Booth babes and crazy New Yorkers

So, prepare yourself for a bunch of posts to this blog... I am in New York at a conference which means my day is a cycle of 1 hour sessions followed by a 45 minute break during which I am supposed to go talk to voice recognition/speech automation vendors. But, I am not interested in being sold anything today, so I will likely just catch up on email and blog. :)

Here is what I love about these conferences: the Booth Babes and the fact that you can't find anything other than coffee to drink.

So, what are booth babes? They are the hot chicks hired to stand at a vendors booth, wear skimpy clothes and pull in poor suckers who don't realize (or rather, don't care) that these girls don't actually know anything about the product they are "representing", they are just there to start the conversation. So, the men initiate the conversation, thinking, "I don't mind being sold something, as long as it is by this hot 20 year old in a mini skirt and sports bra looking thing." And then, sadly, the booth babe engages in conversation only until the slick sales guy in alligator skin shoes has finished up with the last poor sucker and can take over the conversation. Not being a man, I don't understand if the poor suckers are clueless to this process or if they are really just that desperate to talk to a pretty girl, so they don't care. I mean honestly, what kind of business person would buy a multi-million dollar software package from a person wearing hot shorts and a tube top?) This ploy seems pretty transparent to me, but again... I am not a man, so maybe not. Any man willing to clear this up for me?

Second favorite thing about conferences: the fact that coffee is the ONLY drink available. Surely, I am not the ONLY non-coffee drinker in this industry. The only options currently are coffee, de-caf, or hot water (for tea). I have considered getting myself some hot water in a cup and just letting it sit for an extended period of time to cool off, but then I discovered my other sneaky option - they have small pitchers of 2% milk as a healthy option to cream to put in your coffee... I sure get some strange looks grabbing a coffee cup and dumping the entire contents of one of those 2% milk pitchers in... desperate times.

And, my last comment for this blog - New Yorkers are crazy. I went to the bathroom after landing in New York (compliments of pregnancy that I couldn't wait until I made it to the hotel) and there was a line. So, while standing in line, I noticed there was a crazy lady on all fours UNDER the baby changing table. And, what's more... she was apparently talking to herself. Huh? Now, the obvious thought is, "Oh, poor crazy homeless lady escaped from a mental institution." But this lady was clearly not homeless... she had the full-on fur and jewelry action going on. So, as the line moved forward, I really strained to see what the heck was going on under there. When I get close enough, I could hear she was saying stuff like, "Come on honey, just come out. You need to go to the bathroom." "You are going to need to go sooner or later and now is the time." "I'll get you a treat if you just come out and try to go." So, then I was even more confused because it was WAY too small for a child to be under there with her. So, I had to look, even though it was obvious. (I had to bend over as far as my prego body would let me.) It was a little mini hideous cat in a mini kennel. I had the hardest time not laughing out loud... I mean honestly, why the heck was THIS the opportune moment for the cat to go to the bathroom? I can only assume it is because we were in a bathroom, which I guess means she was going to put the cat on the toilet? (Uh, Meet the Parents anyone?) She was still coaxing when I came out of the stall... New Yorkers are CRAZY!!!