Day 7 - Saturday - Big Expo Day

Today was the Scrapbook Expo. Several weeks ago, before I started my "quest" I signed up to volunteer at the expo. They pay $10/hr for a 4 hour shift. Last year I worked it, and for 4 hours stood at a door and told people they couldn't go through it. Easy cash.
I signed up again this year thinking I'd go, get my $40 and go shopping.

With the new "change of heart" and no longer spending I would have blown off the convention, but I had committed to be a volunteer and didn't want to cancel. You loose a $10 "deposit" if you do. The Expo isn't stupid. They know if you have money invested that you'll show up. If the expo has you sign up, and get no money from,  the number of cancellations is HUGE. I know. I have a girlfriend in the industry who works shows all the time and tells me so.

I arrive at 6:45am. They asked us to be there 15 minutes before our shifts. And I end up standing around and waiting to be taken to my assignment until 7:45. One hour of just waiting. OK by me. Their dime and they are paying me to pace the hall and look at class samples while I wait. You're getting paid to to that? Yep. And I'm highly qualified to pace - I've run a marathon! Finally, I get escorted over via hotel bus shuttle, to the Expo Center a cross the street. This is the crop room where for $40 you can crop from 8am-11:30pm.  I was working the check in table. Ask for the ticket, give them their pink wrist band, their paper packet, door prize ticket, and either stamp set or chipboard set, and ask them to write their name on an index card that they will tape to their chair for identification purposes. And so no one takes their spot should they get up to go shop or take a class.

From 8 until 11 I checked women in. The first one's arrived at 8:02. Tagged them, gave them their give aways (They LOVED me) and answered any easy questions that I could. (What's chipboard? Where are the vendors? Will there be snacks? - I think they were eyeing the cases of M&Ms that were behind me at the table.)

It was easy. At 11, I go back to the "main event" via shuttle,  and collect my $46 dollars.  I immediately give them back $6, which is my entry fee into the vendor fair. Sure, why not pay to go into the "lions den" where temptation will surround me.

Let's just say that the aisle have gotten smaller and the women have gotten bigger.  There was 4 aisles, maybe 5.  And the vendors had the same "old" stuff that they have had before.  These shows have become "clearance out" conventions rather then to show case anything new. The women are looking for bargins and not the last or greatest stuff; cash is tight. I understand.  And after having come off a weekend like last weekend, where Robyn and I did see all the latest and greatest, this stuff looked old and dated and they blew the dust off of it in order to put it in the dollar bins.  The "dollar store" scrapbook booth was jammed with women.  The stamps sets of $2.50each/ 2 for $5 was hopping as well as paper by the pound.  That's by how much the paper weighs... not the person.

I buzzed through.  I touched a couple of stamps, but knew I had a bucket full at home which are still in a virgin state and haven't been inked.  I didn't even look at paper. You couldn't even get close to the racks to see any. And they really didn't have a lot of paper. The one new item that did catch my eye and I stopped to look at was a "cold" glue gun.  It didn't take electrical to heat it like glue guns do, and it claimed not to have "glue strings" when you pulled away. They said it was archival safe. BUT for $20 for the gun, $3.95 for a cartridge, or $8.95 for a pack of 4, I wasn't willing to part with my "hard" earned cash. (Well, it' wasn't hard work but I did stand the entire time so I'd burn more calories.) And I already love the glue I use despite the smell it has. (Only I can't even smell it anymore since I use it so much.)

Out the door I went. Success!!! They didn't get me and I didn't buy.  I waited for Robyn outside the convention hall since it was so cold in there my teeth were chattering. We met up and she knew it was  not going to be good when she saw me on the OUTSIDE of the convention hall.
"What?", she said.
"Bad."
"Really bad?"
"Bad."
"Wow!"
"You don't need a thing in there. And you won't like digging in the bins. Or the crowds. We had it good last week."

I slipped off my purple wrist band and gave it to her. Why should we waste another $6 for her to pay the entry fee.  Tag-team shopping works. And I wasn't going back in. There was no need. I had made it through the jungle and survived!  :)