Friday Night Lights, Baby!

OK, so I figured I'd split the past two days into two separate posts to avoid one huge one altogether. My oh my, where to begin. Wait, what am I talking about? Friday morning it is!

While sitting outside the Bear's Den, waiting for the VIP lounge to open, Chuck comes walking by. He asks, "J.C., will you band me?" He hadn't tied his ponytail because his arm was hurting him, so he put me up to the all-important task. "First grooming demo of the day - ponytails 101!" he called out to passers-by!

One shouted back, "A 7F will take care of that!"

To which I replied: "It's OK, he's not matted yet!" Haha!

Chuck gave me about ten bands to use in his ponytail. One of the groomers who stopped to watch made the comment: "Now how in the heck did you do that? You placed them out evenly, and used them all up!"

Chuck turned to me and said, "Now you're MY hero!" Guess I'm not just J.C. DogHero anymore, haha!

The VIP lounge opened, so I went in to see what it had to offer. It was a nice quiet place to come and sit, have some coffee, and eat chocolate. I really like having and knowing that it's there!

About fifteen minutes before the trade show opened, I went right to the front doors where a bunch of other groomers were waiting. Frankie Brown and Jon Bannon were getting us riled up! Frankie walked around shouting things like: "These manufacturers have the AUDACITY to keep us locked out and away from all those great products! Well we're taking the room at 10:00! And if they won't let us in, we're kicking down the door! Do you know what my shoe size is? This is a 14, and it's gonna kick down that door!" Hehe.

While all of this was going on, Lisa Leady walked by, and I completely missed her. Crap. Right afterwards I bumped into Jorge again, who reminded me to come to the Forever Stainless Steel booth to see him. Walking down the hallway, I ran right into Judge Joey! He gave me a giant bear hug! When he asked me how I was doing, I told him about my time at Nash, which he congratulated. He said he needed to get to the judges' booth right away, and that he'd see me later. Dang, I didn't get to ask him the all-important question. But he answered that later. More to come...

The last few minutes of waiting for the trade show to open were agonizing. When the doors flew open, we all rushed in. I ran by the FSS booth and shouted, "Jorge! Where do I start? I don't know!!"

I skimmed over the whole show. It was a lot bigger than I remembered! When I got to the Wahl booth in the back, I finally ran smack into... Lisa Leady! I was wearing my L.L. Fan Club shirt, which she thanked me for. Then we started talking about how GHI was nothing like she was expecting, but how much she enjoyed working on it. Then she delivered the heartbreaking news: Animal Planet made another bad move and dropped it. I wanted to start crying, but I asked if another network picked it up. That's when she told me to write to 3-ball (the production company) about it, and that's exactly what I'm doing as soon as I get the chance!! They CAN'T quit GHI!!

So I continued to cruise around the trade show and ended up at the Wag'n Tails setup. I can't really say "booth", because it consisted of a mobile bus. A magic bus! I stepped inside and was stunned by the comfort and spaciousness of the inside. I want one!

I didn't get my blades for my new Red Clipper, partially because I couldn't remember which blades went with it, and partially because I didn't know what sizes I wanted! They said it would be OK for me to come back the next day, so off I went. After poking around at a bunch of different booths--mostly playing with shears--I grabbed a quick lunch at Bear's Den and headed over to the First Aid course. There, I met my classmate, Sunny, and got a first aid kit. Mostly, it was a refresher of things I'd already learned at Nash, however it had hands-on work with dummy dogs and cats. Now THAT was cool! And in all honesty, I think it could've been more effective to have a Q&A session at the end rather than having everyone scream out random questions, especially if it was one that was covered a minute ago! Well, to borrow a phrase here, "Shut up, listen, and learn!" Hehe!

Afterwards, I went to poke around the trade show some more and discovered that they were already doing GHI souvenir photos. I ended up with two: Huber and Lisa! The people there were more into it this year and helped me strike some poses. While I waited for them to develop, I caught the end of the grooming competition. Judge Joey announced to everyone that there'd be retro candy at the party later. Awesome!

On the way out, I stopped to see Jorge and asked if he was coming to the party. He said he wasn't sure, looking absolutely tired. When I told him I brought my "Rainbow Brite Cocker Spaniel" suit (hehe!), he said he HAD to come and get a picture with me!

Now it was time for the GHI stars vs. the Clipper Vac session! It was a fun two hours! I've never used the Clipper Vac before, but that didn't stop me from learning new tricks! Not only that, but it was hilarious - everything from Lisa's "I picked this dog (a Sheltie) because it has no topknot!" to the pissed-off cat they tried to give Cassandra, I need to get the DVD!

