Post by Honeylioness on May 18, 2010 22:01:01 GMT -5
Thursday, May 13, 2010
Mid morning it occurred to me that Anne had almost everything she needed for prom tonight - except flowers. So I called the guy down the street who does a lot of work for my company and they were able to squeeze in making a wrist corsage for me. Small white roses with a delicate black ribbon to match the cut velvet black overlay of her skirt.
I figured out which friend's house she was at and drove over. Her friend T was more than a little surprised to see me but took me upstairs and called her down. When I heard she yell down - "Why?" I called back "Because I said so". I couldn't help but grin as I heard her squeak and scramble downstairs to ask what was wrong ... because I was obviously the last person she had expected to see standing there.
I told her nothing was wrong, but that I had realized that no girl could go to prom without flowers, at which point I lifted the box out from behind my purse where I had "hidden" it for the moment. She took the box, looked at it, then got all teary eyed. I smiled and told her I had not meant to make her upset ... and she wrapped me in a huge hug and said she these were happy tears and she was so touched by the present. She had feared she would be the only girl there without any flowers but had not said anything to me.
I kissed her goodbye and went home to finish assembling the volume of items I need to take with me tomorrow morning.
Friday, May 14, 2010
I was up at 05:00 am. Ye gods and little fishes - are there actually people who get out of bed before sunrise every freakin' day??? Anne is still sound asleep - not sure I really want to know what time she got in last night.
Oh well, no time to speculate - I have to pack up the truck. Work box with various tapes, rope, string, tacks, hammer, pins, lint roller, febreeze etc. step ladder, baskets, check lists, floor plans ... ooops, almost forgot the quilts ... I think we are ready so off I go. First stop, Dunkin' Donuts. Two extra large coffees and 18 donuts later I am pulling into the church parking lot. Gee, big surprise, no one else is here so I unlock the hall and start bringing in the supplies. And no, the donuts were not all for me - I figure you need to feed the crew to keep them happy.
First hurdle - I can't find the light switches to turn on the hall overheads. Why would they bother to HIDE them??? Finally - we have light. But it is 6:30 am - I have been here 30 minutes, the racks should have been here by 6:15 am but nada. And now the other workers begin to show up. Well, there IS stuff to be done. Because they had bingo in the hall the night before. And while the sexton had taken down all but the tables I needed - he had left the three dozen other tables folded up and laying in stacks on either side of the stage. So one group is sent to carry them into the back storage room.
Then there is the trash. There must be 20 large black trash bags piled up in the entry way and around the inside door - so another few bodies are pressed into service to get them out of the hall as well.
Finally at 06:55 am the rental place calls and says they are in the parking lot. FINALLY. I get them oriented as to which doors they can use and where they can unload, walk them through the set up plan and leave them to unload equipment.
That was fine - but then it became clear that only one of them has actually set up these racks before - so I have to do a quick tutorial - then explain my map layout for a third time and finally realize I need to watch them like a hawk.
At the same time I find myself having to coordinate the incoming registration process as well. The gal who had "stepped up" to be the registrar had taken in the entry forms, made a master list and the tags for the quilts. But had not realized she also needed to coordinate the receiving and later the returning of the quilts. So she had no check in sheets and no system for this task or the two people who offered to do it.
Luckily I had anticipated this and had made my own check in and check out lists, and brought pens, so that the in takers could keep track. The list also had location "codes" which were written onto the intake slips and stapled to the bags the quilts came in. These were then taken to a corner of the hall and placed in groups so that as each section of racks went up we could grab quilts and get them hung.
Of course it is a rule that what "works" on graph paper does not necessarily mean it will "work" in reality. So on the fly we had to make some changes to the layout - This in addition to the revisions we had made due to my neglecting on crucial measurement which I did not take in account - the television sets that are set up along the outer walls that protrude more than two feet into the room and preclude the use of the top bar of the racks for hanging quilts.
Then there was the incident with G - who always seems to show up at the last minute with "better" ideas of how to do anything and takes it upon herself to do things without checking with whoever has been in charge of that area for the last F***ING year!!!! I was ready to just rip her arm off and beat her to death with the bloody stump. However as she had just effectively screw3d my plan and carefully organized with the bags the quilts came in I had no choice but to let them all be dumped into a pile in the back room. However this did NOT stop me front getting upset and teary from stress and hormones and having a little mini- meltdown.
