Say Cheese... Now Smile!

Instead of a wedding this weekend, I had a Winter Formal.

No... I didn't have a jailbait date. :P

But I DID have a extra dress in the just in case. ;)

We were decorating the gym of a high school down near Lake Elsinore. Originally, I thought this would only 2-3 hours tops because it didn't seem like a lot of decor, then I would go and gallivant the live long day. HA! Spent my entire day there... and let me say that there was never a dull moment.

First of all, for those who don't know me very well, I'm terrified of heights. Get me 2 steps onto a ladder and I'm already thinking morbid thoughts of accidentally missing a step and painfully twisting my ankle. 3 steps, my heart is beating faster and my only comfort is the knowledge is that if something were to happen, I could just bend forward and grab a pillar, and hopefully by doing so, it will "slow down" my fall. (and really, somehow that makes sense in my head.) So when my boss told me to go up on a stage 4 Ft high that the kids were "assembling" to set up a backdrop, I thought "OH NO." The kids, who were really nice and super energized times CRACK, were fooling around while "assembling" this puppy, and once they had it done the first time, they discovered they had did it wrong and parts of it were coming apart... so that along with the fact that the backdrop itself was 10 Ft tall and I needed to get on an 8 Ft ladder just to work my magic on it was really really giving me an anxiety attack. I kept on sighing and telling myself "I'm OK. *breathes* Yes. I can DO this. *breathes* Uh huh..." But lucky me, I didn't fall to my death NOR did I have to climb a ladder because I'm a smrt girl and I figured out an alternative. (Make it and then with the manpower of the teens hopped up on Quik, put it on the stage.)

While working on the mainstage backdrop, a group of girls came running into the gym screaming and all I could hear was "blah blah blah blah... escape... blah blah blah blah... cops... blah blah....lockdown." The first thing that came into mind was "Oh my gosh, theres a wild animal roaming the campus... maybe a bear... or a wildcat." We were pretty out in the boonies and I'm sure polar bears come out and kill people all the time. Only, that wasn't the case. The true story was that a man was resisting arrest when he got pulled over by the cops... so he got out of his car and ran right into the school. They had police all over the campus walking with their guns in hand, ready to shoot. It was quite a sight. So they locked us in the gym until they caught the guy... which if there really a bear attack and the animal was right outside my locked door, I'd be competely fine with because the bear can't whip out a gun and motion to me to come to the door with it and demand that I open it for him or he'll shoot me through the glass. Oh yes. I felt safe.

The kids were taken out of the gym and it was just us, alone. Lets just say that the mind was playing tricks on everyone. The ladder out of the corner of my eye was MOVING and my heart would stop while thinking that maybe its the criminal lurking and waiting to KILL. Brandy would freak after every little noise saying "I just made pee pee." Eventually, everyone was hungry, so I had to go on a food run... only I needed to have Brandy watch out for me from the door and Doug walk me to my car. And yet, I was still jumpy when bird flew out from underneath a car.

*on the phone in the car*
Jean: DON'T GO BACK!
Me: I have to... my boss want his Famous Star Combo!
Jean: No... just drive... go to Disneyland! Don't die!

About 2 hours later they caught the guy, it was announced over the PA that we were allowed to move. Not like we weren't, but it was nice to get permission.

The events of the rest of the day occurred in this manner: Backdrop. Drape walls. Centerpieces. Twinklelight and Drape buffet. Came home. Traffic was horrible. Had dinnner. Napped. Drove back. Teardown. Came home alive and quite happy. :) Goodnight and goodmorning.