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Sunday, February 27, 2005

And now for the bloody aftermath. As with every Highland Annual, there is the morning after. When you ask yourself, what the hell did I do last night?

My roommate and I arrived with the signs to direct everyone and the box for the raffle tickets at 7:30. We were quickly put to work putting up signs and putting the program of events on all the tables. There are problems with people not knowing that there are three floors of events and not just the dancing on the top floor.

After that we went to the middle bar and had a drink with E. and M. E. had been drinking with I. until 10 am that morning and was not feeling all that well (why does this not surprise me?). I was in charge of taking pictures for our new web site (we are going to work on it on Wednesday. So stay tuned for that.) so after drinking a bit F. came over and asked me to take pictures of the pipers who were going to start the whole thing off. So I went down to the Terrace and all the pipers were tuning just outside the door. Now that area is not all that big and it echoes badly. So you have four full highland bagpipes playing with drums and it was echoing. It was a rather painful experience. So I went into the Terrace to wait for them to come in. Around 9:30 nothing had started (it was all supposed to start at 9:00).

I went to the door and it was jammed with people. I should have gotten a clue when a lone guy in a kilt tried to get in at 8:00 when the doors where not going to open until 8:30. I went down to the open stage to see what was going on down there and nothing. This was not looking good. I went up to the dance floor and Fergie (a famous Scottish figure) was sitting around talking with people. Not good. F. was going like a mad woman but that is nothing unusual. By about 9:45, she had everything going and under control. I. had to man (or is that woman?) the open stage but they seemed to have gotten started on their own quite well.

This left me free to wander around and take pictures. After a while, I walked by the door to see S. was still there after an hour and a half so I jumped in to help out. After that it was my turn on the door. Most people were very polite and paid. However, there was this bunch of guys who came back and wanted a refund. They said that they wanted to get drunk and have a rowdy time and this was a sit-down affair and they were not happy. L. was on the desk with me at the time and asked me what to do. I said sure as long as all of you get your money at once. Otherwise, I would not give it to them. Well, they went running off to find two of their friends who had not come up. They got one more and I gave them their refund. L.'s friend said that a club would never do that and why we were. I told her that we were an honorable society and not a business. If they were unhappy, I was not going to argue the point with them. They should have checked the program before they paid.

Also during the night we ran into many of my friends. I saw my Spanish and Italian friends in the open stage area. I saw Gunnella, who castigated me for not telling her about it (I did not have her email; I swear!). I saw my roommate's old roommate from last year and another friend from South Africa. There were many more besides.

The Highland Annual this year was an unqualified success. Due in large part to the efforts of F. and I. Having the programs definitely reduced the pressure on the dance floor as people knew there were other things going on. Not having the Goths in the bottom floor also helped since we did not have to differentiate between people going to the Annual and people who believe in vampires. There were a small number of people helping (like S. and J. who were on the door and doing raffle tickets for more than two hours). We are all going on a trip to the highlands this summer on the money we raised. I think we are all agreed that the people who helped will get first choice and billing on the trip but we will see what happens.

As for all the pictures that I took, I am going to have F. and I. over to revamp the website and I am going to have them choose the best pictures and then I will post the rest on flickr for you to enjoy.


posted by Chris  #11:38 AM | 0 comments |