Thinking Positive

I know it is a little too much to get two blogs in one day but it has been that kind of day. I did get to Chicago and everything went smoothly...for about an hour. I got to our booth, and there was an air compressor in a cardboard box--dimensions 48" x 24" x 24" (very important!) and NO CRATE, the key ingredient to our successful tradeshowing. On one side of the cardboard box is a photocopied Airways airbill that says that it is our booth shipment. The scary thing is that there is a label on another side that says that this box was supposed to go to someone in Rosalia. I am panicking thinking that our crate is in Rosalia while this box got to take the scenic route through Chicago. I try to get a hold of Lowry & Hogan, our freight guys but of course it is Sunday and no one answers. I go to the show freight guy and he says he can remove the freight that is not ours but he can't tell me when our freight is. I talk to Airways and they say that the crate is probably just in someone else's booth. I would have individually inspected every booth except that during set up there are crates everywhere and you can't even get down most aisles. Airways also says that because our booth is 72" x 24" x 35" they couldn't possibly have gotten it mixed up with the other box--that they track by dimension. I am afraid I don't believe this even for a second but I hang up with him anyway. In desperation I go to GES (the show extortionists) and order a carpet and a table so we will look like we mean business. This costs me over $700. Then I start thinking about all my options.

I really want to go to church. The meetings start at 1:00pm and by this time it is just a little after 11:30. I think I can get to my hotel and change and get there. But, I am also thinking of how to find my crate. After not much sleep last night I really don't have much energy for a fight. I finally decide for sure that I will just wait for Bryan to get here and maybe between us we will have enough energy to hold some peoples feet to the fire (have I used the right expression?)

I go to wait for the shuttle bus to my hotel, all the time thinking about the $10,000 we have spent to do this show right and my heart falls right to my shoes. I want to cry but I'm too tired. Then I think about the $5,000 we have spent to go to next weeks show and I am wondering if we will find the crate by then. Many shuttle buses pass by, none of them mine, and I am growing more discouraged by the minute. Well, you know the sign at the top of the bus front that says where it is going, most of the buses said the usual thing--"EXPRESS", "SHUTTLE", etc.--suddenly a bus turns the corner and its sign read "THINK POSITIVE". I had to kind of laugh out loud and I truly tried to do as it said.

I had a great time at church even though I forgot my coat, it cost me $20 to get there in a taxi and I stepped in a slush puddle up to my ankle as I exited the taxi. I really felt like I was in the right place. It was no easier getting back to the hotel. I decided to do it on the cheap ($2.25) and took a train and a bus, all the walking distances done in slush and in a wet, slushy snowstorm. But, now I am thinking positive!