Oh, did I fail to mention I had woken that morning to discover that while my period was not due until NEXT week it had decided to start today??? Just what I needed.
What really irritated me about G was that she had taken it upon herself to do something that she had sniped at me about the previous show for doing - a complete 180 that she then tried to act all sweet and clueless about. She really gets on my last nerve and most of the time I try to just avoid her completely as she rubs me the wrong way without even trying.
Anyhow - it was now about 11:30 am and the show opens at noon. The quilts are hung, boutique ready to go, raffle area ready, the silent auction people have finally arrived and are setting up and the raffle quilt team decided to grace us with their presence. Now remember, I was in charge of setting up the hall and hanging the quilts. And as a part of that I needed to account for space for each of the other committee head's needs - like the silent auction. However I was NOT the titled "chairman". That was to be shared by D and A. And yet even they were coming to me all morning asking where so and so was and did I know how so and so was going to deal with this aspect of their job. Hello ....YOU are the overseer of this event - shouldn't YOU know the answer to that?
By 2:00 pm there was a steady flow of visitors and plenty of guild members around to help with the boutique and white gloving so I let the group know I was going home. However I did still have the presence of mind to verify that we were starting at 9:00 am on Saturday, I would be there around 1:30 pm and oh yeah - they DID have someone with a key to let them into the building yes?
Seems the answer was actually NO. No one else had thought to check on that actually. So I guess I will be back here Saturday morning.
I went home and managed to make some headway in cleaning off my desk/cutting table before throwing some dinner together and crawling off to bed.
Saturday, May 15, 2010
After another swing through Dunkin' Donuts (wow - two days in a row, what a spendthrift I am!) I got to the church only to discover that another function was on in the upstairs portion of the building and the sexton had already unlocked the building. Man .... I could have slept in!! After a quick walk through to make sure things were still standing I was leaving when I ran into D and soon after found myself driving to several intersections to place road signs for the show.
Then off to the grocery store. As I was pushing my cart back to the truck I happened to notice a woman standing next to a car parked behind me talking on her cell phone. Not sure why I gave her a second look - but I did. And as I was lifting the bags into the truck she walked up and spoke to me. It seems she had had a fight with her husband that got her upset enough to not really pay attention to what she was doing - and as a result she had backed into the back end of my truck.
Now remember, I drive a rather beat up 1992 Ford Ranger with rust spots and a dent in the passenger door. But this woman had enough integrity to stay until she could speak to the vehicle's owner. I looked over my back bumper and aside from some old scratches did not see anything amiss - in fact there was not even a scratch on the back of her much newer car that I could see. So while all seemed to be well - I was still impressed with her willingness to stay and "face the music" as if were.
Having finished with this little adventure it was back home to unload the groceries and just in time to hear the shower go on upstairs ... hmmmm .... 10:30 am and she is finally up. I then cut up chicken to soak in buttermilk, went outside and did some weeding and staking up plants in the ever expanding flower beds, pruned back a half dead forsythia bush and made two treks to the dumpster hauling a very very full barrel of clippings with me.
Around 2:00 pm Anne and I headed back over to the show. The parking lot was still full (a good sign) and there was still a steady intake of guests. After getting Anne something to eat and letting her wander a bit to look at all the different quilts I set her up in the back room to sort through the jumbled pile of entry bags and left her alone to sort them into numerical order - lowest number in front. I then took my charts and a pen and went through the space noting the revisions to rack placements where needed and the final placement of the center racks. I also spoke to each area chairperson to ask about the space they had, the location and arrangement and made note of suggestions for improvement next time (like moving the boutique entrance).
V called me over because the raffle drawings were done for the baskets and she did not want to be on the PA system so I said I would do it. Now about an hour earlier I had "gambled" $1.00 which bought me three tickets for the only item on the table that was "speaking" to me - a gift certificate for $50 off professional quilting services. And so I am now announcing the winners by basket entry starting from high to low - and when I get to the winner of the quilting services I blink at the name there then start to chuckle and announce over the PA system "And the winner of the quilting services is .... Your favorite show announcer - ME!" That got a chuckle from the crowd.
