Conventional Wisdom

That’s right, we had to go in through the back door this year.  All my previous Artist Alley experiences had involved displays that could still be collapsed down into a few suitcases or wagons, so we could always just come in through the doors like normal people.  But no, this mountain of TVs and crates had to go down to the loading docks, in actually required going across the street and entering into a vast concrete bunker the next block over.  I mean, I remember when the Raleigh Convention Center was under construction.  I saw just how much stuff they dug up, so this shouldn’t have been surprising to me.  But still, it was my first time down there, and it always kind of throws me for a loop when I view a familiar location from an unfamiliar angle.  Heck, I got disoriented when they opened up an extra walkway between Artist Alley and the Dealer’s Room on Sunday.  What do you think stumbling into a whole secret underworld like this did to my brain?