The Merits of the Case

At one point I noticed two people walking by with t-shirts on that said “wifeadvice.com” and I realized that one of them was probably one of the other scholarship contestants. I ran after them and once I caught up with them breathlessly asked if he was Chris Clark and sure enough, he was. I spent a few minutes talking with him and his wife, Nancy. They are both smart and friendly and I really enjoyed meeting them. We rehashed the contest and talked a bit about the expo and blogs and then went our separate ways.

With Chris and Nancy from wifeadvice.com.

The “event” of the evening was a Blog World Expo party for expo attendees. There was music and food and drinks, but since Randy and I were not expo attendees we were not allowed to go in until it was time for our award. I didn’t know any of this until we got there and I also didn’t know that the party was billed as the world’s largest pajama party. The pajama party idea was meant to be a shot at criticism leveled against professional bloggers a few years ago. Someone implied that compared to journalists from 60 Minutes who work with many levels of checks and balances over their writing, blogger journalists are just a bunch of people sitting around in their living rooms in their pajamas. We saw a lot of people dressed in pajamas, robes, and slippers, and my suit and heels suddenly began to seem pretty formal and out of place.

The pajama party was held in “The Joint”, a small venue in the Hard Rock with a bar on one side of the room and a stage on the other. It was rather dark and filled with pulsing blue and purple light and music, as well as lots of people mingling amid tall bar tables and stools and tables of food, including a chocolate fountain.

Because we were not required to be in the event room for another hour or so, Daniel, Randy and I sat at one of the casino bars and talked. I admit to being very curious about Daniel and the way the whole scholarship program worked, so I was happy to have an opportunity to talk with him and to get to know him a little bit. Daniel Kovach is energetic and dynamic and quite an interesting guy. He definitely knows the ins and outs of internet marketing and traffic generation, and I was impressed with how much he has accomplished for such a young guy. We spent an entertaining hour getting to know one another and then it was 8:30 p.m., which was when we were supposed to go into the event room to get ready for the awards presentations.

At about 8:45 p.m., Randy and I left Daniel sitting at the bar and headed to “The Joint”. I told the people guarding the door that I was the blogging scholarship award recipient, and suddenly the pace of the evening picked up. Someone slapped wristbands on my and Randy’s wrists, someone else told us that I needed to be up on the stage right now and yet another person led us quickly through the rather dense crowd right to the base of the stage. There I spoke with the expo organizer, Rick Calvert, who wanted to know where Daniel was. There was a gentleman at the podium on stage finishing up the presentation of various weblog awards and Rick wanted Daniel to present the scholarship award as soon as he finished. Randy offered to run back to the bar to find Daniel, I sent him a text message and Rick asked the presenter to stall for a moment. It was all a bit chaotic and we were ultimately unable to connect with Daniel until he came into the room a few minutes later just before 9:00 p.m. By then the opportunity to make a formal presentation on stage had passed.

I had prepared a short thank you speech just in case I needed it and had some notes written out on a piece of Planet Hollywood hotel stationery which I was holding in my hand in anticipation of the award presentation. Although I didn’t end up giving the speech on stage, I did end up giving an impromptu version of it. Once he realized that there wasn’t going to be a formal presentation, Daniel pulled the giant check he had ordered for the occasion out of its box. And suddenly I felt like I was on the red carpet at the Oscars.

As Daniel and I stood side by side holding the check, cameras descended on us from all sides, a crowd formed around us, and before I knew it there was a video camera with a bright light in front of us and a microphone in front of me. The guy with the microphone asked Daniel about the award and Daniel turned it over to me. I think I gave some form of my speech, but I have absolutely no idea what I actually said. I do remember the camera guy and the guy with the microphone frantically pointing at the camera lens to try to get me to look into it while answering their questions instead of looking at the guy holding the microphone while I was talking. When I looked at the pictures later I realized that I somehow managed to free one hand to gesture while I talked despite holding my unopened speech notes AND a giant check.

The interview.

All of this took place in a whirlwind between 8:45 and 9:15 p.m. and then it was over. My feet were killing me and we were ready to get out of there, so Randy and I said our thank yous and goodbyes and left. We dragged that giant check all the way home and now it’s sitting in our family room waiting to end up in its new home in the basement crawl space.

Even though the reason I went to Las Vegas never actually happened, it was a good trip. It was nice to get away and to relax in the warmth and sunshine for a couple of days after all the activity and difficult days of the last few months. And now I am home and ready to start the serious business of feeling better and getting my life back to normal.