Once 4:00 pm came around I was ready to rock and roll. Bags were in order and my workers were assembling. Giving them their instructions and making sure they had the supplies they needed I set them off into three teams taking down the quilts. The Registrar should have also been responsible to setting up the return area, tables and checklists - but again I did it. Wrangling two women into service to organize the bags as they came in and later give them instructions that "no ticket no quilt" was the rule for the day when giving items back to people. In less than an hour the racks were almost completely disassembled, the quilts lined up in order and we were ready to let people into the hall to pick up. Though some had tried to sneak in earlier I was firm - NO quilts would be given back until ALL were ready. NO EXCEPTIONS.
Meanwhile the new crew from the rental place has shown up and is beginning to collect and carry out the racks. And as soon as we clean part of the floor - men from the church are right behind us setting up chairs - since it seems the A.A. group did not reschedule their meeting and they are coming in around 7:00 pm - a fact the church office neglected to mention to us. Either way, but 6:15 pm we were done - the last load of boxes were being taken out to cars and the rental guys had only two more trips to make before they too left.
I made the executive decision that I was not cooking dinner and we picked up fast food to take home. Then it was time for another shower and sacking out on the couch.
Sunday, May 16, 2010
I cannot believe I am waking up to yet another alarm - an on a Sunday yet. But in a moment of madness I had made plans with R to go to Brimfield today. www.brimfield.com/ Coming along on this trip is Anne who has never been to an outdoor antique show, and a coworker of R's who also is new to this madness.
They arrive at 8:30 am and our first stop is Dunkin' yet again! Remember though, nothing runs without coffee in my world.
R and I try to get to this event, which is held three times a year, at least once each year - though we do avoid the July show since the weather is usually just too oppressive to really enjoy it. We also like attending on Sundays for two reasons - there are free parking lots if you know where to look for them, and the vendors are more apt to bargain in order to not have to pack things back up again.
So parked and with R's new toy, a collapsible red canvas wagon to carry any treasures we might come across we head out. Many of the vendors take te same spots year after year which makes it a bit easier if you are looking for something specific. The day is bright with a slight breeze and occasional clouds that keep anyone from getting too hot. So we begin to poke around and see all sorts of things: Vintage, newly made or true antiques, High end crystal and rummage sale finds, things for the garden and linens for the bedroom.
Some years there are numerous things calling my name and telling me to take them home and I have a difficult time deciding or budgeting my allotted funds. Other years nothing really jumps at me. This year fell into the latter category. Although there were a couple of pieces of furniture that I really really liked - however my wallet did not feel the same way, never mind that I have no room for any additional furniture.
I did pick up two large ornate french made tassles in autumn colors, a vintage orchid french beaded spray of flowers traditionally used on hats and lapel decorations, a few vintage handkerchiefs and a small delft sugar bowl with lid. Even with the cost of lunch and a dessert I spent under $40 for the entire day.
However what i don't realize until I get home is that I got too much sun as witnessed by my forehead and upper chest - that would probably explain my killer headache and general feeling "icky". I drank a lot of water, tried to eat something, slathered some lotion on the redness and hit the hay after talking to another Board member about tomorrow morning.
Monday, May 17, 2010
Well I took the day off originally to recover from my weekend - but as they say, no rest for the wicked. I am up again at 7:00 am to move the items off my deck I did not get to last night. Yes, instead of being one with my couch I am getting ready to do some home maintenance with my next door neighbor.
The association cannot currently afford to hire professionals to wash, strip, sand and prep all the deck and railings that circle the interior second level of the townhouse complex. So the Board authorized the purchase of supplies and most of the owners are pitching in to do the work ourselves.
After a quick tutorial from A who brought over the power washer and pre treatment spray E and I were ready to tackle the project. Now I will admit, using a power washer is less physically demanding than doing all the stripping by hand - but there are trade offs. Like the strong reverberations that travel up your wrist and arm and make the muscles ache so you need to switch off hands often before they cramp up.
Taking turns we were able to finish the deck and railings and then wash down our outer walls and doors by 11:00 am. By that point I was wet and as grungy as the deck before washing. So since I was already a mess I decided to take on my kitchen floor. I actually cannot remember the last time I scrubbed it - and it was getting close to possibly being condemned by the health department!
After finishing that task I was feeling really wiped out so I washed up and went to lie down for a quick nap - two hours later I finally pried my eyes open.
