Monday Confessions: Balloon Festival Edition

To put it briefly, I just spent the past two days waking up at 2:30am to be at the airport hangar by 3:30am to serve breakfast to several thousand people coming to watch about 50 hot air balloons fill up and lift off.  It was a fundraiser for our local soup kitchen and my dad and I were in charge of organizing about 200 volunteers.

Needless to say, I.  Am.  Beat.

1.  Me, my clothes, my car, my hair reeks of maple syrup and grease.

2.  It took seven attempts to spell "grease" correctly.

3. I have approximately 20 bottles of ketchup in my car.  Just hangin' out.  They will probably be there until Christmas.

4.  When I pulled into my parking spot at my apartment Saturday afternoon I sat in my car for no less than 5 minutes.  I could not move.  I used up the final burst of energy trying to stay awake while driving.

...

We started serving breakfast at 5am.  Which meant everything had to be cooked and ready to go before then: the eggs, French toast, pancakes, sausage, coffee, hot chocolate, OJ, and in large quantities.

Pancake batter had to be "stirred" with a whisk attached to a drill.  OJ was prepared in a bucket.  Eggs were thrown onto an industrial sized griddle two quart cartons at a time. 

Only a handful of volunteers were seasoned Balloon Breakfasters (my father and I not included), yet we still managed to make it in time.

My job was to walk around with a clipboard, hand out meal vouchers, and try not to look like a deer in headlights when volunteers asked me questions.

I had no idea what was going on.

...

5.  I signed up two Colleens.  If you've followed Friday Confessions (see #4) in the past, you would know why I used a lot of "hey yous".  I will screen volunteer lists in the future.

6.  Today I wore a simple pink, long-sleeved shirt to work.  I will, most likely, also wear it to bed.

7.  At clean-up I told a girl to "put ketchup from that bottle in this bottle so we can fill up one bottle and empty the other bottle and take more from that bottle in another bottle that is half full..."  She said, "You mean, combine them?"

Uh, yes.

8.  The food, although prepared quickly and not always using the cleanest preparation methods was de-lish.  I'd eat it even if I had to pay for it.

...

Because of gusty winds Saturday the balloons couldn't take off, but Sunday they all went up.

And it.  Was.  Awesome.

9.  After everything was torn down and loaded into trucks, vans and trailers, my dad, Kimberlie and I went to Applebee's for lunch and a little dessert.  Kimberlie said she would give me $1 if I licked the ice cream off the plate.  I did, but when I asked for my dollar she said I still owed her for the time Katie and I dared her to touch what we thought was poop at the bottom of the pool.  (When she came back up and said it was a hair tie we refused to give her the money.)

10.  My dad then bet her $5 if she would do it.  When she did he pushed the back of her head, getting ice cream all over her face.

Ha!

...

It was a great weekend, but I'm glad it's over.

On to the next project!