Portland Golf Show

Whew. It's over.

It's been an intense week of 12-hour days. John picked me up at 8 am on Wednesday morning, and the ride down was a lot smoother than I thought it would be. Once I figured out that John's passion in life is racing cars, conversation flowed fairly effortlessly. Plus, he had a recording of a book that we listened to for half of the ride. Once we got down there, it was pretty much work, work, work until 8:30, with a break for lunch. In fact, here's how the entire 5 days pretty much went:
1) Meet in the lobby at some ungodly hour.
2) Breakfast stop at Starbucks.
3) Rush around or stand up for 5 or 6 hours.
4) lunch.
5) Rush around or stand up for another 5 or 6 hours.
6) Return to hotel and eat dinner at unreasonably late hour.
7) Sleep.

I can't say it was fun, though I learned a lot about planning a large-scale event. There is a ton of effort and organization required, down to the minute detail. We pretty much just worked and slept. Katie and Melinda were both in charge, which got confusing. One of them would tell me to do one thing while the other would tell me to do another. I don't get a good vibe from Katie- I don't feel that she thinks too highly of me, though I'm not sure why. However, I really liked everyone else. Melinda is super sweet, and Courtnie, my roommate, was awesome. She interned there a few years ago as a student at the Art Institute, and had such a good time that she helps them out at the Golf Show every year. Dick, the president of the company, is hilarious, and very friendly. Everyone made me feel really welcome. I made a few mistakes (like having VIPs putt instead of chip in a competition: I don't golf, I didn't know the difference...) and they all were very understanding.

The food situation was not as bad as I thought it would be, though it wasn't ideal. We just ate a lot of junk, and the restaurants we went to were limited in their selection of vegetarian options. I had a salad with beans the first day for lunch, and some tofu with noodles for dinner the second day, but other than that the only protein I consumed was from Clif bars and soy milk in lattes- literally. The hall only served hotdogs, pizza, and salad with meat, so I ate oatmeal at Starbucks and a bag of pretzels every day for lunch, supplemented by candy and granola bars, then a salad for dinner. Ick. However, we also moved around so much that I was just happy to eat anything. Today all I want to eat is fruit and vegetables.

I am so glad to be home. I found flowers waiting for me on the living room table, which my thoughtful boyfriend had put out as a welcome. I was really happy to see him. It was only 5 days apart, but I missed David a lot even though I barely had time to think about anything except for golf. The ride back was actually almost fun, though I was exhausted; John stayed an extra night in Portland, so Brian, the company's editor, gave me a lift. Again, conversation flowed effortlessly and 3 hours went by pretty quickly. He's a pretty interesting guy and we have similar taste in music and movies, so we managed to find things to talk about. Plus, he is married with kids, so when worse comes to worse I just asked him about his family. People love to talk about that.

The show has reaffirmed my opinion of golf as a stupid sport for people that take themselves too seriously. It's elitist because it requires an incredible about of money and leisure time, and is incredibly detrimental to the environment, which is why it's largely a sport for wealthy, conservative db's. I worked at the snack bar of a country club one summer, so I had the option to learn how to golf because employees were able to play when the course was closed on Mondays. However, none of my friends or relatives golf, which is a sign that I am surrounded by quality people, so I had no one to teach me or loan me clubs, and I am grateful for this. I've known some golfers that I like, but for the most part it's not a lifestyle I want to be associated with.