I left the convention center to go back to the Best Western... to put on my Malka suit! Yeah, it was time for the 80s party!! I found a bunch of people from PG already at a table, and they loved my Malka suit. I also ran into Lisa again, and here's what happened:

Me: Hey Lisa!
Lisa: Heeey! Love the costume!
Me: Do you know who I am?
Lisa: Yeah, I remember you from earlier! You had my face plastered on you shirt!
Me: Yeah, but do you know who I'm dressed as?
Lisa: (thinking for a moment) You're the Barkleigh dog!
Me: Well, not quite. I'm Jorge's Rainbow Brite Cocker Spaniel from last season!
Lisa: AH-HAHAHAHAHA! Oh, but Jorge's not even coming!
Me: I saw him earlier and told him about it, he said he HAD to come now!
Lisa: HAHA!

Jorge didn't show up. Grr.

Judge Joey wasn't lying about the retro candy: Barkleigh delivered with candy cigarettes (my favorite!), Pixie Sticks, buttons, wax lips, even giant jawbreakers! I downed a couple of Pixie Sticks as more groomers filtered in. The DJ, Mr. B, began to play Atomic Dog, and something inside of me just kicked on: I had to go bust a move! Fitting song since I was in a Cocker suit, haha!

I got a ton of laughs and cheers from the others, both on and off the floor. They threw glow sticks in our direction, so I grabbed one and made a collar out of it! Next up was the bubble wrap stomp! It's exactly what it sounds like: they rolled out a huge piece of bubble wrap on the floor and we all stomped on it to the tune of Country Boy - stress release, they called it! Back on the dance floor, we were joined by Jon Bannon, in full Duran Duran costume. Boy, can he bust some moves!

Judy Bremer-Taxman took over after a while and invited the GHI stars up to have a "dish session" - a few told us about behind the scenes secrets. Examples: Lisa has nightmares that she gets chased by ghosts, Marco screams in Portuguese and steals props in the back for souvenirs, and Huber snores! After that, they all got up on the floor as Mr. B played Apache. I jumped up and started dancing with Bill (who was dressed in a gray suit wearing a mullet wig) and Huber (dressed as Little Richard). Bill and I had a good rhythm going for a while; we even shouted "A-hoo-gah-cha-ca!" at the same time! That dude can dance!

After a few songs, I sat down with the PG members and we laughed about how I was just shredding it up out there! Jonathan David and crew joined us. For as evil as they made him look on GHI, he's actually really cool! He was playing around with the plastic lips and candy cigarettes, and generally getting laughs from everyone, as well as a few weird looks!

That's when we ran into Judge Joey again! And here's where the all-important question was answered, even before I could ask...

Me: Judge Joey!
Joey: Heeeeey!
Me: (pointing to costume) So whaddya think?
Joey: Heh heh yeah! Hey, where's your boy Xavier? He's not here! (I should mention something: he's talking about the Xavier of the two-legged variety, hehe!)
Me: Aw man! Is he coming to the show at all?
Joey: Nah...
Me: Awww! Well, will you be seeing him again soon?
Joey: Yeh.
Me: (demonstrating) Well, when you see him, go up to him, give him a big bone-crushing hug, and tell him that's from me!
Joey: (smiling) OK, I will!

Bummer. But I hope my "present" gets to him!! Hehe! Oh, and someone snapped a picture as I was demonstrating; that's the only picture I have of me with Judge Joey right now!

Judy Bremer-Taxman called everyone to gather around the dance floor for the 80s competition. About ten other costumed people got picked to do their best dance, including an Olivia-Newton John, a mohawk girl, a blue-haired girl, and nasty nasty Jon! The mohawk girl ended up winning; the prize was a fully-paid VIP package for next year!

Back to open floor! I tore it up some more to Superfreak, Push It and Baby Got Back. After I sat down, Jon came up to me and said, "Wow, you were dancing your ass off! Can you feel it in your crack? I can in mine!" Nasty, nasty boy!

After some slower songs, the night drew to a close. Mr. B played Journey, to which we all belted, off-key of course! Balloons were tossed around, bundled, and popped. Towards the end, Sasha Reiss, Poodle expert from Serbia, gathered up a cluster and took a picture in it. He invited my PG friend and me ("Come here puppy!") to join him in a picture. What a wild night to remember! They didn't even drink as much this time around, yet this party was wilder than last year's! And as for me? I never made it to the bar, I just had to dance, baby!

I thought I'd be OK for a while at the room. Nope, walked in, sat on the bed, and out I went. Woke back up at three, saying a silent thank you to myself for setting the alarm ahead of time - can't be late for Saturday, after all!

http://s168.photobucket.com/albums/u178/lightningyoshi/GROOM%20EXPO%202009/
NOTE: Since I've taken well over 200 pictures (yes, you read that right) with more on the way, I'm going to pick the best of the best instead of doing a massive photo dump. Can't drain the Photobucket, after all!