events galore

We had our big annual dinner last night at work. An event like this really reminds me how much I truly love event planning. It was certainly a lot of work and stress the past few months leading up to the dinner collecting journal ads and sponsorships, getting guest names for tables, booking flowers, music, etc. but I just loved being at the event and running the show. I loved getting there early to set everything up. I loved being the "go-to" person for the catering staff at the venue. I loved knowing that I did everything that needed doing, and I was confident in running a smooth, successful event. And that's just what I did. (With the help of the rest of my office, of course. I definitely could not do it without them.)

The one aspect of the event I didn't love was being sick. With so many events the past few weeks, the women in my office are all run down. And on Monday I guess I caught the cold that everyone has. So I have that going for me. And on top of that, it's my bad migraine time of the month. Of course. So I've had three migraines this week between the two huge events we had (last Saturday night was our Alumni Reunion). Not fun. Pretty inconvenient timing if you ask me.

Events like this make up for days when I'm sitting through a less-than-exciting speaker or setting up a conference about subjects I could care less about. This is the kind of stuff I want to do all the time. Going to different venues. Working with catering staff. Planning menus. Making seating charts. Setting up tables. Watching people having a great time. One day it will happen. Just call me curleegirlee, wedding planner to the stars.

election mania

We're going to have a new President by the end of the day today. How weird is that? This is really the first election that I've gotten into a little bit, and I have to say I feel a little anxious. I think that is the overall sentiment among everyone today. Our country is in a rough place right now, and things need to turn around soon. Can either of these men do it? I'm not sure. I want to believe one of them could. I want to really believe that either of them could. Anyone is better than Bush, right? But I'm just not sure.

Ready for some vast generalizations? Here we go. I think among young people, Obama is the man. We can relate to him more, he's a great speaker, he represents the change we all desperately want. But is he ready to lead our troubled country? And then there's the older set who generally see McCain as an experienced politician who knows what he's doing. He also represents change, since he is trying to distance himself from the very unpopular George W. Bush, yet he's still a Republican, and he has voted with Bush time and time again. Both want to help our economy, but through different means. Both want to cut taxes, but in different ways. Both have underlying Democratic or Republican ideals, but with their own twists. Both have vice presidential running mates with, in my opinion, more negatives than positives to offer.

Sadly enough I also think race is an issue in this race (no pun intended). Whether they admit it or not, I think there are a lot of racist people in this country. Some may not even consider themselves racist, but have an underlying belief that Obama simply cannot be the leader of our country. I also worry that if he is elected President, that there will be a lot of assasination attempts. Presidents in general are huge targets because there are crazy people in this world, who have very strong ideas and who simply hate "the man." ("Damn the man!!") So with Obama, add the race card on top of the power card, and we could have a major problem on our hands.

Who knows. These are just my very simple thoughts. I don't get crazy into politics. I can't have a heated debate about it. I admittedly don't know where each candidate stands on every single issue. But I just hope one of these men can help our economy, help our environment and ultimately save our country. I guess we'll see tonight! Everyone vote vote vote!