And how does one sum up a week’s trip in one entry anyway?

Short version: worth it.

Worth it even though I was the only one that I noted, who was paying for the thing out of my own pocket. Everyone else was on their bosses’ dime, either through a public utility or a vendor. Even the bosses that were there were on their corporate dimes, and really, so was I. Except that my business is so small that its money and mine are indistinguishable.

Still, it was worth the money. I learned more and made more professional contacts than I ever have in this business. I’m lucky if I see one or two people in the industry a year, besides classes that I take, and here was a whole convention full of them.

The classes were fantastic; some were a little too short, but gave me avenues to investigate for further site development. After at least half of them, I groaned, knowing that I’d just added one more priority-one thing to my list of things that absolutely have to be done to get my site going.

The trade show was great. I came out of there with ten pounds of information on meters, and at least four vendors willing to come out and take a look at my project. I shamefully picked brains, and got to play with their models, and now have a much better idea of how meters work than I’d gleaned from reading.

The tour of the Hoover Dam was really neat, although not as in-depth as I’d thought. It seems that they canceled the hard-hat tours after 9-11, even for those of us in the industry. Still, it was awe-inspiring and just plain interesting. I’ve now been inside two of the largest dams in the country, as I took an insider’s tour of Shasta almost 20 years ago when I’d just moved up there.

Vegas itself was really great. That city is laid out extremely well for driving, as you’d expect for being so new. I drove every day from my hotel downtown to the convention held out on the west end of town, and I’m very glad I did. My previous impressions of the town were colored by only being in the touristy areas, and it’s really a much nicer city than that.

A few days into it, I finally noticed what was absent, and then I started looking for it. That has to be the cleanest city that I’ve ever seen; there was hardly any grafitti! And I saw why the next day too, with a grafitti-abatement truck parked right in the middle of the road cleaning something up. All of the trees are trimmed, what little lawn ares there are are well-kept, and the xeriscaped areas are weed-free and beautiful, for the most part. They take their water conservation seriously there.

But the best part was easily the people. Part of my reasoning for staying so far away from the resort was to force myself to get out and interact, and to buck my tendency to hole up by myself when I’m in a strange situation. I’d made arrangements ahead of time to meet two of my online friends, so at least I had to get out on those days.

And what a wonderful surprise both of those meetings were!

The first was my friend Alicia, who I virtually met years ago through Nance’s chatroom. We’ve done the typical low-level journal thing since then, of vaguely following each other through our online writings, but not doing a whole lot of correspondence outside of that.

I was so nervous about meeting her. She would be the very first journal-type invisible friend that I’d ever met, so of course, all of the typical fears had to gallop through me. She gave me directions to her dog park so I could meet her and her pal Murphy, who is a super-star indeed, and I got the delightful bonus of getting to meet her sweetheart Shawn Marie.

Holy cow, talk about MY good luck that day! Not only did I get to meet an old friend, I got to make two new wonderful friends! My nervous voice, which probably squeaked on up into that register that only dogs can hear (conveniently, one of them was a dog, and could translate) settled right back down into normal registers. They were so great, and pretty soon we were talking like we’d all known each other for years. They took me to the Peppermill, which was fantastic, and very much old-Vegas kitschy, which was my personal theme for the trip. I was very disappointed to see bedtime roll around so soon; I could have stayed up all night with them. They’re both wonderful people, and I wouldn’t know who to call lovely and who to call artisitc, as they are both clearly each of those things and more. They have a loving and supporting relationship that we would all be so lucky to see in our lives, and I’m a better person for having met them.

My second visit was with a woman from a message board to which I’m a fairly new member: ThreeWayAction. I’ve found that board to be very welcoming, but I’m still very much the new guy, and for one of them to reach out and make the time to meet me while on her own vacation says tons about the kind of person she is. I got to meet her fiance as well, and had another fantastic evening getting to know them. They chose Lotus of Siam, a Thai restaurant in an out of the way strip mall, which turned out to easily be the best meal I had the entire time in Vegas. I’m just learning about Thai food, and to have someone so knowledgeable guide me through a little of it at the best place in town was just priceless. I could easily have stayed and chatted with them all night too, but they had other things to do and I was leaving at dawn, but meeting them was definitely one of the high points of the trip.

I had so much fun with the new friends that I’ve resolved to make an extra effort to put myself out there more, to go to more gatherings like this, and to try not to be so much of a hermit. Once I get over the initial shy part, I’m really OK.

I had misgivings about the trip as a whole before I left, as Vegas didn’t seem the place to be alone, but it was perfect. In fact, as places to go by oneself rate, Vegas was actually pretty high up there. There are so many business travellers that no one looks twice at someone eating by themselves (OK, except for the still-awake and drunk Alaskans at breakfast yesterday morning, but I’ve been those guys, and they were really funny.) I’d have loved to have shared some of the experiences with someone dear to me, but I have a feeling that having someone with me would also have made me more insulated, more couple-y. It’s when you’re alone that you have to get out and interact with other people; one of a couple has a built-in friend to talk to and can tune the rest of the world out if they choose.

I left Vegas a little wore out, both from my brain being stuffed full daily and from the sheer overwhelming presence that Las Vegas can bring, but I also left wanting to go back, to see more of the other sides of the city, and to see my friends again. Next time, frozen custard and pinball; you won’t be able to tear me away from it!