Editing The Pen Addict 653/transcript (section)

== California Pen Show Overview ==

* I'm going to call this the California Pen Show and the Los Angeles or LA Pen Show pretty much interchangeably. The official name of this show is the California Pen Show. The old show that used to be in this area of Southern California was the LA Pen Show. Why don't they call it the LA Pen Show, do you think? Probably because of the old ownership. Like, this show is under new ownership, right? So, they can't call it that? I don't know how this works. Well, they didn't. Let's just say it was, like, not an official handing over of things. Does that make sense? Like, this show just decided to be a show, the California Pen Show. Yeah. Regardless of whatever the other show was. Does that make sense? Yeah. I just think LA Pen Show is a better name. Just for location. Yeah. Just for location. Because there are other Pen Shows in California. Yes. Yeah. So, just to say, I am going to make that mistake several times. But this is the California Pen Show. In Torrance, California. You're such a cheer tater, Myke.
* So, this is a little bit south of the city.
* And... But still, like LA. Greater LA area. So, I want to do a little recap of the event. Because this is my first time to the new event. So, they've been doing this for three years. I didn't make it the first year. Last year, I was planning to make it. But I had an emergency at home. Had to cancel. So, this is my first year out at this new, under new ownership event. And it's fantastic. Like, I'm just going to say it's like a... This is like a top event for the U.S. Pen Shows, I think.
* It's up there. You know, San Francisco. Like, this is just my personal rankings, right? Like, it's San Francisco's up top. And then, it's kind of everything else. And then, you try to decide what... Does everything else need to be for you attending a Pen Show? Well, do you need a huge, massive East Coast show? Well, D.C. D.C.'s that show. Do you need a show on the East Coast that's kind of moderate? And, you know, a little bit smaller and self-contained but nice enough? Baltimore. You know, do you need a good, you know, Midwest or central part of the country show? You know, Chicago or Dallas, right? I think this show is worth traveling to. If you have... If you're comfortable with, like, your local show and want to see what else is out there, this is one I would feel very comfortable sending people to, like, as a travel event. The hotel's great. Like, you know, L.A.'s a big city. So, LAX, totally fine. You know, it was monsooning when I landed, which was an oddity.
* But the area needed it, obviously. Like, it was... You know, the rains were much needed out in that area that's seen fires and devastation. And so that was a little bit odd. But after, like, Thursday night, like, the weather was, like, SoCal weather. You know, just beautiful, sunny, cool, breezy. It was great. But the hotel, it almost looked new. So I'm guessing it's probably renovated. Like, this was in an area that was, like, very well established. So it wasn't, like, an all-new area. But it looked like it was properly renovated and really nice. So this is the Torrance Marriott where we stayed. So this is the show hotel. So great, great bar area, great lobby, you know, good bar, good restaurant, in-house Starbucks, like a big, like a big full-size Starbucks type of place. Oh, that's good. Yeah. Not just, like, a little, you know, like a little edge of the bar, make some coffee situations. Like a full counter, full installation there. So it's really cool. So literally right across the street is a gigantic modern mall. I mean, you go out the front door and you walk across the street into the mall kind of thing. So all the food, all the downtime stuff you needed to walk around, take a break, is literally across the street. So it was great. Like, the facilities and the location, I thought, were proper. Probably, you know, like I wrote about my recap. It's either 20 minutes or two hours from the airport, depending on the time of day, right? So it's, I think it's 10 or 11 miles. So with LA traffic math, it could take, you know, random amounts of time to get there, but completely reasonable proximity. So that's the setup for, like, area location. Like, no changes. Like, I'm completely happy with all of that.