The last day of the conference we were told that if anyone wanted to take any of the artwork from the conference we could put a post-it on the ones we wanted and the after 6 when the conference was over we could come back and take them.

I immediately went and put my name on 3 of them.

I reserved

After classes that day, I came back at about 5:30, mainly to make sure my post-it’s were still there, which they were. As I stood there however, the guy who reserved the Pink Floyd square was peeling his down. There were OnBase staff guys peeling other stuff down nearby, so it seemed like now or never. I went to the first one and started peeling. They were made of pretty tough vinyl and were sticky on the back, but came off easily.

I grabbed the Queen square first and laid in sticky side up on a bench and went to the Devo one. It came down easy too. Then I had 2 down. The notion of how to get them home never really occurred to me. They would stick to themselves if I rolled them. They were too big to just lay in my suitcase. I was standing there considering what to do when an OnBase staff guy came by with conference room paper flip pads. The guy with the Pink Floyd square laid it sticky side down on the paper and rolled it up. Great idea!

I asked for 2 sheets of the paper and I laid the Queen on one side and flipped it over and laid the Devo on the other. Then I rolled it up and took the other piece of paper and scampered to the other area where they had the art and got my Clash square. I laid this one on the other paper and then rolled them all together. I figured I could put the roll in my backpack and get it home that way.

There was another guy getting the Beastie Boys square who was talking to his friends about taking it to frame it and put it above his bar. Turns out he was an OnBase guy and was one of the guys in the picture. One of his other friends came up with a shipping tube and they rolled up the picture, stuck to a bunch of conference flyers, and put it in the tube. Awesome idea. I knew there was a Fed Ex store on the floor below us, where the conference has been before so I went and got one. I rolled my squares together and put them in the tube and then cut it down with the tiny knife on my finger nail clipper so that it would fit in my suitcase. Score. It just fit.

When I got them home. One poster came off of the paper pretty clean, but the other two were NOT working. There was no way they would lay flat with paper clumps stuck to the back. Even the cleanest one had two paper chunks that showed when I put it on the wall.

So, I took the Devo one, ran a hot 2 inch bath, and crossing my fingers, put it in.

Results?…

Perfection. The paper after soaking for a few minutes dissolved away and the backs were clean. I hung them on the bathroom door to dry.

I’m taking the Clash square to work for my cube. The Devo and Queen squares go the man cave.

The last night there, outside the Mandalay Bay

at the fake beach there was an end of the conference beach party. There was a band called “Checkered Past” playing. Sorry guys my picture is not good

but the music was. They played all 80’s! It was awesome. They play up on a stage that is separated by the pool with a sand beach on our side.

I was surprised how much music related stuff went on during this trip.

Viva Las Vegas!