Hello World, I Am Back...

So as with the best of intentions, I had meant to update my blog earlier and unfortunately the month of August is already upon us.

July was a big blur as most tradeshow Julys are. This one turned out to be especially eventful. For our tradeshows, we typically arrive 3 days before it starts and set up for the 2 days before it begins. I like planning ahead and getting there early because I am not a fan of surprises and boy did we get a good one this time.

So we arrived at the CHA convention center the morning of our day 1 set up:

The most important thing about set up is for all of our pallets to be there. We had sent them all about 5 days before and paid for extra special guranteed early morning Sunday delivery. So, guess what? They weren't there. None of them. After some frantic calls, there was a realization that someone who was working to arrange freight forgot and sent it to a terminal that was closed on Sunday. Oops.

What that meant was that we even though our whole team was there, we could not set up because there was nothing to set up. And we couldn't do anything actively to get our stuff because the terminal that had our stuff was closed. 

It was stressful for me worrying about getting everything done so I ended up eating a lot of this Chicago style popcorn that day to decompress (and if you haven't heard of Chicago style Garrett's it is a caramel/cheddar popcorn mix and super AMAZING):

So we ended up having to work really hard on Day 2 of set up but my team is well amazing and we got it done:

And we got it done. The show was good and it is always an honor to meet new fans and old ones who enjoy our products we bring to them.

This show did bring me a flood of memories of the CHA-W show. It was during the show that we found out that my dad's cancer was starting to take over his body and that it was time for him to rest, be loved and be with us.  My dad passed away peacefully just 2 months after the show ended. The last 6 months have been a blur of activity and such. Not a day goes by that I don't think about my dad and his larger than life attitudes and love for it all. It does get easier with time. I know my family misses him terribly - especially my mom - but we rest in the comfort of Eternity. And I am happy with that. 

But with each day we breathe again and laughter comes a little easier and even funny faces like this one:

I have a lot to share so I will be posting regularly for a while. It is good to be back.

 

(photos borrowed from Lisa Pace and Ronda Palazzari because as usual I was too scatterbrained to take pictures during the show)

Comments

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