That's My Bix!

Oh, that picture up there? That’s just me with Felicia Day. What, you don’t hang out with celebrities during your business trips?

I am doing a big technology conference in Vegas this week. It’s been filled with celebrities (I’ve seen Rohan Marley so often that I’m beginning to feel like he’s part of my family) and rich food and not enough water and entirely too much walking. I pulled a muscle in my back and hate how I look on camera. Also, my hotel room smells like the body fluids of a thousand strangers. And I wouldn’t trade a minute of it, honestly, because this has been personally and professionally a great week.

Usually, business conferences are pretty lonely affairs for me. I eat a lot of room service and watch a lot of broadcast television and Hulu. However, through some happy coincidences, my bff Jake was in town and willing to act as camera support team for me. While the conference certainly has its share of party opportunities, we were both wearing our professional hats this trip, so there was perilously little rock star life.

Ok, for about three hours, we did pretend we were rock stars.

What you should know about me is that I get a LOT of email from publicity folks. A LOT. Like, I kind of space out and ignore most of them. So when I got an invite to an app developer party, I didn’t really pay attention to it.

Then I heard a rumor about that party. The rumor was unsubstantiated but it was still a pretty believable rumor that one particular band would be the entertainment for the private party. One particular band that I have, in the past, paid a ridiculous amount of money to see and for said ridiculous money, was in the “VIP” seating which wasn’t very VIP at all. I’m sorry, but if the concert tickets are almost as much as a brand new car payment, you should pretty much be sitting at the feet of one Mister Brandon Flowers. You should be able to touch him if you were so inclined (I am not so inclined, but the option is all I ask).

And the tech people, they know how to throw a good party. They ALL throw good parties. In fact, I had to choose between skipping a party where I KNEW that Maroon 5 was playing or going to the party with the rumored entertainment that was one of my absolute favorite bands in the universe. I mean, as hot as Adam Levine is purportedly, I would much rather gaze upon the man who asked “Are we human or are we dancer?” And this party? This rumored party? It was in a tiny club venue. Maybe 400 people there, while the Maroon 5 thing would have like 100,001 people there. Yeah, it was worth a trip across Dean Martin Drive to check that out.

Life is good, my dear reader, life is good.  Against the stage, front and center. Jake caught a drum stick. I got the lead singer’s set list. The lead singer and I had a moment or fourteen. It was…the experience of a lifetime, let’s just leave it at that. They are a beautiful band.

Tonight, I’m alone in the city of neon, on the back end of a whirlwind tour of duty. I had another slew of parties tonight (one with lady bloggers, one with Alecia Keys as the entertainment and some kind of star-studded thing with Ms. Day, or Fel as she told me to call her*) but I’m going to play it less Golden God and more Golden Girl tonight. Three solid days of schlepping my shitbox work laptop, full camera, iPad, microphone and all the assorted ephemera that attaches itself to tradeshows has destroyed my shoulders like you wouldn’t believe. I’m getting old, dear reader, woe I am so old and broken. But at least I can manage to party it out for a few hours a month.

I think the answer to the question, though, is that we are human 99% of the time… but if we’re lucky, if we’re really really lucky, we get to spend the other 1% as dancer.

*She did actually not tell me to call her that.