San Diego
I'm in San Diego right now. This has got to be the worst weather San Diego has ever experienced, and of course it's while I'm here. Temps are 50-55 and it's foggy / rainy. Well, OK, today it cleared up, but it was still cold.
I've been wandering around this ENORMOUS Pet Expo for two days now. Today I couldn't really think of much to do, so I left early and wandered around the San Diego Zoo. BEAUTIFUL place, but I was not as impressed as I thought I'd be. Maybe because it was so goddamn cold and I had a short sleeved shirt on - this made it hard to enjoy nature.
Today I went to a "networking" meeting after the Pet Expo. This meeting involved getting free beer and, supposedly, talking to exhibitors and other pet retailers. I, of course, partook of the former but not the latter activity. I couldn't find one goddamned person in the entire room (2000+ people) that I knew. Not that this was entirely unexpected - I am mostly a fish / reptile guy, and this show was almost exclusively dog / cat shit. Actually, it's kind of boring so far. I was talking to a guy whose company supplies us with freshwater fish, and he told me that because this show (the San Diego pet expo show) has so little focus on fish and aquariums, the show sponsors paid each fish wholesaler $1000 to show up and bring a little display. Nice. I was hoping to bump into him at the networking thing, but no dice. I wandered around, drank beer, admired the womenfolk, and then left after an hour or so.
It's kind of weird being, by far, the youngest person at this thing. Every so often I'll see someone like 26 or 28, but there is no one that looks like they just got out of high school. I keep fielding weird stares from people. It makes me self-concious.
I'm writing this from an internet cafe in downtown San Diego, BTW.
Last thought: Valentine's Day has the power to make even the most stalwart amongst us painfully lonely. Ergo, I hate Valentine's Day.
I've been wandering around this ENORMOUS Pet Expo for two days now. Today I couldn't really think of much to do, so I left early and wandered around the San Diego Zoo. BEAUTIFUL place, but I was not as impressed as I thought I'd be. Maybe because it was so goddamn cold and I had a short sleeved shirt on - this made it hard to enjoy nature.
Today I went to a "networking" meeting after the Pet Expo. This meeting involved getting free beer and, supposedly, talking to exhibitors and other pet retailers. I, of course, partook of the former but not the latter activity. I couldn't find one goddamned person in the entire room (2000+ people) that I knew. Not that this was entirely unexpected - I am mostly a fish / reptile guy, and this show was almost exclusively dog / cat shit. Actually, it's kind of boring so far. I was talking to a guy whose company supplies us with freshwater fish, and he told me that because this show (the San Diego pet expo show) has so little focus on fish and aquariums, the show sponsors paid each fish wholesaler $1000 to show up and bring a little display. Nice. I was hoping to bump into him at the networking thing, but no dice. I wandered around, drank beer, admired the womenfolk, and then left after an hour or so.
It's kind of weird being, by far, the youngest person at this thing. Every so often I'll see someone like 26 or 28, but there is no one that looks like they just got out of high school. I keep fielding weird stares from people. It makes me self-concious.
I'm writing this from an internet cafe in downtown San Diego, BTW.
Last thought: Valentine's Day has the power to make even the most stalwart amongst us painfully lonely. Ergo, I hate Valentine's Day.