While trucking elements of the booth back & forth from the car to the booth yesterday, I made "friends" with the union
boys. Not too hard to do, you couldn't have wiped the smile from my face if you tried. I was IN NEW YORK! What an
amazing sensation. And my fan base grew as I hauled my wares inside the convention center. By the end of my six or so
trips, I had the Union boys singing to me in the most atrocious east coast accents...I couldn't understand the words or
their comments & questions as to the source of my joy. We had major communication issues, not to be helped by my
desire to leave the Javits Center and head for town.
So, it did not surprise me that my return to the Javits was met with a few greetings of salutation that were on the edge
of appropriateness, but I suspect that wolf whistles and cat-calls are all part of the union bylaws - after all, what else is a
union to do but protect it's workers and allow them all the freedoms they need to do their jobs. These guys COULD
SMOKE INSIDE THE CONVENTION CENTER and this I thought was terribly wrong. Why encourage THAT sort of
thing? Luckily, most of NY is non smoking - even the Bars! I really appreciated that - yeah New York!
I am getting off on a tangent.
Today the walls went up, not so smoothly, but up they went. I had designed the booth so that four 4'x8' walls could be
loaded into a Subaru that held only about 6' of length comfortably. The walls were cut down into 4'x6' and 4'x2' sections
and then another foot was sliced off the 6' sections so as to make driving a bit more comfortable for anyone who
wanted the seat all the way back. I was okay at the 6' mark. Since these walls were channeled, I had planned that a
dowel would be inserted into two channels per wall and the sections pieced together, short ones on top of the taller one,
all building an 8' tall wall. Stops in the channel would be made from screws through the corrugated plastic, the screws
would be part of the shelving and therefore, camouflaged. The two 8' sections could then be tied together using zip ties
and, voilà! I would have the makings of a booth. With each section wallpapered in grasscloth, the seams were ideally
hidden amongst a dizzying horizontal pattern. I had decided to do only side walls, leaving the back wall for a large
chartreuse linen curtain on which three gorgeous framed & matted photographs of India could be displayed along with
the beautiful chandelier I found at Pier One.
We started with the floor, a simple click-lock laminate that I cut to length and bundled in rows so as to achieve the
staggered look of any hardwood flooring. This part was the easiest and our only concern was whether to go under or
over the pipe&drape floor plates. I learned later that the best solution is to use cardboard to make up for the plate
thickness, cutting around it and treating the cardboard as sub floor. Can't wait to try that next time.
The walls were a bit more difficult as the booth next door had foam core already up and working around that proved
difficult. We didn't want to damage our neighbor's booth in the process. Because they had ordered foam core, an
additional cross-beam went up on that side which made for a more stable wall. On the opposite side the cross beam was
missing and it was an added expense to have one installed. These walls were just as difficult to get up but with different
problems. They were, at first, rather wobbly, crooked and difficult to keep the booth square. Finally, with all walls up
and the back curtain in place, it was late and we were tired and looking forward to our dinner at Tabla's Bread Bar.
Back at the hotel, after a quick shower, everyone imbibed in a few gin & tonics and then we were off to try Fusion
Indian. The experience was wonderful and I would recommend Tabla's Bread Bar to anyone. We sampled their house
speciality cocktails including a tamarind martini, a muddled cilantro rum mojito, and another one made with ginger. Our
meal was just as fabulous and I can't wait to try some of the flavor combinations at my next party. We tried a cilantro
chickpea pizza that was fantastic - tasting like dry aloo channa on top of a naan.
As much as we love to walk, I was tired and we did quickly learn the subway system to head back to our hotel full of
food and full of drink.
'twas a good night.
-t