I am almost looking forward to going back to the office tomorrow if only for the rest!
Mid morning it occurred to me that Anne had almost everything she needed for prom tonight - except flowers. So I called the guy down the street who does a lot of work for my company and they were able to squeeze in making a wrist corsage for me. Small white roses with a delicate black ribbon to match the cut velvet black overlay of her skirt.
I figured out which friend's house she was at and drove over. Her friend T was more than a little surprised to see me but took me upstairs and called her down. When I heard she yell down - "Why?" I called back "Because I said so". I couldn't help but grin as I heard her squeak and scramble downstairs to ask what was wrong ... because I was obviously the last person she had expected to see standing there.
I told her nothing was wrong, but that I had realized that no girl could go to prom without flowers, at which point I lifted the box out from behind my purse where I had "hidden" it for the moment. She took the box, looked at it, then got all teary eyed. I smiled and told her I had not meant to make her upset ... and she wrapped me in a huge hug and said she these were happy tears and she was so touched by the present. She had feared she would be the only girl there without any flowers but had not said anything to me.
I kissed her goodbye and went home to finish assembling the volume of items I need to take with me tomorrow morning.
Friday, May 14, 2010
I was up at 05:00 am. Ye gods and little fishes - are there actually people who get out of bed before sunrise every freakin' day??? Anne is still sound asleep - not sure I really want to know what time she got in last night.
Oh well, no time to speculate - I have to pack up the truck. Work box with various tapes, rope, string, tacks, hammer, pins, lint roller, febreeze etc. step ladder, baskets, check lists, floor plans ... ooops, almost forgot the quilts ... I think we are ready so off I go. First stop, Dunkin' Donuts. Two extra large coffees and 18 donuts later I am pulling into the church parking lot. Gee, big surprise, no one else is here so I unlock the hall and start bringing in the supplies. And no, the donuts were not all for me - I figure you need to feed the crew to keep them happy.
First hurdle - I can't find the light switches to turn on the hall overheads. Why would they bother to HIDE them??? Finally - we have light. But it is 6:30 am - I have been here 30 minutes, the racks should have been here by 6:15 am but nada. And now the other workers begin to show up. Well, there IS stuff to be done. Because they had bingo in the hall the night before. And while the sexton had taken down all but the tables I needed - he had left the three dozen other tables folded up and laying in stacks on either side of the stage. So one group is sent to carry them into the back storage room.
Then there is the trash. There must be 20 large black trash bags piled up in the entry way and around the inside door - so another few bodies are pressed into service to get them out of the hall as well.
Finally at 06:55 am the rental place calls and says they are in the parking lot. FINALLY. I get them oriented as to which doors they can use and where they can unload, walk them through the set up plan and leave them to unload equipment.
That was fine - but then it became clear that only one of them has actually set up these racks before - so I have to do a quick tutorial - then explain my map layout for a third time and finally realize I need to watch them like a hawk.
At the same time I find myself having to coordinate the incoming registration process as well. The gal who had "stepped up" to be the registrar had taken in the entry forms, made a master list and the tags for the quilts. But had not realized she also needed to coordinate the receiving and later the returning of the quilts. So she had no check in sheets and no system for this task or the two people who offered to do it.
Luckily I had anticipated this and had made my own check in and check out lists, and brought pens, so that the in takers could keep track. The list also had location "codes" which were written onto the intake slips and stapled to the bags the quilts came in. These were then taken to a corner of the hall and placed in groups so that as each section of racks went up we could grab quilts and get them hung.
Of course it is a rule that what "works" on graph paper does not necessarily mean it will "work" in reality. So on the fly we had to make some changes to the layout - This in addition to the revisions we had made due to my neglecting on crucial measurement which I did not take in account - the television sets that are set up along the outer walls that protrude more than two feet into the room and preclude the use of the top bar of the racks for hanging quilts.
Then there was the incident with G - who always seems to show up at the last minute with "better" ideas of how to do anything and takes it upon herself to do things without checking with whoever has been in charge of that area for the last F***ING year!!!! I was ready to just rip her arm off and beat her to death with the bloody stump. However as she had just effectively screw3d my plan and carefully organized with the bags the quilts came in I had no choice but to let them all be dumped into a pile in the back room. However this did NOT stop me front getting upset and teary from stress and hormones and having a little mini- meltdown.
