Great Day -- Check It Off...
Today was really a GREAT day! It's 9:38 p.m. and Marilyn and I just got home. She's pretty worn out, as she was literally on her feet for HOURS today (running the Board Meeting meant she stood behind a podium for ages).
The event at City Hall went wonderfully well! The One More Time Around Again Marching Band was outside the City Hall building playing songs, with their twirling group doing their thing. So exciting and fun! Keep in mind, whatever bands you've heard play before, this group is made up of ADULTS with previous band experience -- so they have an extremely GOOD (GREAT!!!) sound when they play! It's not like any high school or even college band you've heard -- it's much better. They are probably the largest band in the nation (and maybe the world), at 540 members. (No, not all of those members were present today -- it was a core group appearing.)
I saw three local TV stations filming the band outside -- plus our Clown Prince, members of the Clown Corps and us (there in our blue jacket uniforms).
After this, we headed inside for City Council. Each year representatives of the festival go to City Hall before the actual festival to make a presentation about our organization. Our Court attends, interacting with the Mayor. This year they had breakfast before City Council with the Mayor and his wife.
The OMTAAMB was there (they were in the upper gallery, really filling it, as well as some member below), the Court took two full rows and many of us 'blue jackets' were in attendance, as well (both festival Staff and Board members). This is the band's 30th Anniversary, so the Mayor read a declaration that made June 7 One More Time Around Again Marching Band Day. And our President Todd announced that they would be the 2014 Grand Marshal of the GFP! What a cheer went up in Council when that was announced! I couldn't mention that aspect prior to this, even though I knew it was happening. It was a big secret and hard to keep, believe me!
After that several of us stopped at Starbucks before heading back to the office and work (we're all swamped right now, of course).
I took many photos of the event and immediately downloaded them. Then I worked on the News item about the event for our website, which included preparing some pictures.
When I finished that, Marilyn and I dashed home to change out of our uniforms and get dressed for the Board Meeting this evening, before heading right back to work.
During the day I had to deal with a few IT issues, as always. This included FINALLY checking up on the WiFi that Kris had worked on this past weekend (!!!). I didn't get a chance to check downstairs, but the upstairs one was working GREAT! I finally have access to WiFi up there, thankfully! It's really hard to use your devices (like iPads) without it.
We're also dealing with more PHONE issues (sigh). So I recycled power to two of our switches and sent an email out to the Staff to help us track any problems. Hopefully we can start to resolve this. We've been dealing with it for more than a year (this past February).
Rich walked with me to get some lunch for Marilyn and me (Chinese takeout). Then Mark came by in the afternoon and we discussed the big event on Saturday. We need props for it, and I might have one here at home -- if Mark can pick it up and transport it for me!
Anyway, there's was plenty to get done before we headed over for the Board Meeting at 5:30 p.m.
The pre-meeting entertainment was good -- a singing group performed. And we had art from one of our sanctioned events. Plus the Court did their routine (that they had also done at City Hall in the morning). And we had both beer and wine (just small glasses, but it was a nice addition) to taste and enjoy. Plus the usual working of the room went on. (I hugged and kissed a ton of people...)
The Meeting went GREAT! Marilyn and Angel did a great job -- but so did the other Staff plus Board members who participated. (And I did my part by taking a bunch of photos, as I did this morning.)
Marilyn and Angel did a sort of 'talk show' (game show) type of program. There were four chairs, and people were drawn from the audience. So instead of giving the usual dull reports, Angel 'interviewed' them, asking them questions that they had to answer. And after each person was done, they got a parting gift (most were festival-oriented). It was really clever and entertaining! People were really into it.
After we got back to the office, Carol talked Marilyn into the idea of us going to the Burrito House for drinks and a bite to eat. Soon we had added both Angel and Jeff, as well! So Carol raced ahead to get us a table and the rest of us followed along as quickly as we could. The place closes at 9:00, so we were really racing to get there on time!
It was fun to all share margaritas and food -- and Jeff used his festival credit card to pick up the bill when we were done. (They stayed open half an hour late for us.)
I haven't mentioned that I did get my hair washed around midnight last night. And Marilyn woke around 3:00 a.m. to do her hair, then was awake a couple of hours. When she finally was heading to get an hour of sleep around 5:00, she stumbled in the dark and ran her face into the bookcase in her bedroom! I was still awake and heard the noise, so I went to check on her and found her swelling and bleeding! She smacked her mouth somehow -- but thankfully didn't chip or break a tooth (!!!). And the cut was small enough not to need stitches. But she was in pain and swelling up like mad. I got her an ice pack and some ibuprofen, which helped a little bit. But timing is everything! How awful that it happened before today. (I personally think it was more than just her being disoriented in the dark -- I think it was about exhaustion and sleep deprivation. But there's not much we can do about those things this time of year...)
Marilyn kept ice on it a lot when she could and kept taking ibuprofen to help the swelling. But tonight you really could barely tell -- even though she made a joke about it during the meeting.
But tonight I'm sure she's in pain from both her sore feet and legs, plus her poor mouth! As soon as I finish up with this, I'll head down to check on her.
We're going to have a bowl of ice cream -- and watch "Jeopardy." Hopefully we'll get to bed earlier tonight.
I was VERY PROUD of Marilyn tonight! She did a great job all day long. And she got special recognition for being the driving force behind the festival's involvement with the Knight Cancer Challenge (which hopes to change the world by bringing an end to cancer) -- which she very much deserved. She's really the driving force at the festival.
By the way, it was fun to be with those people tonight.
But I'm just happy with all these various people I work with, who are really very special! They are my extended family -- and I love them.
Time for ice cream!!!