BIS show

Every year my dad gets a booth at the building industry trade show, BIS. I’ve always hated it because I end up overwhelmed by retards and trash(I’m capable of A LOT of hate). This year was very different however, the industry is entirely different now that a lot of the stupid has been weeded out by the dead home market. This state of affairs also makes it one of the most incredible people watching experiences I have ever had.

According to my father, the show was half the size of the previous years, and the attendance was also extremely low compared to the previous year. The economy definitely made things amusing, and not one person had a positive answer for the question: “how are you.” While some people had a sense of humor about it, the negative atmosphere perpetuated through both days of the show.

On the brighter side of things, there were a lot of booths offering green and sustainable alternatives. In fact, there were probably more booths for solar panels than anything else. All these alternatives made me wonder what it would be like if tract homes were constructed this way. I’m sure 90% of the people there have no idea what a carbon footprint is though, so it won’t be happening anytime soon.

My dad keeps the Quality Structures booth pretty sparse, but he is ALL about the couches. They were without question the most comfortable seats in the show, if a little boring. No one sat in them most of the day, and I can only assume it is because people weren’t sure if they could. I sure didn’t mind sitting in them all day, but towards the end of the day a lot more people made use of them.

This looks delicious, but it was just “ok.” It tasted like every other burger I’ve had at every other convention center, and worst of all it affected my stomach just the same. Food like this makes me wish I still had the iron stomach I came back from china with.

The 2nd day was more of the same but was so much more significant. In the middle of the day I saw someone I knew. The kind of person that when you see, it makes you so happy that it doesn’t hit you all at one time, and it takes a few seconds to slowly wash over you till you realize you’ve already walked over to her and are giving her a hug. The only thought I had when I saw her was “fuck, shit” but it was already too late. You see, no one has hurt me more in life than her, and while it wasn’t intentional, and shes long since apologized and I’ve forgiven her, forgetting heartache is impossible. At least she’s married now so I can trust my emotions around her a lot more. The saddest part about seeing her though was catching up a year or 2 with someone who use to be the most important thing in my life, but what can you do?

We packed up half an hour early and tried to find a robeks on the way home, but it seemed to be on the cal state long beach campus and we weren’t gonna try to find it. One day I will show my parents the glory of robeks, but this wasn’t that day.

Tags: building, cheeseburger, construction, fries, heartbreak, trade show