Another Day, Another 8 Hours Wasted at Work

The only people left in my office today are me and the new part-time development lady we just hired for a temporary fix to our lack-of-funding problem, so I have ample time to waste this afternoon. At the very least, I don't see myself being overly disturbed for the next couple of hours as my colleagues are not even in the same state today. (Although I could get a severe rap on the head from our Board members, but I have long since devised a way to avoid them when there is something else that needs to be done.)

So the big story of the day is the fact that I didn't get home until 1:30 this morning. From the Film Festival. ME. IN BED WAY AFTER MY BEDTIME. What on earth was I thinking?!!! Today I am a total zombie, and it was physically painful pulling myself out of bed this AM, let alone peeling my eyelids back from my red-veined, watery eyes. I keep telling myself, "Toto, we aren't in Kansas anymore," which for me means that I am not the college student I used to pride myself on being. I can't stay awake much past 10AM and expect to bound out of bed for work in the morning. I can't even have a drink on a school night these days. Somewhere in the past four years, I have become RESPONSIBLE. Eeek!

Except in the case of the Film Festival. I was out at the Ritz East Theatre last night (one of the holy holies in my way of thinking; the Ritz Theatres are always showing independent and foreign films, even when the Film Festival is not in town), managing one of the two theatres. All night we were pretending we had something to do with our nine volunteer ushers, but by the time the last two movies (one in each theatre) were seated, I couldn't look anyone in the eyes and say, "You need to stay here til midnight to help gather ballots at the end of the shows." So I let them all go, but one: our sweet, sweet Marianne, whom I've known for years (and was yet another witness to the now infamous 4th of July paying-the-toll incident).

Literally right after the door slammed shut behind the last departing volunteer, and while we reconciling our box office for the night, the fire alarm malfunctioned and screeched on for about twenty minutes. We had to empty both theatres, and while people were rushing about trying to figure out what was going on, I grabbed all the money, shoved it in the cash box, and wandered around the theatre trying to grasp onto any thread of a thought through the insanely jarring cacauphony of the fire alarm.

It turns out that an off-duty fire marshall was actually attempting to see one of the movies we were playing and he helped us turn off that god-awful noise.

The other upside of the evening: the fact that neither of the films could be rewound and had continued to play during our fire drill. What that means for a film festival is: LOST REVENUE. Amazingly enough, we didn't refund any ticket sales money, but we gave out a lot of guest comps for future films. I was surprised that the number wasn't higher, with one theatre having been sold out and the other near capacity, but 60 comps is still a lot of dough when you consider the fact that is the equivalent of about $570. (To me, that's a month of rent so I wouldn't laugh in the general direction of that much money flowing out of my pocket either.)

Did I mention that there was another treat in store for us? Right near the end of the films, I got word that a man was walking through the parking lot right outside the movie theatre slashing tires. As if it really needs to be said: Yay for police intervention! And Yay for me working at the singlehandedly most "interesting" venue of the festival!

Lucky for me, I had my Anthony there watching the film that should have made Mark Hamill a star! (The Big Red One, if you haven't seen it.) So I was able to get a ride home instead of walking, and we were even able to give our box office volunteer a ride home as well (thank goodness she lives right around the corner from me!).

I suppose I should feel worse for Anthony since he had actually been up at 4:30 yesterday morning, after returning home from bringing a friend to the hospital at 12:30AM that same day, but I am an evil, cold-hearted bitch and I will whine all day about my terrible position in life.

God, I need a nap...