Beer, Bourbon & BBQ Festival 2018 [Video]

Before we even departed for the event, I was already feeling sick. I had a crazy migraine early morning before we left. I felt so bad because that left Kristen, my partner in crime, to do everything for the event. About 20 minutes before the scheduled time to leave, she woke me up and said, "Maybe I should just leave you here. I got this."

I definitely knew she could handle it since she's done events on her own before but I just thought I'll feel better. I slept on the entire 3-hour ride to Timmonium, MD and I were still feeling like shit. After setting up our pop-up shop, we decided to rest at the hotel for a little bit but she persuaded me to just stay.

At this point, I couldn't argue with her anymore. I was getting chills so I covered myself with layers of clothes and stayed under the blankets. I didn't realize how busy she was until I started seeing all the transactions in our business app. I was stoked but I was also wishing I could be there with her.

By the time she got back to the hotel, I was drenched in sweat. We ate a quick dinner and she told me some stories about her experience with the customers. We always enjoy hearing good stories that happened...

Kristen said, "So, there's this one lady that was looking at all of our stuff and pointed at my shirt. I like a lot of the shirts but I really love the one that you're wearing so I might have to buy that off your back." Then she replied to the lady, "Well, it's not the first time that's happened. Last weekend someone bought the sweatshirt that I was wearing. She offered $100 for it! I couldn't accept that so she settled for $50." Hahaha...

It's so funny how many times that has happened to me, her and some of the people who have worked with us in the past. People are literally buying our apparel off of our backs! That's awesome, right?

Anyway, this was a two-day event so we woke up the next day ready to go... Well, actually, she was ready to go and I still felt like shit. Now, on top of the headaches, I was coughing and had a bad strep throat.

It was very difficult to swallow and my voice slowly deteriorated. I couldn't talk to people and could only whisper in Kristen's ear. One customer actually thought I was mute and without making any sound, the lady looked at me and just gestured with her mouth silently, "Thank you." Haha...

The event was so busy so I wasn't really required to talk to a lot of people since people were just shopping in our pop-up shop and formed a line. I was just Kristen's little helper!

It was such a successful event but I've never wanted to get home so badly... I closed my eyes throughout the trip home and I was the worst co-pilot. I was actually supposed to write this a couple of days ago but I was just not functional. In fact, as I'm writing this, I'm just coughin' away! Ugh...

I think I'll go lay down now...

Cheers,
Ricardo J. Zulueta, Jr.
Instagram: @rzulujr