I always said this is the week where chaos theory comes into play. Every year I’ve learned to plan more and plan less simultaneously and there have always been fun surprises having a general idea of what’s going on while winging it. The first year was a last minute decision to go in blind, last year was too structured with a full speaker schedule, and this year… I’ve been at vendor parties since Tuesday and am exhausted and haven’t been stepped foot in the conference yet. I haven’t slept well for over week and it was wrecking me but I still tried to balance that sweet spot where I could get in what I wanted without completely killing myself. This year I did my research on what’s going on, rsvp’d myself and a few others to a lot of things that overlapped, and didn’t decide which ones to actually attend until they were coming up and then picked. It could have been most of them or none, but I’d rather have the ability and not take it, than decide to go and not have an in.
Tuesday was this private dinner at Bouchon Bistro, I had no idea it was Thomas Keller’s restaurant until I looked it up. I got in by name dropping a CTO of one of the sponsoring companies in my registration, the day before the dinner I got confirmation my request was accepted.. and while I dressed business casual I still wish I dressed a little more professional like I had Wednesday. I stood out for a few reasons, one being a woman.. there were maybe 3 others, one was the host of the event, I have metal in my face, and I was probably the only person under director level and under the age of 40. When we got to industry related content I listened, when we bs’d and discussed food and whatever else I was just fine. They were going around the tables and we all had to introduce ourselves so I listened to how everyone else ran through and gave my name, company, gave a couple stats, and they moved on… thank Satan. lol Dinner was great, conversation was great, a couple people ended up adding me on LinkedIn the next day.
Wednesday was one of the security parties at the House of Blues. Open bar, lots of food, terrible music. I ran into friends I met at the same party last year. They were thinking of me and asked if I socially engineered my ass in again and I said no.. this time I rsvp’d, they called it cheating, introduced me to their CEO, and got me a VIP badge I can use at a couple other events their doing this week.. including a penthouse with lab demos, food, alcohol, and apparently massages… I need dis. I met a nice guy at the bar and have his card in my bag, he mentioned another party at the Wynn and the friend I came with said he had an in for that party so we went, it was actually at XS at Encore and he didn’t have the wristbands and tried name dropping the rep he knew but they said the event opened up for people on the list an hour later. It wasn’t worth waiting. I really wish I’d taken Thursday off at this point.
Thursday in the office was brutal, I was already beyond sleep deprived before the events but they were worth it. I couldn’t multitask, there was a lot on my slow mind, and I’d been worried about my beloved since Monday, but I hoped the shenanigans was bringing a little humor and distraction to him. Thursday night was the Nike Swooshed after party at the Light nightclub at Mandalay Bay. It wasn’t like a normal night club since it was industry, the music wasn’t too loud since conversation was still possible, and we met a lot of cool people. I got drunk, I pulled walked up to a guy in the middle of his group and pulled him onto the dance floor then hugged him and thanked him for dancing with me, then one of the friends who came with me wanted to dance.. which I found surprising but that was cool. Then I was talking to these cool peeps from NY who help coordinate Blackhat and above me on the next row up there was this hot chick dancing so I got up and we were dancing on separate levels. One of the guys encouraged me to go up so I ran through the floor to the stairs to the other level and when I got up to her she asked if I wanted to dance. So we did! It was awesome, it was like insta-infatuation. One dude kept trying to dance up on us and I wouldn’t let him, we ended up back on the level where I was sitting with my group which merged with two other groups and kept changing through the night. Her group went temporarily MIA so she stayed with me. We ended up making out for a while and apparently 30 guys on our level and the level above us were staring like they’d never seen women before… or never seen women making out before. My friend from work explained there were phones out and we were filmed… so uh, I’ve never been filmed before.. I actually don’t know if those are pictures or if some video is going to surface on YouTube now. The guys around us were kind of creating a barrier to keep the creepers at a distance, I was so lost in her I didn’t even know what was going on around me. We exchanged numbers, we cuddled, we tried to sober up together, she invited me back to her hotel but I was someone’s ride and was sad but it’s okay. She started kissing my neck and was shifting me down, and I decided I wasn’t having any of that in a club so I pulled her hair with both hands and started nibbling, she left marks on me, they were visible last night and I haven’t checked in a mirror yet this morning, but I know I bit back hard since she wasn’t holding back… I think I got her back. She made some comment and I told her to imagine how things would be going if I wasn’t in a club restraining myself. I made some realization I’m more dominant with women and more submissive with men, and it’s all on a subconscious level, idk how that happened. I’m not scene, don’t believe in roles, idk. lol The event ended at 1 so we went to my favorite pho place in Chinatown then everyone went back to their hotels. I finally made it home Friday morning (this morning) after being up almost 24 hours. Her and her friend are here till Monday so that’s cool, she lives on the other side of the country.. that’s my luck. We might run into them today, it’s still early.
Idk why I woke up around 7am and just went back to sleep until my call with the university. I love my mentor already, she’s great. We talked about the parties a little bit and I told her I wanted to test out of a couple classes in a couple weeks, she’s all for it. I had to renew my registration online since it was due tomorrow.. it’s 1.5x higher than my car payment, it’s insane here. I have a meeting in a couple hours then I can go do whatever. There’s another event tonight, I kind of want to go swim… idk how I’m awake right now. This feels like the half way save point. Today is day one at the con for me and I have the weekend. I need to check into the hotel too, I need another cup of tea.