My First Bakersfield Rock & Gem Rendevous Pt. 2

Friday, April 4, 2008 ~ Day One
Woke up in the Kern County Fairgrounds before sunrise cold and sore and needing to pee but not wanting to get out of my cozy sleeping bag all snuggled in with my Tequila. FYI, Tequila is my irascible and irrepressible little female Chihuahua/Jack Russell "Terror" mix pooch.
Anywho, I knew we needed to roll in order to be ready when the show opened at 9 a.m. I also knew Mike's alarm would soon sound and gawd I hate the sound of alarms as they have of the Pavlovian effect of making me feel disappointed and frustrated.
Therefore, I bestirred myself and Mike and we got rolling and were soon inside setting up which went fairly smoothly as we now have done enough shows together as a team now to have an efficient routine down.
Nonetheless, we were not really ready until an hour or so after the show officially began but it didn't matter as it turned out.

The quiet morning turned into the quiet afternoon and all I made was about $6 which was an unmitigated disaster.
The non-Afghans in our room all seemed to suffer alike but the Afghans who were wholesalers of imported material from Asia did fine selling to other dealers in the show of whom I wish I could have afforded to be one such.
Lew Helfrich got us signs by midday inside and outside letting folks visiting the show know we were in there as this year's show was the first to use that room in Building Two as last year only used the room at the north end of the building and the year before that and the other three previous shows were all outdoor "tailgate" events.
I suspect that contributed to a slower start for us but the main reason traffic and sales were so slow was the fact it was a weekday/workday and we have a crappy economy right now and folks are holding onto their money more while they see what happens.

Don't they realize the terrorists want them to not spend their money at my booth. ;-p

Oh well, at least I got to walk around....a lot...as did most of the other vendors.

I talked to Andy DeLong and his wonderful wife who were located next to us and indulged in grazing through Dale Harwood's innumerable mineral specimens and exchanged verbal crap with Manny Hernandez and his wife as I did throughout the weekend (we do so goodnaturedly).
Do they really want me in their show the first weekend of next month in the next building to the south? (shameless promotional insertion for one of my next shows)
Anywho, the day turned into the equivalent of "Dealer Day" at the Big Sur Jade Festival which is before that show really gets going with the public coming in.
The nice thing about that day was that at least I got the worst day of my career over with now. ;-p

After we shut things down for the day Mike and I went back to our camp and found other campers had set up next to us.
We freshened up as minimally as two bachelors can get by with and then drove up to Mexicali Restuarant on 18th Street which we learned about when we stayed at the Best Western across the street to the south when we did the May 2007 Bakersfield Show. The food was great as we expected and I highly recommend the place to those of you who haven't tried it.

We then found directions to the theater complex off Ming near the 99 Freeway and watched The Ruins.
Now here is some free advice that will save you $9.50: don't see The Ruins in a theater; watch it when it shows on one of the premium movie channels you're already paying for or when it reruns on the Sci-Fi Channel.
The beginning sequence was creepy with the girl freaking out and unable to get a signal on her cell phone while down in this dungeony-looking place and then something suddenly thrashes out at her and then we switch to a Mexican beach resort scene with beautiful horny young twenty-somethings.
Following a titty scene intended to earn the movie its "R" rating along with references to oral sex prizes for winning a bet we moved to the jungle where we quickly see one fellow get his brains graphically blown out by a large caliber handgun as well as another fellow gets his legs partially eaten down to the bone by a Venus Fly Trap-like Uber-Flora and then said remaining legs eaten down to the bone are then painfully graphically amputated by a main character who happens to be a med student in order to prevent infection.
Next thing you see is the Venus Fly Trap-like Uber-Flora hauling off the severed legs while the survivors watch in abject disgust and horror (one of the few times we are in perfect emotional sinq with the main characters).
Ah, and then two surgeries on a girl (the girl in the earlier titty-scene) (once by med student character and then by the girl herself in a feverish panic to remove the man-eating plant from inside her body).
Oh joy, and everybody dies but for the one girl who we thought was the weakest link in the chain at the start of the movie.
Naturally, her escape merely spreads the monstrous plant to the outside world where the stage is set for an even worse sequel but prolly a really cool computer game..
I must say the premise was great but the execution was as bloody as that of the young Greek at the base of the Mayan pyramid in the movie. ;-p

We finally got back to our camp in the Kern County Fairgrounds and were able to fall fast asleep immediately despite the late night talking from the tent complex next to us.
Next: My First Bakersfield Rock & Gem Rendevous Part. 3