NYC was noisy, fast-paced, intriguing, fun, irritating, exhausting, confusing, delightful and a hell of a lot of work. Did I mention exhausting?
Thursday: I managed to get all the many luggage bags check in at the train station after a little talking. The train ride was 8 hours, but not so bad. Once at Penn Station I got Red cap to grab the luggage and he took through the underground garage to a taxi stand. Sweet, helpful man, but I have to admit to being nervous when I was the only passenger in the freight elevator and in the dark garage for a bit.
Then a cabbie driving a minivan showed up but tried to to refuse to take me and luggage because it would 'scuff' his upholstery. It's a CAB for crying out loud! The red cap convinced him I was 'a nice woman'. He was still a PIA until he asked me what I did and I told him I was an author and wrote about everyone I met, especially the unpleasant people. He was a tad nicer than, but not less than 3 cops threatened to pull his cabbie license by the time he dropped me off at the hotel and dumped me and my luggage in the street. I ran in, got a bellman to help me and we lugged it all up the steps to the lobby without anyone taking it from the street before we got back.
That night two friends and I went to dinner and then to see the Broadway play WICKED. It was awesome beyond words. I bought the sound track and a green monkey. We walked around Times Square and stopped and had drinks then got back to the hotel around 3am.
Friday: We all did a little foot tour of the city, visited Greenwich Village, the Oscar Wilde book store, a toy store where I got some unique stuffed animals for my youngest, and included seeing the cathedral of St. John the Divine where we were fortunate enough to stumble upon a rehearsal for a concert that night that included Paul Winter. It was amazing to sit in this breathtaking cathedral and listen to this beautiful, music. The man singing was doing it in Portuguese and the clarinet was a mirrored reflection of his tone and voice that was too amazing for words.
We grabbed lunch at the Stardust Dinner where all the waiters and waitresses sing songs from the fifties while you eat. They were all Broadway performers and the music was very cool. One girl was from Chorus Line. That evening we went to see the Rockettes, which was beautiful. The 3-D part of the show was amazing. We were exhausted from walking around all day and called it a night early.
Saturday: I hit the Hard Rock Cafe for a T-shirt and drum sticks for the teenager and got ready for the day. By noon we managed the ordeal of the luggage to another cab who was much more gracious and helpful. We arrived at the Puck Building and spent the next couple of hours setting up the booth. It was a very interesting and productive day. There was a booth with some women who sell exotic lotions and personal sensual items.
All of the men there were sweet, delightful and helpful. But by far the most popular items we had was our scissors. It seems not a single man in the place, of which there were many, thought to bring a pair with them to set up. Our single pair of scissors saw more action then the rentboys at the event did. Word spread like wild fire we had them and men were lining up to borrow them. (If only I had know what drew men during my dating years!)
We saw a good amount of traffic and talked ourselves hoarse. Literally, I'm still raspy this morning. We put on our game face and sparkled and shone, handed out promo items, pushed the books, and talked and talked and talked. I have never been kissed by so many strange men in one evening in my life. Just so you know, it was struggle. NOT! They all smelled so good. Clean sweat and cologne. Yum.
By the end of the day we were all exhausted but very happy with the results.
Sunday: A young man came to us and said he was part of a group that does charity work and hosts events on Fire Island and he was wondering of we would be interested in attending their events and letting them have promo items from us. Then a very professional, attractive man approached us asking if we would consider doing other events. He sponsors expos all over the country and he asked if we would be interested in being a vendor at some of them.
Then the men running the Bitch Bear booth beside us told us about their other project which is promoting. They have drawings and giveaways to promo others during an every 2 week event thing they do and asked if they could have some of our promo items to send out in their efforts. We handed out over 500 cds, most of the flyers and postcards during the weekend, and what was left I gave to them for their various promo things at the end of the day.
A man came by and quizzed me about just about everything. Turns out he runs a radio spot and site at newyorkcool.com. He left with promo items, a ton of conversation and books to review for us and publish on his site. I let him choose whatever he wanted. http://www.newyorkcool.com/
We packed up at the end of the day and Deana and I dragged everything out to the street with the help of 3 sweet young things who got us a cab and helped load it up for us. Bellman helped again to get back into the hotel where I spend about an hour trying to rearrange it for the weight limits for the train. We order Chinese and dropped into bed. The weekend was fabulous but draining.
Monday: Had to redo the luggage at the check-in station after the morning cabbie abandoned us in the street again about a half a block from the station. A kind and helpful red cap rescued us after I walked to the station twice to ask for help. The check-in guy was nice too, letting me slide on some of the weights.
Made it home, at last. It was a great weekend, met a ton wonderful people and loved almost even minute of it--well except the cabbie parts. It should take me about a week to recoop!
terest in our company, and it provides for a number of great opportunities. Unfortunately, we can't put out many more titles per year than we do now. As you can see from the photo, ours is a very small staff. We've just added the ma
rmoset to the crew, but we don't think he can type (he has an in with someone). And we all have other gigs aside from the press. So we're slower than we'd like and we won't be putting out dozens of titles until we can afford a staff (actually, we have to be able to pay ourselves first, and then afford a staff). However, the new authors we are finding and are approaching us may get us to that point sooner than later. For now, those with us or those who want to be, must have patience and a strong sense of whimsy.
