PEZ recap

This should be my last plug about our documentary for a while. Just so you know.

The PEZ convention this past weekend in Cleveland was awesome. Really. I know it sounds strange, but it was great. Even though the three of us drove 13 hours straight overnight getting there, have to wait 5 hours upon arriving at the hotel before we could check into our room, slept very little while we were there, and then drove back 13 hours straight overnight, it was all worth it. We set up a mini studio in our room to film interviews, the guys spent most of the weekend filming rooms or doing interviews, and I spent the bulk of my weekend meeting people, figuring out when people could do interviews with us, and making sure the guys were fed. I walked close to 10 miles during 2 days without even leaving the hotel, and it wasn't that large of a hotel. I didn't even realize it at the time, but looking back, yeah, it was pretty much nonstop walking. But I loved it. I like meeting people, and everyone was so nice and helpful and fun. (Even the older dealers who don't really think we're going to finish this and have a good product were very nice tolerant of us and barely even let on that they weren't taking us seriously.)

The one thing that never ceases to amaze me, though, is the amount of money people sink into their collections. Chris had a (what I thought was reasonable, even generous) $40 allowance on PEZ for the weekend, and then I gave him another $10 on the last day. But he would mention to someone (anyone!) "Yeah, I have a pretty small budget of what I can spend this weekend" they would always reply "Yeah, me too" but it soon became clear that their idea of "small budget" was something like a couple hundred dollars or more. I met an 11 year old who has been collecting for "9 or 10 years" and who must have spent over $500 on PEZ over the weekend, judging by what he told me he had already purchased when we interviewed him on Friday. Intense.

But yes. Much fun. And we have a lot more planned, although there's only one more convention we're going to film, and that's in November. But we have a lot more filming to do, overall.

So yes. That's all the excitement for now. I've actually got quite a few things keeping me busy right now, so it will probably be a while before I can post again. It's good to be busy.