You mean I get an expense account too!!!

I'm realizing now that I am actually an executive... a junior one, mind you, but an executive nonetheless. (With more education than damn near everyone IN that entire building!) Anyhow, when I started to prepare for my las vegas trade show, I started asking questions about meals, food allowances, etc... and my office mate said "Just expense it". Wait a minute.. you mean I buy stuff, get rewards points on MY card, and then hand the bill over to you and you PAY FOR IT!?!? I can't believe it!! Actually though, I figured out that there's an even better way to expense things. Let me illustrate: I went to the airport and sat down with our Vice President and one of our sales reps for lunch. They paid. I quickly figured out that if I go to lunch with someone who is more senior than me (or just has a larger expense account), they'll pay for it, and I don't even have to worry about getting reimbursed for anything... I just eat free. AND, because we only eat at FABULOUS places, then I ate REALLY well. Example:

Dinner at Roys:
Filet Mignon stuffed with goat cheese, atop a lovely bed of risotto
Asian Pear salad with gorgonzola and citrus vinaigrette
Chocolate souflee
2 Guava mojitos

Dinner at 'The Steakhouse"
Fliet Mignon (Yes, Again!)
Grilled asparagus with Horseradish hollandaise
Onion ring tower
Whipped potatoes with cheese and some other good stuff
Knob Creek & Coke
Really Good Cabernet
Really Good Port

and so on and so forth.

Apparently, depending on what salesman you befriend, you also get to gamble for free too!!!! I located our New York salesman, Cesar, on the blackjack table after dinner (and yes, he's a cutie..even my mom says so) and I sat down beside him. He asked me to join him, and I had to decline, because we were sitting at a $25 table. His response: No problem. He floated me a couple chips and I proceeded to play. And lose. But not all of it, and none of it my own. So I came out ahead. Yay!

Today, I turned in my expense report. I managed to squeeze in three extra days of parking (I stayed for my birthday), and I will be reimbursed this friday for approximately $500 bucks. I LOVE it.


I'm just dreaming up stuff for the next show...