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Cat Show
February 12, 2006

The Game of Life
January 28, 2006

Survey and Victory
January 21, 2006

Pictures of Babies
January 17, 2006

A Buinicky is Born!
January 13, 2006

Holiday Wrap-Up
January 11, 2006

20 Best Photos
of 2005
December 31, 2005

The Travesty of
the Xmas Tree
Industry
December 24, 2005

Star Wars Exhibit
December 13, 2005

Hip-Hop
December 1, 2005

Turkey dinner!
November 21, 2005

The superiority of
Geeks/Nerds/Dorks
November 10, 2005

Halloween Party
October 30, 2005

Spirituality
October 23, 2005

Baptisms
FEMA video
October 17, 2005

Lewis Black
Mike's Birthday
October 13, 2005

Wedding Weekend
October 1–2, 2005

On February 3, I left for my very first trip to Ohio EVER, to work at a Reading Recovery conference in Columbus. It was on very short notice (only about a week) because one of the girls who was supposed to go hurt her back and couldn't travel.

FYI, Reading Recovery is a program to bring kids who are having trouble learning how to read back up to their grade level. And the company I work for had just published two books that are practically the new bibles for anyone who works in Reading Recovery. Add to that the fact that the author did a book signing at the conference, and you've got one insanely busy booth. Plus, for the majority of the time we were there it was only two people working at the booth at a time!

All of the pictures I took in Ohio were either from the plane or the hotel. I only went outside three times while I was there, since the convention hall where the conference was was connected to our hotel. So I didn't do any sightseeing at all. Not that there was really much to see anyway, it being Ohio and all... :D But we were EXHAUSTED at the end of the day anyway, after moving around heavy boxes of books all day, and being on our feet the whole time with MAYBE a fifteen minute break to grab lunch.

Once the convention hall closed, we pretty much only had energy to hobble to our hotel rooms and pass the fuck out. I had to take baths Saturday and Sunday night just to relieve the pain from my aching muscles. Goddammit I am out of shape! :D

And now, some lists, just because I can. :)

Top 10 Most Common Questions Asked in Ohio: 1. Do you have Choice Words?
2. Do you have the Word Choices?
3. Do you have the Johnston book, Choices?
4. Do you have Teaching Struggling Readers?
5. Do you have Struggling Readers?
6. Do you have About the Authors?
7. Is this the new guidebook?
8. It's two parts?
9. When is Marie Clay signing?
10. Where is Marie Clay signing books?

Top 5 Stupidest Questions Asked in Ohio:

1. Do you have a list of your competitors?
2. Why don't you have any bags left?
3. Do you carry any books from other companies?
4. Do you sell "Blink"?
5. Are you with the grapes people?

Top 10 Most Annoying Things That Happened in Ohio:

1. Running out of all change (i.e. ones, fives, and all coins) and having someone hand you a $50 bill for something that cost $11.31.
2. The register deciding to charge people tax three times when there was a line sbout 100 feet long and having NO FUCKING CLUE how the hell to fix it.
3. Knocking Leigh's smoothie onto the carpet and not having anything even vaguely resembling a paper towel to clean it up with and just having to stand there and keep ringing people up because the line was, again, about 100 feet long (no exaggeration).
4. After getting onto the plane to come home, after we had busted our asses to pack up and get to the airport and all of our muscles were in pain and we were just exhausted, when the pilot told us that we might have to wait 45 minutes while they fixed the navigation system before we took off.
5. The sandwich I bought at Subway on Sunday, which had mold on the bread.
6. Not having a monitor for our cash register when we arrived, forcing Dusty to frantically find someone to rent one from.
7. People who didn't understand that THE EXHIBIT HALL CLOSED TEN MINUTES AGO AND OUR FEET FUCKING HURT.
8. Having extremely limited access to decent bottled water (Ice Mountain BLOWS).
9. Exorbitant charges tacked onto already exorbitantly high room service bills.
10. Running out of bags halfway through the conference. Woohoo!

Top 10 Best Things About the Trip to Ohio:

1. The Cajun Chicken Linguini at Barley's, where we went to watch the superbowl. Oh. My. God. I've been craving it ever since.
2. The spinach dip at the Big Bar on 2, where we grabbed dinner after we arrived on Friday.
3. Knowing Uncle Heinemann is paying for the exorbitant charges for room service, and all other meals I ate this weekend, including the 10 bottles of water I consumed (not kidding), and Leigh's smoothie, which I knocked onto the floor by accident and it spilled all over the carpet and there was nothing I could do except apologize profusely.
4. Selling a ridiculous amount of books (over $35,000 worth, not kidding)
5. Customers just LOVING the company we work for, it's so nice to know we make a difference for these people.
6. The candy that some of the other vendors had, and I shamelessly took, and brought back to our booth.
7. Packing our shit up in fucking 20 minutes when it took us over FOUR HOURS to set up!
8. Free HBO! Woohoo!
9. Bonding with Dusty and Leigh
10. Arnie, our new Ohio rep, who swiped chairs for us to sit on (and we would've had to have paid $45 per chair per day for!) on the last day we were there!

Here's to approximately 40 hours of overtime! Woohoo!

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