success and being a walking zombie go hand in hand

Oh my goodness where to begin. Last week was probably the most stressful of my life this far. I totaled close to 300 e-mails a day and countless hours of phone calls and last minute confirmations and changes for our event. I woke up at 7:00AM friday morning and we started decorating the ball park at 8:00 AM we finished around 2:30 and people started filing in around 3:00. I was overwhelmed by the number of people quickly filling up our track I was having to dodge people while I was running around the track like a crazy person trying to make sure everything went off without a hitch. Opening ceremonies moved me to tears as somewhere around 150 survivors rounded the track to "I will Survive" and my sister and I met my mom to place her survivor medal around her neck.
I spent most of my night texting the DJ telling him what announcements were next as our walkie talkies for whatever reason were absolutely not wanting to work. I think we totaled somewhere around 400 text messages by the end of night. It's a good thing we both have unlimited text messaging. We had activities and people galore right up until luminaria ceremony.

During the ceremony I stood on the stage and bawled as I was signaling to our dj in the press box what was coming up next with my cell phone. I don't know if it was stress relief or the outpouring of love I'd received and all the congratulatory hugs and the shouts of "hey "Mrs.A" this is awesome!!"

I can't tell you how many people stopped me just to tell me how awesome everything was. It was very overwhelming and I've never felt so alive.


We had some storms role in about midnight and it scared a lot of our crowd away but we were watching it and decided as a committee to stick it out. At around 1:30AM I finally got to sit down after 12 hours of running around. It didn't last very long only about 30 minutes and I was up and running again. I think I made it around the track a total of 6 times. Once for opening, once for the Father/Daughter lap with my father in law, and a few more times. Every other time I tried to take a lap I'd get stopped halfway around only to get sent in the opposite direction.

By 4:00AM our crowd had dwindled but we stuck it out and at 6:30 I got to announce that our event total was..........130,000 DOLLARS!!

Saturday morning I went home with my heart full of love, some humongous blisters, and running on about 30 minutes of sleep in 22 hours. I came home to over 50 e-mails and messages telling me how much fun everyone had. I was a tad disappointed that not many decided to stay and tough it out the whole time, and I hope whoever chairs next years event finds a way to encourage people to stay all night.

Overall it was a great weekend but I am glad it is over. I spent my saturday sleeping til around 3:00PM and I didn't do too much all day. Jeremy ordered pizza and we watched bad tv. Sunday we did make it to church in the morning and then I went home and slept til about 4:00 in the afternoon waking up off and on to watch a little of the Mets/Yankees game. I am just now feeling like a normal person again.

I don't think I'll miss the hundreds of e-mail messages and phone calls, but I will miss the smiling survivors.

I hope to have pics by the end of week.

Later Alligators....

Mrs. A