Sore feet...

...and a face that aches from hours and hours of phony smiles for people I didn't want to see.

PARENTHETICAL THOUGHT: I intended to re-create some conversations, but they were too boring to reproduce.

It wasn't as bad a day as I feared. My distaste for such gangbangs remains strong as ever, but I did run into a few friends among the thousand of faces I didn't know. Yes, there was a lot of standing around, but at the end of the day, there was one thing that really made me happy:

I don't have to go back tomorrow.

More press conferences are scheduled, but I connected with all the important P.R. people today, and assured them it would not be a lack of interest in their products that keeps me away tomorrow.

I'll miss the food, though. Not the Media Lunch, which was poisonous, but the feeds at the various companies' stands, which tend to be pretty nice. You can munch your way right through the exhibits, chowing down on everything from pickled canaries' tongues to freshly made smoothies.

So why would I give up all the fun? Simple. I have, as expected, heard all the speeches before. I got face time with all the few people out there who really respect what I do. I collected all the press kits I'll never have occasion to use, got all the trinkets to pass along to friends.

I simply don't want to do the drive through traffic, pay the $12 parking fee (up from $5 four years ago) and sit through more presentations that won't help me do my job.

But what the hell. I now have another nifty tote bag I'll never use again. At least it's good for holding all the useless information I gathered. I have a bunch of notebooks and mouse pads, too.

It's entirely possible that I managed to get a little closer to one of my two goals today.

ANOTHER PARENTHETICAL THOUGHT: Have I mentioned my two goals? Simply stated, they boil down to this: I want to get paid, and I want to get laid. That, to me, is all life is about. With those two happening, I can manage everything else that counts.

Sadly, it was the lesser of the two goals I may have accomplished today.

But I can stay home tomorrow.

I like that.