Oh, did I fail to mention I had woken that morning to discover that while my period was not due until NEXT week it had decided to start today??? Just what I needed.
What really irritated me about G was that she had taken it upon herself to do something that she had sniped at me about the previous show for doing - a complete 180 that she then tried to act all sweet and clueless about. She really gets on my last nerve and most of the time I try to just avoid her completely as she rubs me the wrong way without even trying.
Anyhow - it was now about 11:30 am and the show opens at noon. The quilts are hung, boutique ready to go, raffle area ready, the silent auction people have finally arrived and are setting up and the raffle quilt team decided to grace us with their presence. Now remember, I was in charge of setting up the hall and hanging the quilts. And as a part of that I needed to account for space for each of the other committee head's needs - like the silent auction. However I was NOT the titled "chairman". That was to be shared by D and A. And yet even they were coming to me all morning asking where so and so was and did I know how so and so was going to deal with this aspect of their job. Hello ....YOU are the overseer of this event - shouldn't YOU know the answer to that?
By 2:00 pm there was a steady flow of visitors and plenty of guild members around to help with the boutique and white gloving so I let the group know I was going home. However I did still have the presence of mind to verify that we were starting at 9:00 am on Saturday, I would be there around 1:30 pm and oh yeah - they DID have someone with a key to let them into the building yes?
Seems the answer was actually NO. No one else had thought to check on that actually. So I guess I will be back here Saturday morning.
I went home and managed to make some headway in cleaning off my desk/cutting table before throwing some dinner together and crawling off to bed.
Saturday, May 15, 2010
After another swing through Dunkin' Donuts (wow - two days in a row, what a spendthrift I am!) I got to the church only to discover that another function was on in the upstairs portion of the building and the sexton had already unlocked the building. Man .... I could have slept in!! After a quick walk through to make sure things were still standing I was leaving when I ran into D and soon after found myself driving to several intersections to place road signs for the show.
Then off to the grocery store. As I was pushing my cart back to the truck I happened to notice a woman standing next to a car parked behind me talking on her cell phone. Not sure why I gave her a second look - but I did. And as I was lifting the bags into the truck she walked up and spoke to me. It seems she had had a fight with her husband that got her upset enough to not really pay attention to what she was doing - and as a result she had backed into the back end of my truck.
Now remember, I drive a rather beat up 1992 Ford Ranger with rust spots and a dent in the passenger door. But this woman had enough integrity to stay until she could speak to the vehicle's owner. I looked over my back bumper and aside from some old scratches did not see anything amiss - in fact there was not even a scratch on the back of her much newer car that I could see. So while all seemed to be well - I was still impressed with her willingness to stay and "face the music" as if were.
Having finished with this little adventure it was back home to unload the groceries and just in time to hear the shower go on upstairs ... hmmmm .... 10:30 am and she is finally up. I then cut up chicken to soak in buttermilk, went outside and did some weeding and staking up plants in the ever expanding flower beds, pruned back a half dead forsythia bush and made two treks to the dumpster hauling a very very full barrel of clippings with me.
Around 2:00 pm Anne and I headed back over to the show. The parking lot was still full (a good sign) and there was still a steady intake of guests. After getting Anne something to eat and letting her wander a bit to look at all the different quilts I set her up in the back room to sort through the jumbled pile of entry bags and left her alone to sort them into numerical order - lowest number in front. I then took my charts and a pen and went through the space noting the revisions to rack placements where needed and the final placement of the center racks. I also spoke to each area chairperson to ask about the space they had, the location and arrangement and made note of suggestions for improvement next time (like moving the boutique entrance).
V called me over because the raffle drawings were done for the baskets and she did not want to be on the PA system so I said I would do it. Now about an hour earlier I had "gambled" $1.00 which bought me three tickets for the only item on the table that was "speaking" to me - a gift certificate for $50 off professional quilting services. And so I am now announcing the winners by basket entry starting from high to low - and when I get to the winner of the quilting services I blink at the name there then start to chuckle and announce over the PA system "And the winner of the quilting services is .... Your favorite show announcer - ME!" That got a chuckle from the crowd.
