So last night I think I really vindicated myself at my job. I had a few very minor mistakes happen in the past few months - nothing major, just running out of food for lunch on the day all the teachers were scoring tests, forgetting to updated a required birth date range on an application (Mind you, I updated everything else from the previous year, and I KNOW I updated the birth date range, but that was apparently a copy from a different folder). It's all little things that were easily correctable, for instance, I ran to the pizza place to pick up another sheet, and the applications were handed out at a meeting where we simply clarified that the date was supposed to be 2011, not 2010. But both of those things just had me on edge at coordinating an event as big as last night's.
It was a student recognition dinner sponsored by the Board of Education, so if I screwed anything up, it wasn't just me or my team that was gonna look like a slacker, but the Board. So... NO MISTAKES CAN BE MADE.
No pressure.
Keep in mind, I still don't have full familiarity with the teachers that were presenting the awards to the kids, nor was i even familiar with the cafeteria in which the event was held. So coordinating where to have food dropped off, where to store stuff, where to put this, how to set up tables, all things I was learning in the moment.
Luckily, my comp skills allowed me to create some GORGEOUS award certificates, which people raved over, and I was able to grab 4 kids from the National Honor Society, as well as a couple from the Academy of Business & Finance, so they were very helpful in navigating the caf and stuff, and if it were up to me, I would have given them awards too.
All in all, the night went FABULOUSLY, and I ended up getting a lot of compliments from Board members, as well as the Superintendent (who is basically my boss's boss). He actually thanked me in his opening remarks for the night, and I had to get up so people could see me. Mind you, I'd just spent the last 3 hours - right up to the moment he started his speech - running around like a lunatic and it was hot as balls in there, so my perfectly coiled and curled hair had fallen victim to humidity and sweat, and I had the oh-so-sexy sweat beads across my forehead. Below is a comparison of my hair prior to 3:00, and my hair after about 4:00 (the dinner started at 5). The only difference is that my hair is dark brown.
Made several notes to myself for next year to let my volunteers do most of the work, while I just chill.
But, all in all. It's done. The high school assistant principal - who has the biggest hand in helping me out with it, and is awesome, and I hate that she's retiring this year, because I really like her and I wish I could work with her more - said that this was the smoothest and quickest she'd ever seen the night go, and that was just... so awesome.
I'm just so glad it's over. I was in Panic Mode: Full yesterday around 2:00, aka 3 hours to showtime. But now that I've seen it, now there's some familiarity with it all, next year will be GREAT! The best part about the whole event is that it's literally all my brainchild. The Board says, here's how much money you can spend, make it happen. Color scheme, food, all up to me. I'll stick to pizza, it just makes sense, but might do a veggie tray instead of salad next year. This year I did white tablecloth with gold plates and 'vanilla' (cream-colored) napkins. The napkins were close in color to the certificates, which were embellished with gold design. So it all matched. Next year I'm thinking gold tablecloth, 'vanilla' plates, and maybe a patterned napkin, like this one I was eyeballing. (I'm mostly linking all of these so that I can go back to them next year.)
After that, I headed down to Helium Comedy Club for an Evening with Kevin Smith. This is the third time I've seen him now, and every time is more amazing than the last. There are few people who can speak like he can, and I find him absolutely fascinating. He spoke about the Mallrats sequel, and a LOT about Tusk, specifically how Johnny Depp came to be in it, as well as his daughter. Show didn't end until close to 1am though, but it was so worth it.