The Big Event (as written after they were over)

So our big event has come and gone, and it was AWESOME. Not only did I feel quasi important in how the event ran/turned out, I had a lot of fun doing it, even though I ended up so tired I was ready to drop. Let's break it down,

Thursday was technically the first event, but I had the day off and spent most of it, sleeping, swimming and running 5 miles.

Friday:

I got into work about noon, only to realize that no one I needed to talk to was anywhere in the vicinity and I had no idea what had happened on said wonderful lazy Thursday, so I stood around aimlessly for a good 20 minutes before I could find purpose again. The afternoon disappeared on me, and before I knew it, my volunteers were showing up at 4:30, with me having planned nothing for them to do yet.

So I dazzled them with my witty banter, ran away to have 5 minutes to myself, and immediately set all the men to lifting heavy things. Cuz why not. It didn't take too long to get everything set up, and despite being harassed by a guy who wanted to dance on the stage and was getting a little too close for comfort, the event was on its way.

We had three groups that night, the first being a set of Celtic Dancers, who were adorable (some were really young) and actually really good. The second was a duo called Beckon. There were AMAZING. And finally, a celtic music group called Scatter the Cats that had me toe-tapping and dork-dancing everytime I had to walk somewhere, which was frequently and more often than not, required me running around.

I was here until 9:15 when we finally finished slugging huge coolers still full of pop and the music finally came to a halt. It was a long day, but worth it.

Saturday:

The day started at 8am (which meant leaving my house at 7am, which meant being up at 5:30am). I had it all planned out what I had to accomplish, but of course, best laid plans and all that. I ended up slugging coolers again, though not quite the same distance. When my volunteers started arriving at 8:30am, it took a while to get them all congregated in the same spot, and even longer to convince them that "Yes, we wanted them at their stations at 9am, and NO they couldn't leave since we'd be leaving them with a loaner cell phone and a cash box".

With enough persistence, a couple bottles of water and the promise of muffins though (food bribes always work early in the morning), my volunteers were settled, people were wandering in and the day was underway despite it being muggy, damp with a whole heap of threatening clouds.

I didn't hear much of the music, I spent 90% of the day on my feet walking back and forth from the museum to all of the different areas, or walking the perimeter to check on my gates. My volunteers were fantastic, no one passed out from heat stroke or dehydration, nobody whined or complained, everyone got fed and nobody stole money either!

The weather held out mostly for us too. It started to rain at 2, and the boss lady pulled the gates around 2:30, nearly 3pm, then more slugging of stuff began.

But all in all, it was a great day. My parents slept from 7pm on last night, but I got the best kind of pizza out of the deal, along with a strong sense of accomplishment and sore feet.

I'm kind of sad it's over actually. Now it's back to cataloging. But at least I did it, and everyone had a blast.

Now if I can just catch up on the sleep, everything should be peaches.