I haven't posted in over a week. I've been kind of busy.
Last week I got sent to a national doll convention near Chicago. Those of you who know where I work will know WHAT doll convention. (The convention was billed as taking place "in" Chicago… don't believe it for a second. Rosemont IL is NOT Chicago. More on that later.)
Now, before I DO get to the joys of Rosemont and the Hyatt Regency O'Hare, let me make an observation… They sent ME. To a Convention. Let's see if I can convey my complete lack of interest in this proposition.
I don't like crowds.
I don't mingle well.
I SUCK at small talk.
I don't do conventions.
My hobbies include movies, books and computer games. My interests are science fiction, fantasy and horror (I'm not limited to these, but they're the top three). There's a lot of overlap in those interests and hobbies. There is NOT a lot of overlap with the world of doll collecting.
Did I mention I don't do conventions? Did I mention I like computer games?
I got a chance to go to the Electronics Entertainment Expo (E3) a few years back. This is mecca for gamers… a chance to get a look at all the new games coming out in the next couple of years, many of which will have never been seen before E3. I went, I spent a day there… and I hated being there so much that, even though the department I work for has had tickets to E3 for each of the past 4 years I've worked there, I've never thought twice about going back. This should give some idea of how much I like going to conventions.
You can imagine my joy at the thought of going to Chicago for a week (in the middle of freaking AUGUST for Christ's sake!) for a doll convention.
And, sadly, it lived up to every one of my expectations. (There may be some case for the argument of self-fulfilling prophecy, but I'm going to reject that one for now.)
First off, the convention was in Rosemont. As far as I'm concerned, the ONLY thing the Hyatt Regency Rosemont has going for it is that it's less than 10 minutes from the airport, so escaping the city at the end of the week was reasonably painless. (Our cab driver back to the airport was quick to point out all the great places to see in Rosemont. I was ready to pummel him into silence by the time he finally dropped us off.)
Of course, being so close to the airport means you're that much farther from the city. It was at least a half-hour cab ride into the city (we went to dinner one night and it cost $45 one way). Half an hour also presumes no traffic to speak of. In the middle of the day or early evening, the city is just THAT much farther away. What this means, of course, is that I spent a week in Chicago and got no closer than the airport (well, all right, no closer than the Rosemont Convention Center).
AND, despite the fact that I live in Los Angeles (which has just topped San Francisco as the most expensive place in the country to live) I STILL was stunned at the prices they were charging in this damn hotel. $2.75 for a pint bottle of water. $1.30 for an extra shot of espresso (yes, I know how presumptuous that sounds… bear with me), a $3 fee to take money out of an ATM (added, of course, onto the $2 my bank already charges). I was in their little snack shop and noticed a bunch of pint bottles of alcohol for sale… for $21 a bottle—didn't matter which brand or what liquor.
As for the convention itself? What can I say… large crowds of people, talking about their hobby with me smiling on, taking pictures whenever it occurred to me it might look good on the website and doing my best to balance drinking enough to be able to feign mingling without drinking so much that I make a fool of myself in front of my bosses and other people I have to work with on a daily basis.
Words can't express my overwhelming joy that this ordeal is over. Well, till next year's freaking convention.
(one brief aside… I do have to acknowledge that I met and hung out with a lot of cool people at the convention. Lisa, our team's writer, has been to a lot of conventions and knows the best groups to hang with, so that part wasn't too bad. I've got nothing against the people at the convention, you understand. It's just the whole idea of a convention I have problems with.)
Last week I got sent to a national doll convention near Chicago. Those of you who know where I work will know WHAT doll convention. (The convention was billed as taking place "in" Chicago… don't believe it for a second. Rosemont IL is NOT Chicago. More on that later.)
Now, before I DO get to the joys of Rosemont and the Hyatt Regency O'Hare, let me make an observation… They sent ME. To a Convention. Let's see if I can convey my complete lack of interest in this proposition.
I don't like crowds.
I don't mingle well.
I SUCK at small talk.
I don't do conventions.
My hobbies include movies, books and computer games. My interests are science fiction, fantasy and horror (I'm not limited to these, but they're the top three). There's a lot of overlap in those interests and hobbies. There is NOT a lot of overlap with the world of doll collecting.
Did I mention I don't do conventions? Did I mention I like computer games?
I got a chance to go to the Electronics Entertainment Expo (E3) a few years back. This is mecca for gamers… a chance to get a look at all the new games coming out in the next couple of years, many of which will have never been seen before E3. I went, I spent a day there… and I hated being there so much that, even though the department I work for has had tickets to E3 for each of the past 4 years I've worked there, I've never thought twice about going back. This should give some idea of how much I like going to conventions.
You can imagine my joy at the thought of going to Chicago for a week (in the middle of freaking AUGUST for Christ's sake!) for a doll convention.
And, sadly, it lived up to every one of my expectations. (There may be some case for the argument of self-fulfilling prophecy, but I'm going to reject that one for now.)
First off, the convention was in Rosemont. As far as I'm concerned, the ONLY thing the Hyatt Regency Rosemont has going for it is that it's less than 10 minutes from the airport, so escaping the city at the end of the week was reasonably painless. (Our cab driver back to the airport was quick to point out all the great places to see in Rosemont. I was ready to pummel him into silence by the time he finally dropped us off.)
Of course, being so close to the airport means you're that much farther from the city. It was at least a half-hour cab ride into the city (we went to dinner one night and it cost $45 one way). Half an hour also presumes no traffic to speak of. In the middle of the day or early evening, the city is just THAT much farther away. What this means, of course, is that I spent a week in Chicago and got no closer than the airport (well, all right, no closer than the Rosemont Convention Center).
AND, despite the fact that I live in Los Angeles (which has just topped San Francisco as the most expensive place in the country to live) I STILL was stunned at the prices they were charging in this damn hotel. $2.75 for a pint bottle of water. $1.30 for an extra shot of espresso (yes, I know how presumptuous that sounds… bear with me), a $3 fee to take money out of an ATM (added, of course, onto the $2 my bank already charges). I was in their little snack shop and noticed a bunch of pint bottles of alcohol for sale… for $21 a bottle—didn't matter which brand or what liquor.
As for the convention itself? What can I say… large crowds of people, talking about their hobby with me smiling on, taking pictures whenever it occurred to me it might look good on the website and doing my best to balance drinking enough to be able to feign mingling without drinking so much that I make a fool of myself in front of my bosses and other people I have to work with on a daily basis.
Words can't express my overwhelming joy that this ordeal is over. Well, till next year's freaking convention.
(one brief aside… I do have to acknowledge that I met and hung out with a lot of cool people at the convention. Lisa, our team's writer, has been to a lot of conventions and knows the best groups to hang with, so that part wasn't too bad. I've got nothing against the people at the convention, you understand. It's just the whole idea of a convention I have problems with.)
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