Once 4:00 pm came around I was ready to rock and roll. Bags were in order and my workers were assembling. Giving them their instructions and making sure they had the supplies they needed I set them off into three teams taking down the quilts. The Registrar should have also been responsible to setting up the return area, tables and checklists - but again I did it. Wrangling two women into service to organize the bags as they came in and later give them instructions that "no ticket no quilt" was the rule for the day when giving items back to people. In less than an hour the racks were almost completely disassembled, the quilts lined up in order and we were ready to let people into the hall to pick up. Though some had tried to sneak in earlier I was firm - NO quilts would be given back until ALL were ready. NO EXCEPTIONS.
Meanwhile the new crew from the rental place has shown up and is beginning to collect and carry out the racks. And as soon as we clean part of the floor - men from the church are right behind us setting up chairs - since it seems the A.A. group did not reschedule their meeting and they are coming in around 7:00 pm - a fact the church office neglected to mention to us. Either way, but 6:15 pm we were done - the last load of boxes were being taken out to cars and the rental guys had only two more trips to make before they too left.
I made the executive decision that I was not cooking dinner and we picked up fast food to take home. Then it was time for another shower and sacking out on the couch.
Sunday, May 16, 2010
I cannot believe I am waking up to yet another alarm - an on a Sunday yet. But in a moment of madness I had made plans with R to go to Brimfield today. www.brimfield.com/ Coming along on this trip is Anne who has never been to an outdoor antique show, and a coworker of R's who also is new to this madness.
They arrive at 8:30 am and our first stop is Dunkin' yet again! Remember though, nothing runs without coffee in my world.
R and I try to get to this event, which is held three times a year, at least once each year - though we do avoid the July show since the weather is usually just too oppressive to really enjoy it. We also like attending on Sundays for two reasons - there are free parking lots if you know where to look for them, and the vendors are more apt to bargain in order to not have to pack things back up again.
So parked and with R's new toy, a collapsible red canvas wagon to carry any treasures we might come across we head out. Many of the vendors take te same spots year after year which makes it a bit easier if you are looking for something specific. The day is bright with a slight breeze and occasional clouds that keep anyone from getting too hot. So we begin to poke around and see all sorts of things: Vintage, newly made or true antiques, High end crystal and rummage sale finds, things for the garden and linens for the bedroom.
Some years there are numerous things calling my name and telling me to take them home and I have a difficult time deciding or budgeting my allotted funds. Other years nothing really jumps at me. This year fell into the latter category. Although there were a couple of pieces of furniture that I really really liked - however my wallet did not feel the same way, never mind that I have no room for any additional furniture.
I did pick up two large ornate french made tassles in autumn colors, a vintage orchid french beaded spray of flowers traditionally used on hats and lapel decorations, a few vintage handkerchiefs and a small delft sugar bowl with lid. Even with the cost of lunch and a dessert I spent under $40 for the entire day.
However what i don't realize until I get home is that I got too much sun as witnessed by my forehead and upper chest - that would probably explain my killer headache and general feeling "icky". I drank a lot of water, tried to eat something, slathered some lotion on the redness and hit the hay after talking to another Board member about tomorrow morning.
Monday, May 17, 2010
Well I took the day off originally to recover from my weekend - but as they say, no rest for the wicked. I am up again at 7:00 am to move the items off my deck I did not get to last night. Yes, instead of being one with my couch I am getting ready to do some home maintenance with my next door neighbor.
The association cannot currently afford to hire professionals to wash, strip, sand and prep all the deck and railings that circle the interior second level of the townhouse complex. So the Board authorized the purchase of supplies and most of the owners are pitching in to do the work ourselves.
After a quick tutorial from A who brought over the power washer and pre treatment spray E and I were ready to tackle the project. Now I will admit, using a power washer is less physically demanding than doing all the stripping by hand - but there are trade offs. Like the strong reverberations that travel up your wrist and arm and make the muscles ache so you need to switch off hands often before they cramp up.
Taking turns we were able to finish the deck and railings and then wash down our outer walls and doors by 11:00 am. By that point I was wet and as grungy as the deck before washing. So since I was already a mess I decided to take on my kitchen floor. I actually cannot remember the last time I scrubbed it - and it was getting close to possibly being condemned by the health department!
After finishing that task I was feeling really wiped out so I washed up and went to lie down for a quick nap - two hours later I finally pried my eyes open.
I am almost looking forward to going back to the office tomorrow if only for the rest!