I have been meaning to start a series for the blog that relates a male’s perspective of being a co-owner of a lingerie boutique. Every time I sit down to start, I am interrupted by a phone call or computer consulting customer or a myriad of other things that demand my immediate attention. I have ADD mixed with dyslexia which means that once I am distracted the drain is terailed.

So I was thinking back to my experience at Curvexpo in New York and a light bulb flickered on. Why not start the series with my experience from attending the show? I’ve given this warning before, but I feel it is worth repeating: The aforementioned ADD means that my writing, unlike Erica’s, is all over the place. I tend to write as I think, which means topics will change and butterflies are beautiful.

Curvexpo is something Erica has been wanting to go to since we launched our store in 2011. Each time it comes around, I see the disappointment on her face when we discuss the ability to attend and I have to take the wind out of her sails. This year, I decided she was going to make it to the NYC show come hell or high water. We registered and got all of our ducks in a row for the show which took place February 23rd – 25th. On the 22nd, a Saturday, we were suppose to close the store an hour early and head straight home to get some sleep so we could leave around midnight to begin our epic drive from NC to NY. As fate would have it, we didn’t get to close early because we had an influx of customers right up to 5:20. When we finally got home it was 6:05. We hurriedly packed and then each went our separate ways to get some rest before having to get up at 11:00pm. At 7:30 I started drifting off to sleep just to be awoken by my cell phone ringing. The call lasted less than 2 minutes but it took me almost an hour and a half to start fading back into a slumber. My cell phone, bane of my existence as it is, went off again from a text message. Once again, sleep eluded me until 10:20. At 11:15 my alarm went off for a second time warning me that I must get up or be late. I had hit sleep…in my sleep. I woke Erica so she could take a shower before leaving and then I made snacks for the road and packed up the car. My son got home from work around 11:50 and I spent some time visiting with him and laying out how to care for the chickens and dogs. So we got on the road late…dang! We stopped and topped off the gas, grabbed coffee and a 5 hour energy drink and a candy bar for me: sugar + caffeine + full tank of gas = road trip! On the road at 12:30am.

Tunnels, bridges and tolls – OH MY! We made it through Maryland with no issues. I figured we would since we had lived in Maryland for so long and that leg of the journey was very familiar to us. Music from the mp3 player was a great mix for the trip, and as Erica slept off and on, I did what I do. Drive. I love to drive. I’ve done the CA to MD trip in just under 3 days before. I was enjoying the peacefulness and lack of traffic on the road. I’ll skip forward a lot now – We paid over $40 in tolls for bridges, tunnels and pikeways. Erica changed out of her riding clothes in a service center one hour out from NY. I changed in the parking lot. No way was I trying to balance myself in the bathroom so that my clothes didn’t touch the floor. Men – a LOT of us have bad aim!

We get to NY around 9:15 and find our parking garage fairly easy. I have driven in Atlanta, Charlotte, Los Angels, D.C. and Baltimore. So I was pretty use to the yellow ones (cabs) not stopping and trying to become one with you…or is that merge into you?! Unfortunately, check in for the hotel wasn’t until 4:00 so we left all our luggage in the car and hoofed it to the Javits Center which is about 3/4th of a mile from the garage.

The Javits Center is HUGE! After checking in and getting our badges, we walked around the show to scope out where our appointments were and to make notes of other brands to look at when we had time. I’m not going to go into detail about the appointments because Erica will surely write about each one. I will say that everyone I met was very pleasant and didn’t seem phased at all about a male co-owner. I only had one rep that talked directly to Erica and barely made eye contact with me. I chalked it up to the fact that Erica is the face and voice of our business and I just authorize the payments. 😉 The other disappointment was a rep we have had issues with dropping us mid appointment to leave us with someone that was not even a rep while she took another client (small fish have the ability to grow very large). All the models were great. I had reservations about carrying my camera around but we needed the pictures for the blog and to help jog our memory about what we had seen and were interested in bringing in to the store. I was actually worried about the models and reps looking at a guy with a camera and thinking I was some nefarious character there to get my jollies from all the ladies in lingerie. They really engaged me and posed for pictures happily. If they were uncomfortable, they hide it very well.

Sunday night, after having spent all day at the show and then having to trek to the garage, which was a quarter mile on the other side of our hotel, then back down to the hotel with all our luggage, Erica left and went to meet up with her blogger friends. I figured I’d use the time to get some sleep since I literally only got 1 hour before the trip started. I took a shower and climbed into my bed. As I laid on the awesome down feather pillows of the hotel bed…I couldn’t sleep. I got up, dressed and headed out to see some of the surrounding sites. I had paused on a corner near a “Fish Market” and lit a cigarette.

