transitioning

1. The show is over.
Setup was pretty bad, as I wrote, but the show was... long. Too long. It's an exhausting thing to be completely engaged in something fourteen hours a day for four days, physically, mentally, emotionally, grammatically....
Friday was a slowish day, with only about 800 people through the doors. Friday are usually slow, though, and it rained on and off all day, which tends to keep people away. The actual downpour held off until the band (and the expensive rented sound equipment) was off the stage, but there were points where they were playing keyboards under draped tarps. Still, people seemed pretty happy, for a rainy day. Craftspeople are shockingly philosophical about bad weather during outdoor shows. The most surprising event of the day was that our only glassblower was noticeably not set up or even present when we opened, and drove up at about 3 in the afternoon - he thought setup was Friday, not Thursday. So it goes.
Saturday was a very long day, despite the terrific marathon performance by Vetch (six hours of singing?!) and far superior weather. We had staffing issues all weekend, with people not showing up or calling in sick or snapping at craftspeople, and it started to really show on Saturday. I boothsat for a couple of people and tried to take deep breaths. Shasta and one of the craftspeople successfully busted some shoplifters - how low do you have to be to steal from independent craftspeople who rely on it for their living? They were trying to make off with enough jewelry that they will probably at least get house arrest for it, and possibly real jail time, but still.
Sunday we had the Annual General Meeting in the morning, which delays opening until about 11, and by 11 I had had enough of the festival for the weekend. We were still short of staff and Stu had a fight with Shasta and people in general were overtired and snappish. After a rocky start, though, the afternoon passed faster than I thought it would - the weather was good, and we were pretty busy - and teardown went fairly relatively smoothly. Shasta and I had to wait around for the tent people to show up to make sure no one stole the fire extinguishers (again) or the rented tables, but just as we were getting really frustrated with waiting, Matt and Porter mysteriously showed up at the park looking for me and Sean and kindly watched the tables while we went to our storage across the river and dropped off everything.
And really, that was that. Happy craftspeople, attendance slightly better than last year, reasonably good weather, frazzled Stephanie.

2. Sean and I headed up to his parents' house for Monday and Tuesday, to recharge and to keep me away from the office, and we passed a very peaceful couple of days watching silly movies and playing with Lucy the puppy and eating terrific food. On Tuesday I even got to go to a terrific yarn store in Blacks Harbour called Cricket Cove, though I missed the sea silk somehow (that's okay, I got some sock wool for Jaywalkers), and for supper we went to a seafood place called Comeau's, which has the best fish and chips in New Brunswick (won awards, etc) and deep fries every item on the menu. Good times, and a peaceful rest. When I came into work on Wednesday, Shasta was shocked how much more happy and rested I looked.

3. Shasta is officially at Downtown Fredericton Inc now, and last night we all went out to the Blue Door for a sort of goodbye party (Shasta, Amy, Kate and myself). We stayed until about 10:30, and it was a really good time, just sort of chatting and eating and having a couple of drinks. We also gave her one of Beth Biggs' oxidized gold rings, which she was pretty happy about. The Blue Door is a terrific restaurant, if a bit expensive. I think I'm going to take Sean there this evening for his birthday (he's twenty-four today!).

4. Tomorrow is my first day of class, somehow. I'm a little concerned that I've been to busy with the festival to spend time on reviewing and catching up on my languages, but hopefully I can get up to speed quickly. All of my classes are Monday, Wednesday and Friday, which leaves my Tuesdays and Thursdays free for work and homework (as well as after 2:30 on MWF). Here's hoping for a school year as successful as last year, although hopefully not as hectic.