That New Car Smell
Today was probably the most fun day of work I’ve ever had in my life! I was scheduled to report to work for info booth training at noon today, although I had no idea how long I would be there. I arrived at the coffee shop where everyone was supposed to meet the woman from the guest services department of the car show.. and was pleased but not very surprised to see one of the girls from my last temp assignment there! I had been wondering if I would run into any of the others at at this assignment, so I was happy to get to chat with her again. After everyone was gathered, we went downstairs and into the back employee/service area hallways near the convention center and had an hour and a half training session on how things will run at the info booth. There will actually be several of the booths situated around the casino, convention area and even in the garage bays where they will keep the cars that will be going up for auction. Most of the information we went over I had already learned from my other couple of days training on phones- since I had over 9 hours of training so far, I felt very lucky to be ahead of the game. Plus, our jobs in the info booth will be much easier because we don’t have to answer questions about the bidding or consignment process, we basically are directing traffic to either bidder registration, the ticket offices, or to the convention area where the cars are being kept. The woman that was training us said that we had the most fun job in the convention because we really will be right in the middle of all the action, and will get to interact with lots and lots of people.
After we went over that part of the training, we finally got to the part I have been dying for since Saturday- the tour! It took another hour and a half for us to see all the different areas that we’ll be directing people to. The convention center is massive beyond belief, but we walked every bit of it so we will know how to find everything. My favorite part was once we got into the floor where all the cars were being kept. Its not that I’m a big car lover or anything like that- I really don’t know a thing about cars. The part that made it so exciting to me was that they were still setting up, so we got to see some of the preparations that I love so much. The scaffolding that all the lights are hooked up to were lowered to a couple of feet off the floor, since the lights were still being rigged up. Several times we had to stop and move out of the way for some of the classic cars that were still being driven in and parked in their assigned lots. When we went outside to the parking lot where they’re going to have some of the drifting and drive-and-ride events, the bleachers were still being set up. That is the sort of thing I absolutely love- and the cars were impressive, too! As I said, I really don’t know anything about cars, but most of these were just breathtaking. I saw everything from a 1920 Dodge to a 1950 Pontiac to what appeared to be a Nascar. (It said Official Pace Car on the side of it). All of the cars were waxed and buffed so much you could see your reflection in them, and the paint almost looked wet. The whole place smelled like new car. And you could tell the guys driving the cars into their lots were having even more fun than I was- I could see them through the windshields as they drove the cars in, and if they grinned any harder I think their faces would break in half. The whole atmosphere was electric, and I kept thinking to myself, “I can’t believe I’m getting PAID to be here.” It was unbelievable.
The show doesn’t start until Thursday.. but six of us will get to work tomorrow, to answer questions for people who will be attending the show. I quietly told the lady who is training us that I would love to work tomorrow, and that I’m flexible and can work any shift during the convention- since most of the people requested the morning shift. She seemed to like that, and took down my name. So now, I’m just waiting for a call from the temp agency to get my schedule. I’m really crossing my fingers that I’ll get to work tomorrow, because I really don’t want to miss a moment of this. I’m so excited. 
Here’s a trailer for the show I’m going to be working.