Yes, I still have the nasty habit and I am trying to break it. Anyhow, a gentleman approached me and asked if he could have one. I’m southern born and raised and if I can help someone out, I do. He stood and talked to me for awhile and at the end of asking where I was from and what I was doing in NY, he asked if I liked jazz music. As it is, I do. I am very eclectic in my musical tastes. He invited me to walk a few blocks with him. For those that have meet me, I am not a small guy by any means, so I wasn’t really concerned with him having wicked motives. We came to a small opening between some shops and he led the way inside. It was like a throw back to the little speakeasies I’ve seen while touring places like Bourbon Street. I took a seat at the bar and my tour guide ordered a drink and asked me what I’d like. Well a kamikaze is always my first drink of choice. The bartender even knew enough to ask if I wanted it with vodka or tequila. Um, tequila is the only way to go! He plucked a bottle of 1800 (swoon) and deftly made my drink. My new friend excused himself and to my amazement, went to the tiny stage and picked up a sax. I sat and listened to a 5 song set. When he came back, I thanked him for bringing me but explained I should be getting back to my hotel and asked the bartender what I owed him for the drink. The sax player said it was on him as payment for being kind and that the drink probably cost as much as a single cigarette was worth (which I later found out was pretty true since a generic pack was 13.50 and name brand was 22.50). I stepped back out onto the sidewalk and headed for the hotel. As I turned up 40th, a guy stepped out of a pizza joint and asked me if I wanted the two slices of pizza he had wedged between two paper plates. He explained he was a tourist and had ordered 4 slices, not knowing how big they were. I thanked him as he pushed the plates into my hands. Back at the hotel, I waited for Erica to get in and devoured one of the slices of pizza. I love pizza. I have eaten pizza in a lot of different cities. NY pizza has got to be my #1 style of pizza to get and having a true NY pizza brought out the kid in me.

 

I went down to the bar to wait for Erica because she had texted that she was on her way back. At the bar I meet a guy from Holland who owns a 5 star restaurant and we started talking about different American cuisines. Erica came in about 15 minutes later and we sat and enjoyed the conversation with Anson (Holland) and Carlos (bartender). Close to midnight, we got into our beds and I’d love to say we drifted off to sleep with visions of babydolls and plunge bras dancing in our heads…but we passed out from exhaustion!

Monday and Tuesday we were up early for appointment filled days. Erica had made sure to book every single hour with an appointment. Any time that we got out of them early, we ventured to new vendors to peruse their offerings. By the end of Tuesday, I had taken over 1100 (now culled to roughly 450) pictures and my shutter button finger was cramping up. I was ready for the show to be over. We caught a shuttle back to the hotel around 6:00. Kat, of Luxury OBX, had met up with us that day and we discussed doing something that evening. As it turns out, we gathered at a diner called Tick Tock and spent about 2 hours chatting. Kat is a very intelligent and charming lady and I am glad we got to meet her.

Wednesday morning we awoke early because checkout was at 11:00 but we had to get the car out of the garage by 9:55 in order not to be charged for another 24 hours ($32 per 24 hours). We got to the garage only to find out that the hotel was suppose to give us a slip to get the hotel rates and without the slip our total was going to be $165.00. I had to retrace my route back to the hotel to get the paper and then back to the garage. My shins and calves were burning by this time from all the previous days walking. It was snowing pretty good and I was ready to get on the road. Getting out of NY while mother nature inundated us with her ‘no two are alike’ precipitation, was interesting. But we made it and the car, Erica and I are happy to be home. The show was probably one of the most awesome events I’ve had the privilege to attend and I can’t wait until we can go again.

I feel that I am leaving out a lot, but as I said in the beginning, this is just a start to a series I will be working on.

One last thing. I enjoyed meeting Darlene of Campbell & Kate/Hourglassy (for the second time this year 🙂 ), Leah of Hourglassy, Sweet Nothings and Miss and Mr. Underpinnings. I also got to meet Steve Hudson, the owner of CK, as well as Tia Lyn and Tony Lam of Tia Lyn Lingerie and iCollection. I feel I am leaving some people out, and I apologize for this. I’m sure I’ll remember and add more names in future blog posts.