Part 1: How To Network With No Voice
Even with 8 hours of sleep, I was congested the first day of the conference. And that scratching in the back opf my throat meant I was fighting another cold. There was a poolside party the first night to network with everyone. I so felt like I was in Hollywood at that point. As I was talking to a couple of friends of mine, I had to cough. It happens to me a lot at parties when I have to speak over music and other crowd conversations to be heard. However when I tried to speak again, my voice was almost gone. That never happens to me. It could have been the trip, the cold, the nighttime jaccuzi dip, the lous talking, acting as a security guard to my friend as she did a couple of tokes overlooking the sea, or a combination of all those things. Either way, I spent the next day sounding like Froggy from Our Gang.
It’s almost impossible to have a conversation when you have no voice unless you know sign language, and I don’t know enough to sustain a conversation (much like my Spanish; and since this was a Latino film conference, I was now unable to speak in three languages). I muddled through, As long as I didn’t talk too long for any one period of time, I could save my voice. If I talked longer than one minute straight, my voice squeaked to a stop. Luckily talking really wasn’t my job for the conference. Of couorse I was there to take notes and learn stuf to get my filmmaking career launched, but as a volunteer I’m there to work (at least in my mind). I was hoping to get to the fitness center of the spa at least once, but with all the running/walking from one end of the hotel to the other to get stuff and staff and do my job, who needed an eliptical rider.
Still I met a lot of great people, made some great contacts and put the word out about the web series.
Part 2: Things to Do in Vegas When You’re Sick
By the time I got to Will’s house at 1:00 am, I was pretty tired. The plumbing/water is out at his place so he put me up at a nearby hotel. However he mixed up the dates of my arrival and it’s for tomorrw, so I spent the night at Will’s place. When I woke up and tried to meet Will for lunch/breakfast near his office, I knew I had a cold. Not much I can do about it except overdose on plenty of over the counter cold medications and rest. Hell, I’m in Vegas to rest up a bit so I might as well follow my own plan–for once! I bought all my cold medicines plus a new three-subject notebook to continue writing.