Yesterday morning I stopped at the Starbucks inside the hotel for a cup of hot tea to soothe my throat. It was raspy from a lack of sleep, and from straining my voice in the lounge the night before to speak above the bar chatter. As I approached the cashier to order, I glanced at the chalkboard on the wall and was surprised to see a big "Welcome" greeting with my company's dog and cat logo, including our famous tag line: "where the pets go". It was a pleasant surprise, one which prompted me to leave my change from the transaction in the "tip jar" for the staff. 
While walking to the convention center I passed these rows of palm trees, towering over my head. And then a few short minutes later I had ascended to the top floor and found myself looking down over the top of those very same palm trees. Anyway, it doesn't seem like much now but I thought it was an interesting change in my perspective. .
Anyway, I was rushing to the convention center Ballroom for my early morning address at the General Session. I checked in with the production team and was promptly sent to our backstage "hair and makeup" stylist. She looked me over and decided I needed "some work". Apparently, my eyes are set too far back and my forehead seemed shiny. She proceeded to apply some sort of makeup, AND to my horror, a "natural" color lipstick. I knew I'd be on stage under hot lights and on camera, but I didn't think it would be necessary to wear lipstick. I'm still waiting for a photo from our staff photographers-perhaps I can post it next week, but colleagues in the audience who watched me on "the big screen" said they didn't notice I was "made up" (whew).
Shortly after my presentation, they served fresh organic fruit on skewers. Some of them were even drizzled with organic chocolate (see photo above right). It was a refreshing snack. Looking at all six tables of the fresh fruit, it was hard to believe it cost $4,000. I should go into the catering business.
Well, sorry for the boring posts all this week. I guess I was too busy doing "work" to capture the really exciting aspects of our trade show. (And today I was scraping for this post). I'm heading back home to Palm Springs today, and I'm taking next Monday and Tuesday off from work so I can recharge my batteries. That will also give me some time to get caught up on everyone else's blogs. Thanks for stopping by today.
-Rick Rockhill
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