Convention - Day Four

Hmm - ghosts and goblins and nightmares?

We had a free night last night and when I had popped out to pick up the geocache the previous night, I had picked up a couple of brochures on walking and bus tours in the city. I checked them out and decided that I could make the 5:30 PM walking ghost tour. There were bus tours of the cemeteries but they were much later and I didn't want to have to work my way back to the hotel by myself. Anyway, I popped down to the tourist office and got signed up for the ghost tour.

It was pretty cool to get some of the history of some of the buildings. Some of it was probably made up, some of it was not. Who knows? Anyway, it was fun. We ended the tour about 4 blocks from the hotel and on the way back, I found a restaurant and popped in for a beer and some dinner. I had had a large lunch so I wasn't too hungry, but had a salad and some chicken (or was that crocodile or alligator??)  Anyway then a wee bit closer to the hotel, I found a candy shop that made fudge, pralines (supposedly a specialty here) and chocolates. After tasting several samples, I ended up buying ONE praline. Even though I drank loads of water yesterday, my body is not happy with the diet. I could be better - I'll make it up when I get home. Although I am being pretty good.

Just so you know, the street I walked home on was much quieter and calmer and appeared a whole lot safer than Bourbon Street which was four blocks away. There are tons of boutique hotels (small hotels) and the rooms are tiny. We got to see a room where supposedly Elvis stayed and apparently Hilary Clinton stayed in this hotel (which is supposed to be haunted) as well.

So I get back to the hotel and I do a bit of computer work and chat with my roommate and then it's time to turn out the lights. On each of the previous nights, I fall asleep before the lights are turned out. Last night - not going to happen. I'm wide awake! Oh drat - now what? Why can't I sleep? Am I too keyed up??  Too many thoughts of ghost stories in my head? It wasn't a great night for sleep.

When the lights did go out and I'm tossing and turning  - at one point I see something and wonder what the heck it is.  Oh the wrist bands they gave us are glow in the dark! And they gave me two!

I thought I might have a nightmare as one of the stories (and places we stopped at) the story was very recent and the people were very well known.  If you want to read a gruesome murder/suicide story - check out Zack Bowen on the internet.

So did I have a nightmare? Well yes so to speak. My nightmare was that I ended up at the airport and after being there for about a half hour, I realized that I had forgotten to check out of the hotel (only because I didn't have my phone charger with me) and I had left everything else at the hotel. Nothing was packed although I'm a neat hotel person anyway. I had time to get back to the hotel, but what could I do? I asked someone if I could get the number of the hotel and I ended up getting an Maroon Five T-shirt with their phone number on it. Then I decided to go back to the hotel to get my stuff and a lady called a cab for me. It was an old decrepit thing with room in the front so I crawled in only to have the driver say - get in the back which meant crawling over what looked like car batteries in the space where one would put your feet. Then I arrived at the hotel and felt like I was having an asthma attack as I approached the elevators. Then I woke up!!!!

How silly is that?  Anyway, we still have one more day and will be making our way to the airport tomorrow. I think the phone charger was on my mind because I unplug it everyday and put it in my backpack. I had unplugged it before going to bed because my phone was charged and the charger cord dropped on the floor when I unplugged my phone in the dark. Amazing how our brains work.

So yesterday morning we had all the speeches and product introductions for the PFAFF side of the business. Some of it was repetition but that's OK - just another opportunity to solidify all that information in my head. Then we had another motivational speaker. At first I didn't think I was going to like this guy. He was a bit of a weird duck, but he thoroughly entertained us and then had some serious messages about attitude, customer service, NO complaining and stuff like that. I really enjoyed it and was glad that I stayed for that part. I know some of the others did not stay. Humor seems to be a big part of motivational speaking these days.

I had a class in the afternoon and I have to say that it was the first one that I was disappointed in. It was all based on software at the machine - learning the StitchCreator on the PFAFF side. It's a difficult class to teach and there were many in the room that didn't understand all the functions on the screen. I have to confess that I was one of those, but caught on quickly. The first half of the class where we were making (modifying existing stitches) was a lot of fun and I caught onto that pretty quickly. The second part was bringing in those stitches to create shapes to put on the screen so we could embroider them out. If you missed one of the numbers (and it was on a handout but only shown on the overhead screen) you were toast. There was one person besides the teacher to help. If we would have had the handout, we could have gone back and fixed the problem, but we didn't have the handout. It will be e-mailed to us.

I feel badly about walking out, but I wasn't the only one. Yes - I could have asked for help, but there were too many asking for help. I'm trying to think how the class could be handled differently so that wouldn't have happened. It could be done, but it was a tough class to teach and to follow. I'll do the exercise when I get home and then create the stitch-out when I can follow all the steps. I learned things in the class so it wasn't a total waste.

And then I went to my ghost tour! I went by myself which I'm OK with. Oh yes - I should mention that while I was in the restaurant, I was checking Facebook and Instagram and someone had mentioned that I should get my fortune told while I was here. I've never wanted to do that, but I thought - why not? There seems to be so much Voodoo and other weird things here. I asked the two young girls who were standing outside the restaurant (they belonged there as they were encouraging people to come into their restaurant). I asked them where I could get my fortune told. The one girl said - can I give you a recommendation? I said YES. She said - don't get your fortune told!  I laughed, said thank you and found the candy shop!

I'm becoming very friendly with the engineer guys from Sweden. Gave them two more suggestions based on my class - this time it was all about the software. Talked to a vendor about those cool sewing chairs with the storage in the seats and did you know that those chairs with the storage and the lumbar support are modeled after the old sewing stools/square benches that had a storage space in them? That is so cool.

Met more dealers in Canada yesterday - sitting with new people at lunch is a great way to learn stuff and to met some of the SVP people including Jamie. Everyone loves Jamie. He's a Scot who lives in Britain and helps design all those beautiful extension tables and other add on products that I love. Way to go Jamie! And he's a sewist/quilter so he knows his stuff. He has been for years. I also learned that they have people with textile degrees who are helping them design stuff by using the products. That's so exciting that we have people who use the products in a very heavy way that are helping to make the products better. I LIKE THAT and I have to say that it shows in the new products.

I'm thinking that if I had my wits about me, I could have bought a history book (ghost story book) about New Orleans when I visited the book stores earlier in the week. I could still pop out to one bookstore at lunch. All three of the stores are very close to the hotel and now I'm intrigued.

On that note, it's time to get ready for breakfast for which I am somewhat hungry, but I had better eat - I'm grumpy when I'm hungry.

Have a super day!!!

Ciao!