Jim's trip to GA

GA day 1.Not too eventful at all actually. I spent very little relaxation time while in the airports. It was rus from one to the other with one stop at a pizza hut express for a buffalo chicken pizza (which was delish by the way).Now I sit in the plane awaiting my fate at Atlanta. Arrival at te hotel meant taking a rather decent trip by shuttle to the hotel Marriot. Here through the automatic revolving doors I stayed on the fourth floor and I crashed there for the night after some inspection of the hotel and two pieces of Ika Sushi. (delish by the way, the man making the sushi was from Japan but living within the United States for the past 25 years.)
GA day 2Vaughn and I wake up at some time after about 9 or so and we go check out the hotel together. When we realized that there was literally no one ther from the fair association and that there would not be any registration until 2pm, we decided to grab some lunch at a McDonalds. The walk from the hotel to the food was apporx 2 miles and filled with nothing worthwhile to remark about other than a Coca Cola Bottling plant. We returned to the hotel at about 1:30 in the afternnon and went to the registration desk and grabbed out papers. Charles Inman was the secratary at the reg. Desk. Oh! I did learn something new about Georgia that I had heard about before. Georgia is famous for peanuts. The dinner auction was tonight and this was the first major event in which I would have to meet a whole slew of people. The task was simple enough, all I had to do was balance junk on my face,, dance and shuffle baout cutely, and make some people laugh. Here in Georgia, unlike any other state I have been to, there was an absolutely homely feel to the people here. I could look people in the eye and have conversations with them unlike anything I could have in a place like california with a stranger. Undoubtedly, you get into a conversation with someone down there, you are bound to hear portions of thier life story. I was at a table with a group of amusement groups and one group that gave camel rides at fairs. But rarely was I ever at the table long enough to sustain any type of proper conversation. [one important thing to note about how I talk to people and get thier attention: I comment profusely on the clothing and hairstyles of the people. I look for originality in clothing and hair that is commendable and then remark up on it, and with that I have struck up a conversation and eventually this conversation spreads around entire tables until I have met everyone in the building. if this originality does not exist at a table, then I resort to balancing somethign in their vicinity until I get some eye contact and BAM it's done. It's a good thing I love to talk to people, but after a convention I get to a point where I need a moment of silence in a blue moon. So that auction, I was able to sit and walk around balancing chairs and tables on my face while also joking around wirth some people in such ways. For instance, one man and I were joking about me actaully being clark kent and superman. With every time I used the restroom and came back, this very same mane would come by and joke about the auction and how they have called out and JIm Kent has won something and all I would have to do is lift my hand to get it. (an absolutely terrible idea at an auction) My only difficulty at these events is getting all the names and faces straight with thier fair association and groups. Honestly, I do not recall all the fiars I have tlaked to, but I can tell you most of the names of everyone I talked to that night at the dinner. Richard, richard, rick, ray, kevin , kevin, bobby, bobby, jim, jim, jim, clara, etc.. When the dinner was done, everyone scattered like cockraoches in the light, not a soul was to be seen of these fairs after the dinner. Vaughn and I retired later that night after making a couple of sweeps of the hotel for other fairs around.
GA Day 3Breakfast buffet, nothing is quite as sweet as hearing those words fall out of the sky. I was the "california noob" to the southern traditions. Here at our table, the georgia state fair people, vaughn and I chit chatted a bit about everything. I balanced a chair and a spoon and fork on my face. Well, it came to a point where the ga state fair rep that was at our table asked me if I had tried any grit, and I have not. So I was sent to try the succulent grits that were made that morning. This was not instant grits, this was straight up legit grits home made and prepared at the hotel. I grabbed a medium sized bowl of it not realizing that it would hit me like a ton of bricks in about 2 minutes after eating it. The sudden fullness of my stomach and my comment upon it made everyone giggle, apparently I was the only one there that really didn't know about grits. I ran into the man who was severely joking with me the night before and there were more commetns strews about each other and the whole table was up in arms with happiness. Immediately following the breakfast, the assiciates went to their meetings and we went to the trade shwo room to complete the setting up of our booth until lunch time came around. During the set up, I managed to put a table up onto my face and impress the heck out of everyone there. But ultimately, I really only balance things on my face because of the exileration it brings and the joy it brings others. Lunch was a simply delightful event. There is a breed of people that I can get along with rather immediately, there is a group dynamic that exists where I can flourish. It typically has one charming but hilarious man who says the most random things ever, there is the one who gets made fun of, but has prestige about him, and then there is the others who comments without saying a word and lastly, there is the comfotable "normal" people around the table as well. This combination is perfect for me. And at lunch, I managed to grab a table with a fair group that I would eventually talk to in a business sense. I eventually places a plate, cup, fork, knife, chair, and tray on my face for these people. Ant to top it all off, I did the traditional floating spoon trick with my napkin and spoon. When we had all eaten, charles inman decided to let all the entertainment give a bit of a word about thier act. I was the 3rd from last to go up there, and for good reason. I searched the hallways when I heard about the talk I had to give, and I grabbed the medium sized bench that was in the hallway. Upon coming up to the stage, charles inman gave a quick witted remark about me and then I grabbed rthe mike and sat on my bench. Befoer I was able to say a word, the table I was sitting at all stood up and clapped and laughed loudly, to which I responded with an I love you too, a brush of the hair and a wink. I gave a quick synopsis of our show and then closed out with a big shocker, I lifted the large bench up to my chin and impressed the pants off of the crowd. After that, I was known as the guy who balanced stuff on his face and wore the red scarf. [if I ever decide to write a biography, i just might have to name it "The man with the red scarf who never shut up]With lunch done and the humorist undertaker finishing his routine for the convention, I headed out to the trade show and began "Struttin my stuff." For the first two hours of the tradeshow, it has been busy. Vaugh and I talked about everthing to everyone. Every once in a while I would go outside of the tradesow hall and balanced stuff on my face while vaughn remained inside for the groups that might possibly come thorrough there and want to talk. According to the announcement at lunch, the trade show ran from 2 to 4 instead of the 2 to 6 that the signs outside said. apparently there was a typo in the program and the trade show really only lasts until 4pm. IN all honesty, there was nothin goin when 4 o'clock came around, I would flutter about at that time and try to get everything from anybody there, but it was no use, most of the fairs had already headed out and went to dinner. None of them would come back until later that evening where there were supposedly parties. But even then, I saw more fairs head to their private rooms to sleep than anything else. I walked the halls of the hotel, all of them to find a party somewhere but my search was in vain. There was ABSOLUTELY NOTHING going on in the way of fairs going to rooms. I am going to assume that those parties are relly only held on saturday night after a couple of drinks. Then again, this place had not scheduled a president's party at all, which begs the question, are these people really partiers at all anyway. But after fuitless search and conversation, I did manage to find one room, entirely on accident, that was on the top floor with a glorious view of the entire city below. It was gorgeous beyond all measure and means. AH!, I am a sucker for midnight landscapes and music in the background. But it would be there I would stay for a little bit and have a bit of meditation time, some time to think about life and what I was doing with it. Needless to say the moment was picturesque.I got to the room weary after talking with one more fair board member on the way through the elevators.
GA day 4Exaustion can be a terrible thing, as Helen Inman pointed out to me at the convention "Do you ever stop moving" and my response was "no" I would beg to say that I walk at least 15 miles through the corridors, pacing about, looking for people and such. needless to say I got up and with much frustration tried to acquire my tickets from the little terminals in the front office area with no success repeatedly. Other than this wondrous mishap, I got to the airport after some chit chatting with some fair board members at the hotel and made my weary way back to california waiting on news from the committees.