High Point, North Carolina is home to America’s largest residential furniture collection. Twice a year—every April and October—the showrooms open their doors to welcome thousands of visitors: designers, furniture dealers, store owners, architects, and buyers of every kind.

The experience reminds me of a woman deciding to have a second child—forgetting, somehow, the pain of the first. This exposition is a killer if your feet are anything less than perfect. It’s miles and miles of walking (or, more accurately, trudging) through endless showroom floors, scattered across buildings and neighborhoods throughout downtown—and then there are the outlying showrooms. It’s been years since I last attended a market like this, and clearly, I’d forgotten what I should have remembered. Lord have mercy!

But if you love design, and are obsessed with furniture and beautiful objects, this is the place to be—and to be seen. New products are debuted, interior design stars and product mavens are interviewed, gurus are quoted—it’s all thrilling, exhilarating and utterly exhausting. (Just be sure to pack your favorite mix of Aspirin, Tylenol, Aleve—and maybe a sleeping pill or two!)

I loved it.