Halloween 2017!

In a couple of days I will be heading out to the Halloween industries big trade show for the year. It will be my 22nd year in a row. 
22 years ago, I remember just how overwhelming it all seemed to me. 
For the 20 years preceding that show, I had spent my career working in a warehouse. Every morning, I would leave my house around 6 a.m. and get home around 7 p.m. 
My days were spent on the floor of the warehouse or on the loading dock or in my office.My uniform was jeans and a sweatshirt in the cool months and jeans and a knit work shirt in the warmer weather.
Now life was different. My uniform became slacks and a nice shirt (yes always accompanied by a tie!).The truck drivers and warehouse workers I spent my days with were now being replaced by buyers and vendors.I was moving from an industry where I was a king and now found myself as a stranger in a strange land.I could not possibly have found myself in a more uncomfortable position.
22 years later....and here I am.My business card playfully reads :
" David Spiegel: Master of all things Halloween".
Even though this is my 22nd Halloween show, I once again find myself entering uncharted waters.
In the early years, it was me and my brother. We showed up together ,each with our own roles to fill. We were a team. As the years went by, we added to our team, always bringing enough support staff with us to ensure that our vendors were being covered and all of our customers were being taken care of.Year after year, that support staff grew.Sara and then her friends. Max and then his friends. Becca and then her friends. There were friends of Eliot's and some of my friends. And for the last 12 years, there was Becky who in a very short time became as integral to my business as any other part, including my brother and myself.And there were even Becky's friends.Literally dozens of people, too many to recount, who were part of the Halloween by Vasa team over the years.
This year, I am the team!
Eliot will be at the show. He works for one of the firms I represent and has his own responsibilities, nothing to do with Halloweeen Sales by Vasa.
In the old days , he and I always shared a room. Some times we even had a few other room mates (rooms for these shows can become expensive!). There were years where I can remember having 4 or 5 rooms with 4 or more people in a room.
This year, there will be just 3 of us in the room...me, myself and I!
I will fly out alone. I will fly home alone. 
I will be my only company back in my hotel room every night.
I hope that I find some one to have dinner with ! 
There is a very real possibility that I find myself eating alone as well.
Although I am aware of all of this, I don't think I am alarmed by any of it.
It is what it is....different.
Thee is nothing overwhelming about the show for me. As inexperienced as I was 22 years , today I am just what my business card says I am....Master of all things Halloween. United Airlines even has me listed as Professor Spiegel, when I go into the United Club lounge. Professor Spiegel......professor of Halloweenology!
There is nothing overwhelming as I make my final preparations before leaving town next week. There is however an air of pensive reflection as I take a peek back at the road I have traveled to get here.And a little bit of sadness that after all of that time and after traveling as far as I have, as I find myself standing alone at yet another crossroads in my Journey.
Shabbat Shalom!