Women Today Expo

This afternoon I decided to check out the Women Today Expo at the Knoxville Convention Center, and I'm glad I did. It's continuing one more day and it might rain part of tomorrow; so grab a girlfriend and go.

The Belleza Salon & Spa booth is just to your right as you enter. If you'd like one of their highly discounted services, I'd reserve your spot first and then check out the other booths. When I arrived, the next haircut slots available were two hours out, but a 10 minute chair massage for $10 was available within 20 minutes. Sign me up!

In the meantime, I roamed the floor. Make sure you grab a sample of Milo's iced tea. I was pleasantly surprised that the sweet tea was not overly sweet. As a GRITS (girl raised in the South), I know my tea and learning that it has no preservatives and is high in antioxidants makes it a product I'll consider.

A few booths down, I saw my friend Allison, a teacher and mother of three with one on the way. She was serving samples of chicken with various spice rubs for BKW Seasonings. I didn't get the connection until she introduced me to her brother, mother, and father who run this Knoxville based company. I love to support local (especially friends and family-owned businesses) and the rubs were delicious.

Food City had yummy chicken salad samples. Papa Johns was giving away pizza but I didn't want to stand in line. The Knoxmoms booth was cute, but this trip was about ME; the kids were left behind with Dad. I must have signed up for 10 different raffles for everything from Tim McGraw tickets to gift baskets. As for freebies, I scored a few pens, jar openers, chapstick, tape measures, and frisbees.

My favorite booths were ones with a wheel to spin. I liked spinning even more than what I'd win. At the Covenant Health booth, I got so excited to see "mystery prize." I chose their cloth bag which is a good size and quality. I also spun a wheel at the East Tennessee Clean Fuels booth, which promotes things like biofuels and electric cars. Clean energy is a cause near and dear to our hearts (my husband works in solar power technology), but I was bummed that I only answered 2 out of 3 questions correctly. "How much of our country's coal is imported?" Among 4 choices, I chose 65-75%, but it's 60%. I think she should have given that one to me.

The funniest product was a wire head and back massager. It looked like a whisk that had broken free. I'm sure some find it soothing, but it just tickled me. Only when I got home to blog did I realize that XTRM Services is a green company. For my massage, I needed deep tissue, and for that, Beth at Belleza came through. Maybe it's because she's also a mom or maybe she knew it had been ages since my last massage, but she really worked my knots and gave me a couple extra minutes. She confessed I was the tightest customer she'd had all day. Yeah, I'm not surprised. The massage came with a $10 discount off future services.

When she asked if I did yoga, I had to respond, "I did when I was pregnant" but not since then. Why did I make my health a priority then and not now? It took coming to an event focused on women to remind me that there are certain areas of my life that need some more focus. Yes, I think I'll make starting a yoga class a priority.

Unfortunately, I missed the headliners on stage or fashion shows, but if you check the schedule, you could plan around those. Tickets are $10 for adults, but you could save $2 a ticket buying them at Food City.

I ended my adventure with free Italian ice at Rita's in Market Square. It was just a one-day promotion (first day of spring), but if you want free Ben & Jerry's, it's free cone day on Tuesday.

What did you like best at the expo?