Champagne Dreams
Well, yesterday’s 9,408 steps seems like a halcyon dreams because today we hit 12,919 steps at Atlanta Gift Mart. GOODNESS GRACIOUS. And here is the thing that no one really tells you about attending this event…every vendor gives you bags and catalogs, so we were basically pack mules as our day ended and we schlepped it back to the hotel with 20 pounds of paper goods. By the end 12,919 felt like 22,919.
And none of that is to say that we didn’t thoroughly enjoy ourselves today, because we did. We enjoyed one store so much that we willingly carried around their 1,100 page catalog for the remainder of the day so that we can later carefully review all the things we want in the peace and quiet of our hotel room. And then in less daunting showrooms, we made some careful selections for PJP. All in all, it took us nine hours to cover ten floors of the second building. That said, we fully availed ourselves of the free beverages, snacks, swag, and people watching all those ten floors offered us. At the Swig showroom, they offered up cocktail meatballs and on-tap champagne, which in retrospect is odd and I don’t even like meatballs very much but it seemed to make sense when you are in the midst of it all. (And because a lot of our retailing friends in Columbia carry Swig, we only browsed and ate meatballs. As one does at these sorts of things, I suppose.)
That said, we did mark some must-have items for PJP Nifong off our list…like an adorable line of coffee cups, measuring spoons, pie plates, dessert plates, recipe cards, and more. We also managed to choose some decor for PJP and some merchandising displays and who knows what else because it eventually all runs together. In most cases, you create an order at the store, choose a shipping date, and then the vendor calls you before it ships for payment information. Thankfully this serves as a reminder AND an opportunity to cancel in case we made any weird decisions in a meatball induced haze.
When we really loved a showroom, we conferenced Jeanne in via FaceTime and walked her around with us. She didn’t say, but I think she enjoyed the shopping…minus the 12,919 steps and pounds of paper. She would have liked the champagne on tap though, I guarantee it.
