Join the Club!

I can only sit inside on my laptop all day every day for so many days......

I've been seeing these posters for The First Annual St. Patrick's Day Hackers Fest Golf Tournament (Surfers golfing?! Rad.) around town pretty much since I took up residence. I really like the design (its amazing how influential art can be) and in the past I've kicked around joining the Surfrider Foundation so... I emailed Tony and Cindy, the event contacts, and asked if they needed any volunteers.

Does anyone ever say "no" to that???

I looked forward to the event all week. The weather was PHENOMENAL- sunny and like, 80. I had to be at the course between 10 and 11. So I was up early, did an interview at 9, hit the Starbucks (Thank you, Donna B.), and headed to the course.

My first task was to fill the SWAG bags. Cindy's adult son, Matt, was my co-assembler. Everyone was impressed by my abilities. Matt told me I was overqualified. (Granted Matt informed me on more than one occasion that he doesn't like to work but he can't find the anyone to pay him for doing nothing. I really wished Nicholas was there to witness this.) I attribute much of my bag-assembling success to "practice, practice, practice" and all of the weddings I've been involved with, a big shout out to Mrs. Sica, Mrs. McDermott, Mrs. Desmond, Mrs. DeSiderato, Mrs. Neville, Mrs. Jacobsen.

Next I was assigned (by Cindy) to help Cindy with the Check-in table. After approximately 10 minutes, Cindy said, "It looks like you've got a handle on this. I'm just going to go check on a few things." And she never came back. So I ran the Check-in table. I like the Check-in table, you get to meet everyone and its busy. I nearly recruited some golfers as well.

It was a 9 Hole Shotgun Start Tournament. Once it was underway I helped break down the check in area, transfer everything upstairs to the banquet room, and set up again. With every new task Cindy and Tony seemed mildly surprised that I could handle it and kept saying things like, "You're good." (Um, not rocket science. And to this point not even math!)

As teams were finishing, Tony told me we'd need to collect the scorecards and do the math. (Uh-oh) At the mere mention of "doing the math" I could feel the anxiety creeping in. I jokingly told him he did not want me doing the math but that I would happily collect the cards. Guess who did the math? Me! And no one even seemed to care! It must have been all the Primo beer on the course. No one even double checked my math!

The banquet that followed was fun. Not surprisingly, corned beef, cabbage, and red potatoes were the fare. (Some day I'm going to have Mexican on St Patty's Party and then on Cinco de Mayo serve corned beef and cabbage.) There was a raffle with some big prizes: custom wetsuit (you should see the guy who won!), a HUGE paddle board, life coaching, etc.

All in all, I met a lot of cool people including the two teams from VANS (I felt like Colin was there. VANS definitely got the Best Dressed Award or Most Festive anyway.) And another guy, Steve, who gave me the surf lessons he won in the raffle because he doesn't need them and I was new and don't surf yet. So that was very cool.

By the end of the day all I could do was just smile and shake my head. I had walked in that morning not knowing a soul and not having contributed an iota to the preparation and yet managed to be a big part of the production "day-of". (I was even in the chapter picture!) Seriously? Could this be my job? Is this a job? What job is it and how do I get it?

See you never know who you're gonna meet. It's definitely a group I'll look forward to being part of and they are already recruiting me for their upcoming events.

I'll keep you posted.

k8