How a Fanfest and a Gem Show are the Exactly Alike

I'm late. I know, but I get sidetracked. What can I say?!

Last weekend, K and I went with my mom to a Baltimore Orioles fanfest as a favor to my brother who is currently residing in Texas under the employ of the United States Army. Seems he had a boatload of baseball cards he felt he absolutely had to have signed.

I've never been to a fanfest, but I made a few discoveries while I was there. A fanfest is like a sports fan's gem show. Yes, this was my big discovery. I was standing there waiting in the neverending line of autograph hounds watching all the people hurry by, and it hit me. A fanfest is a sports fan's gem show.


I go to a gem show to get those fantastic little rocks or mineral specimens or fossils that I can't just get anywhere. Sports fans go to the fanfest to get those autographs that they couldn't otherwise get from retired ballplayers or hall of famers or those new up and coming stars. They carry around boxes of bats, posters, cards, or specialty items to get signed. I carry around boxes of all the fun new gemlogical finds I just purchased. They scurry from line to line getting all the best autographs. I scurry from line to line to get the best most unusual stones. And, at the end of it all, I'm just as tired at a fanfest as at a gem show.

My biggest discovery is that for gemstone seekers such as myself the Tucson gem week is our Superbowl. So if your hubby or boyfriend or whoever wants to go to the Superbowl let him but you tell him you're going to Tucson to do a little shopping. It is after all only fair.