it's conference time, it's conference time!
it happens every year around my birthday.
it's an all out engineer-fest and a ravenous week of marketing and client shoulder-rubbing.
it's exhausting + exciting all at once.
exhausting: mass catered banquet food and non stop on-your-feet
exciting: reuniting with the clients you really like but don't get to see very often. especially the ones who are genuinely invested in finding me a husband.
but i mean, really... we have a toy crane in our booth, so it's mostly exciting.
it's token-less... wiping clean all of those negative childhood memories of disappointment and failure.
it's also filled solely with gear plastered with our corporate logo. it can't get much better than that.
spending the day with 32532642 engineers meant i received 32532642 comments about my wardrobe.
{which actually came in handy this morning when the toy crane delivery guy came to the expo center. he said, "i'm parked out front in a white cargo van." to which i replied, "great, i'll come outside and meet you. my clothes don't match and i'm wearing orange lipstick. you can't miss me."}
what i wasn't ready for, though, was the running commentary about my "cowgirl" outfit.
if i heard one more comment about forgetting my cowboy boots....
... and here i was thinking i'd fit right in with the engineers in my plaid shirt.
FAIL.
the best part, though... the crowning glory of the almost-birthday itinerary, was when the dinner i was invited to last week to celebrate my birthday with the davis's turned into a full scale double date between greg + julie, andy + kate, with client darin and myself as tag-a-longs.
AT TEXAS ROADHOUSE.
the carnivore dream castle of red meat and gluttony where three men at the table ordered 20 oz. slabs of meat.
each.
the place i must have nodded my head and agreed to while the confusion of my railroaded birthday dinner was fresh in my mind.
the place that if anyone would have thought, even for a second, "i wonder where we should go to celebrate aubry's birthday?" WOULD NOT have made the top 30 list.
in the twinkling of an eye, the dinner i was invited to last week {"dinner with davis's" as it was offically programmed into my calendar} was occupied by a book club review of The Proper Care and Feeding of Husbands, the differing of opinions among 40-something parents about the appropriate age for their children to Hang Out {so totally a mormon buzz word} with friends of the opposite sex, an "if your spouse died, would you get re-married?" conversation, and a mars vs. venus battle about Fantasy Football as a form of mental relaxation. i do believe at some point the word "horny" was spoken out loud, which was precisely the time i reached for the straw in my drink glass and nearly drove it toward my eye.
ohmygoshihatethatword.
hatethatword.
in other news, i glanced at the clock at 11:16 as i prepared to write this post.
this, you guys, is the inspiration behind my email address: "its1116"
i swear, every single day, e-v-e-r-y s-i-n-g-l-e d-a-y i glance at the clock at 11:16
i don't yell it from the rooftops like i used to do.....
but i do a little jig in my seat when i spy the magic numbers.
tonight being no exception.
even after that zinger of a dinner i just plowed through.
happy birthday to me!
No comments:
Post a Comment