Archives for August 2012

Last day of the convention is always a letdown, after the rush, but previously we used to have a wrap party, though we didn’t have one last time, and we didn’t have one this time, so we all ended up drifting away to separate get-togethers, if we have them. Our group ended up back at the hotel, where we had drinks at the bar before heading to bed, having had food at the convention before heading back. We all broke up fairly early though, as Jane and Steve both had 6 a.m. flights, whereas we cleverly arranged to fly out Saturday, knowing we needed a day of rest before facing any travel challenges. We all said our goodbyes and headed off to bed.

Finally felt well enough to go in. My Pink Eye was mostly gone (at least I didn’t look like a Zombie and I was past the contagious stage, or at least I was washing my hands every five minutes to make sure I didn’t spread it), and I was still on enough cough medicine, ibuprofin, Afrin and everything else where I could pass for almost healthy. Rather than disturb what was a system that was obviously working, I just took over the floater detail, which was pretty easy because the bulk of the speakers had already gone through. Ultimately, for me at least, a pretty uneventful day. At least I was there.

Feeling better, but not enough to guarantee I could make it through the day, so instead of going in and making everyone worry about me, I stayed in bed another day, dammit. I did spend the day watching the convention and making notes on all the speakers so I could better guide my coaches tomorrow, so it actually turned out to be a constructive day, though not so much fun as being there…

Spent the whole day in bed, sleeping, occasionally eating, and popping every pill and remedy I could get my hands on. Only felt marginally better, not much. Hubby got back around 10:30, he gave me the highlights. Fortunately, today’s convention schedule had been postponed because of a tropical storm, so a lot of speakers were cancelled anyway.

Sick today, though I dragged myself into work anyway. I looked so bad my compatriots found the house docter (literally, the attending physician of the Congress of the United States, no less!) who examined me and concluded I had a severe respiratory sydrome in my head and lungs, a perforated eardrum (I had lost the hearing in my left in a few days ago), and conjunctivitis, aka Pink Eye, something I had once as a kid, which made my eyes super-red and watery, and was contagious as can be. I had no choice but to return to the hotel in the afternoon, with Jane taking over my rehearsal room, and Steve taking over Jane’s. Thank goodness I had planned for the contingency by bringing Steve on board back in 2008, but I never dreamed it would be ME he’d end up filling in for! I always figured it would be one of the older folks in the crew, like 78 year old Hubby! Oh well, at least the contract was being fulfilled, though I hated missing even a minute of it!

Worked with some more speakers today, with Steve as our floater, filling in all the cracks between the rehearsal rooms, the stage, the participants lounge, scheduling and the speechwriters. Started to seriously not feel well, though, it seems the bug I got is finally overtaking me.

Had a couple of speakers come in to rehearse today, a good start. Our second subcontractor Steve arrived, got him up to speed as well, then at the end of the day, we all headed over to the hotel restaurant for a nice dinner with the four of us, plus one other gentleman who has been at all of the last 5 conventions with us (and then some, I think), and it turned out to be a lovely little dinner party to celebrate my birthday.

Our subcontractor and friend Jane arrived, and we got her caught up on systems and procedures. Everything on track for an efficient convention.

Took the hotel shuttle over to the Times Forum, which was already being surrounded by fences making it look like an invasion was impending, spent most of the day getting caught up on systems and procedures and getting organized for the upcoming job.