when we thought about how much time we were spending on the exhibit floor we went to town. The servers were like the penguins in Mary Poppins. They didn't bring one dish out at a time. A whole team of servers came out to deliver all fourteen of our plates at once. It was plush, and my feet deserved it.

Thursday 16
I was so thrilled this was my last day! I felt badly that everyone else still had one more day to work back at the booth, but it didn't stop me from dancing out of there.

Tina and Tony had the afternoon off, so with Aaron, we all went out to Red Rock Canyon to look around. I liked the rich red color of the sand and rocks. But I didn't see any wild burros.

Today was Tina's Birthday, so we went out to get Rock Star Outfits to wear to Baby's Nightclub at Hard Rock Hotel. I got tight black pants and a shiny shirt. Tina got sparkly velvet pants and Aaron got vinyl pants *snicker*. We were really excited to see what Tony would show up in. We were sure he would pull something spectacular out his sleeve. We would all look fabulous. We would dance the night away. BUT when we came down from changing into our outfits, there was Ted, Andy and Tony in plain old chinos and button up shirts. We had to be Rock Stars without them.

Friday 17
Our last day in Vegas and Aaron and I caught a bus tour to Hoover Dam. It was huge. It was amazing. And I enjoyed trotting around saying things like, "Where's our dam tour guide? Is there a dam gift shop?" The highlight was devouring foot long hot dogs called "Dam Dogs".

We caught a red eye out of town that night. I had gambled $20 in Vegas, came home with $30.

Viva Las Vegas.