Good-Bye August

Greetings friends! Well, we are about to say good-bye to August, which means that our the Date Auction is only 3 weeks and one day away! It is exciting and nerve wracking. On the good side, we are in a very good place for the event. We have an amazing line-up of participants- I think it's the best we've ever had. Our flyer with the photos of a number of participants is already out which is the earliest we've had it out. Our marketing is a duplicate of last year's efforts. Here is the flyer- you can download and share it with friends- help us spread the word!

On the down side, my event anxiety is so high. I had another vivid anxiety dream about the Date Auction this morning. In this dream, I was horribly unprepared for the event. Instead of bringing the credit card machine, I brought a video game controller. None of my volunteers showed up. I didn't write up the list of bachelors/ettes that the payment table volunteers use to keep tracking of the winning bids. The gift certificates for the dates weren't in envelopes. My silent auction was a mess. I was so angry at myself at not putting the effort in to make the event run smoothly. I woke up in a panic and had to remind myself that it was only a dream. I am going to recruit more volunteers from another group just so I have enough- we would be in a rough shape without volunteers.

Today, Marcy, our volunteer, and I were working on putting the bachelors and bachelorettes in the correct order for the event. It seems like it would be a very easy task, but it actually requires a lot of thought. We alternate between 3 guys and 3 girls during the auction, but you still have to everyone in a good order. You want to keep it lively- not put all the hotties together- they can't go too early or too late. I was glad to have Marcy's help with it- you need a second opinion on things like this so you can see it from another perspective. I think we came up with a good order. I now need to organize the profiles and edit some of them for the space provided and make sure that there are no typos. It is too early to finalize the program because we always have last minute changes for participants. I wait as long as possible to get it printed because it is awful to have a program that features people who don't show up- there's always a few that don't show up, but that's why we auction off so many. The goal is to have the programs printed 3 days before the event, but ready well ahead, so that only small changes have to be made. I'm still waiting on a few more bachelors to send photos and I need some more ads from sponsors as well.

Well, that's the latest for tonight. I'm now off to raid the fridge for some watermelon. On a side note- I am so happy that the Market Basket dispute had a happy ending. My family and I have been shopping there for the past 16 years and we love the place. These last 6 weeks have been dreadful with not being able to shop there. I am so inspired by the strong will and determination of the employees and it is so uplifting to know that they won. Because of their efforts, we will be able to have the Market Basket that so many of us love. My eyes filled with tears last night when I logged on and saw that it was resolved. It's a reminder of the power that people have and if we band together, anything can be accomplished.
Until next time friends... Happy Labor Day weekend!