Although she had received a hefty informational packet with her registration, Laura had been so busy with her regular workload that she had only glanced at the seminar topics scheduled and had not even opened the glossy "What to See and Do in San Francisco" brochure. Besides, she had become accustomed to browsing the Net for information and could do that in idle moments while performing her normal job, as she was doing now. Her initial search had turned up sfbay.yahoo.com as a likely candidate for information. What she was looking for was something different, fun, adventurous. Montreal was a very cosmopolitan, sophisticated big city, and Laura had made full use of her limited time away from work to explore its life. Her interests were wide-ranging, from watching Grand Prix racing to attending the symphony. From her reading she knew that San Francisco was much like Montreal, and she was eager to parlay this business trip into a journey of discovery, to add San Francisco to her memory book of experiences.
She had long ago learned to skim over the eye-catching, gyrating graphics designed to attract the viewer to the advertiser's wares, and to cut through to the heart of the information. Similarly, her eyes didn't even need to move left-to-right as she scrolled rapidly through the screens of information on happenings in The City, as its inhabitants called it. Ballet, symphony, plays from New York and new plays opening in San Francisco, Indy car races at Sears Point, all drifted past her vision without stirring interest. She paused briefly to read the description of the show by female impersonators at Finocchio's - she had seen a couple of them on an entertainment show on TV, and Finnochio's had been mentioned as the premier venue. She mentally filed that as a possible, and clicked the mouse button again to continue scrolling. Suddenly she stopped. A small picture of a cowboy on a wildly-bucking horse sat beside a banner blaring "Grand National Livestock Show And Rodeo!". Like most Easterners, Laura thought of California as the land of Hollywood in the south and dense forests in the north. That it considered itself part of the West, and would actually have a livestock show and rodeo in San Francisco, seemed so bizarre to Laura that she knew instantly that she had found one of her adventures.
All thoughts of the work waiting on the hidden window on her screen were gone now. Laura clicked quickly on the bucking-horse icon and avidly devoured the superlatives on the following pages. Ten days and nights! Thousands of head of show horses, cattle, sheep and swine from the top breeders of the West! Evening shows which included both classic hunter and jumper arena events as well as rodeo events with top cowboys competing for PRCA money and points! A special evening on Thursday night, Cattlemen's Night, with a huge barbecue in the arena preceding the show! Laura couldn't believe it. Calgary, Dallas, or Houston, maybe, but San Francisco? Home of drag queens and pastel-colored Victorians? Not even pausing to consider what outfit in her closet might be suitable for such an event, Laura quickly clicked and typed the few bits of information needed to charge a show ticket for Wednesday, tomorrow night, to her Visa card. When she decided to do something, Laura acted with a swiftness and single-mindedness which rivaled her computer.