April 25th, 2008 representing the American Beauties Pageant I took off for a weekend in Chicago, Illinois!!

Arriving at the Radisson I realized that working a trade show is exactly that….working. Our booth represented American Beauties Plus and the Global America Pageant system. Along with Beth Brown Ms. American Beauties Plus and Cathe Mack-McGarry Global America Classic Woman we represented our systems with grace, poise and dignity.

What an interesting weekend! Beth, Cathe (from Global) and I attended the DeVoe Tradeshow in Chicago this weekend. To make things more interesting for all to know, I arrived Friday after being on the highway in bumper to bumper traffic at 2:30PM. However, that didn't dampen our spirits. We converged on the Radisson Hotel in Northbrook and unloaded our luggage!! We decided after being in the car for so long maybe a trip into the city wasn’t the best plan so we asked the hotel for good places to eat. After discussion we headed out to Pete Miller's steakhouse. What a great place! I had lobster tail, Beth had 3 fillets with crab legs and Cathe had bone-in porterhouse. The servings were HUGE and the price very reasonable. Attached to the restaurant was a Jazz club. They started playing while we were there and we met several ladies with one that operates a Big and Tall store for men. She wants us to come back for an appearance in her store!

Saturday started with setting up at around 5:30PM and we claimed the spot right next to the main entrance. The fashion show started at 8:00PM with an opening from Poetic Artist Kahri! The fashion show was great but as the evening went on I started not feeling the greatest. I kept a smile on my face, talked with the Mary Kay lady and the three of us even spoke to a designer about creating plus size pageant gowns. It was very interesting and the clothes were just as interesting. A lot of the designers are young and have great potential! We handed out fliers and business cards and hope to have some potential delegates/sponsors out of it!

Saturday evening ended with us all exhausted and no one feeling all that well. So, we crashed (tried to) until we had to get up to go home. Beth, bless her heart got up at 3AM and realized she could be in her own bed in 4 hours so off she went.

Cathe and I took to the road about 10:30am and on our way home!! Pictures will be up on my website soon!! If you get the chance check out http://www.projectcurves.com