"And This One Time, At Band Camp..."

Home Shows. They are interesting. Some folks would say fun. Get good ideas. See neat things.

Working a Home Show - that is a whole different story...

Working the Angie's List booth at Home Shows is what I am doing to help out my family financially and taking a baby step back into the working world. They are long days, usually 9 hours or so. Talking to people, selling memberships, etc. But the other half of it is the other people working at booths. They can become your friends - "covering" your booth for potty and food breaks. A nuisance - "Windows! Siding! Doors! Insulation! Which project are YOU tackling this year?!" Or, simply, a whole lot of entertainment.

In Cleveland, my "booth roomie" was Rich, a nice 50ish year old man with a helpful hand and a HUGE sense of humor. He was great. And if you ever need a solar light for a dark room in your home, Rich is your man. If you live in Cleveland, that is.

This week, in Portland, I have a great "booth roomie" to the left with Brent and Curt of Gary's Vacuflo (super-cool central vac systems...I want one) and across the "street" with female Chris of a siding and window company.

And then there is "Susie" (names have been changed to protect the innocent - or weird, in this case).

Susie is my "roomie" to the right. She works for a home builder. I noticed she was a little "off," if you will, yesterday, but she was nice enough and covered my booth when I had to potty.

Today - a whole other story.

Susie started talking today about her days traveling the world, skipping college to compete, meeting her husband and friends she has all over the world from competing in flag corp.

Yes. I said FLAG CORP.

Now don't get me wrong. I love me some band performances. One of my besties in high school was Cherie "Mark, Time, Mark!" Dunlap, Drum Major. My senior year our band competed with songs from "Carmen" and most Friday nights I would cry it was so beautiful. So trust me when I say I don't knock band people. Hey, even Rob was in the band. And I played a mean rendition of "Making Muffins" with the flute in 5th grade.

But Susie is STILL talking about traveling flag corp.
Susie is in her 40s. Susie is a mom.
AND
Susie has a picture of herself from circa 1980 in her flag corp outfit as her profile picture on Facebook.
Trust me, I know. She showed me.

She says she loves that she has Facebook now so she can rekindle all her old friendships with people from travel flag corp.
From the 80s.

You wanna know the best part?

Susie can relate to the Olympians competing right now because she knows how it feels to be a World Champion.

Yep. You and Michael Phelps, Sus.
Mono E Mano.

And THAT, ladies and gentleman, was my Thursday at
The Home Show.
Jealous much??