Worse than I expected, but better than I thought

So yesterday was all kinds of adventuresome.

The first part of the day sucked royally.
My *plan* was to go in to work at the usual time, work until noon or 12:30. While at work I planned to print and copy flyers for the event later that day.

I then planned to drive home, load the truck, and either wait for H to meet me there or drive to work and meet her there.

I got to work later than expected thanks to Zombie Phone. (That crabby old blackberry does not automatically sync with the time when you turn it off and on. It was slow by like 12 minutes.) Still, I got there and hit the ground running.
We were swamped, and a customer came in with her machine wondering what was going on with her class.
The teacher was not there.
I don't know what's up so I asked my other coworker if we had the teacher's phone number. She said, "No," so I went into the office to find the number. It wasn't on the employee buzz book sheets.
I came out and we basically tag-teamed the constant stream of calls, in-store customers, and random pages. Finally, my other coworker (who is a supervisor) asked me to teach the waiting customer some things about her machine since she came all the way out for a class.
I sat her down and did an impromptu lesson on our newest serger (that would be the SIX THOUSAND DOLLAR Serger) so that the customer could go home and work with it before coming back for a more formal class.
Finally, we found the number for that teacher and called her to ask what happened, and she's not picking up. We left a message on her voicemail.
Turns out that this customer is the only one signed up for class, and the person who wrote her name down put it in the book on Thursday night.
Well, that's a major communication breakdown. IF the class was cancelled, that should have been written in the book (or the sign-up page removed.)
And anyone who signs up a single person for a guide class (that takes a maximum of 12) should also make sure to contact the teacher to let her know that the class is a go.

Ugh.
So I get done with that, and dive in to help as many people as I can. We're still behind and there are people waiting to talk to us the whole time.
Finally, the woman who was supposed to take the rest of my shift calls to let me know that she's struggling with a bad reaction to milk (that she drank because she 'didn't think about it') and might not be there right at noon. I asked her to get there as soon as she can, and tell my other coworker that she should take her lunch break as soon as the relief gets here.

All in all, I didn't get to leave until 1:30. Not great.

So I get in the car, call another friend to wrangle the power cord for her serger, pick up some lunch, get home, load the truck (mostly; I had help) and realize that I need to put any designs that I want to use onto a USB stick rather than bringing them on CD.

See, my work refused to let me take a laptop with me, which meant I couldn't use it to demo digitizing, and I couldn't use it on site to transfer embroidery files.
Fine, but now I have extra work to deal with. GAH.

So all told, I didn't get out of town until nearly 3pm which is a problem since I had a workshop to run at 3.

So I head out to Collinsville, get unloaded, and discover that the dealership we're covering for actually covered for us because they didn't have to leave as early as they thought. This gave us a chance to get unloaded and set up.

So that's part one of my day; Worse than expected. Hectic, and not fun.

Worse than expected, better than I planned Pt 2

So there we were.

We set up a magical room full of sewing machines, sergers, embroidery machines, and costume displays.
I brought the 20,000 Leagues Under The Tea dress, The 17th Century French Courtesan/Coral Courtesan, Apple Fritter, and a bunch of my steampunk pieces that are embroidered.

I also brought vintage lace designs to embroider.
I ran the 6 needle the whole time, stitching out two shades of purple lace pieces.
I had free-standing lace snowflakes to give away.
I had a Magic Trick to show with my serger.
I had awesome decorative stitches to show off on my sewing machines.

I got to stand in a room and geek out about sewing to fellow costumers.
I got to give practical advice to a variety of people.

H makes a perfect partner for this stuff, as her displays are more impressive (I know, right?) and she has classes to promote and that kind of thing. We made a new friend who, as it turns out, is a fan of BJDs, too.

Then we packed everything down, and looked at the sky. It had started to mist a bit, so we all went to Ruby Tuesdays for decompression and dinner. Since I was starving by that point, I agreed.

While we were eating, our vehicles got a glazing of ice. That meant the stuff in my truck bed also got glazed. Not happy.
Fortunately, the 6 needle was inside H's vehicle, so it did not get frosted.

I was tempted to shout, "Damn it, Elsa!"

So we got on the road and the mist had turned to sleet. I drove back to St. Louis directly into the teeth of the storm. However, I was bound and determined to get back because I wanted to unload this stuff from my open truck bed.
H agreed to come to my place to help unload (both her vehicle and mine; she had some of my stuff) and I offered to let her crash here so that she wouldn't have to drive back up north in the crud.
So I had a slumber party, too!

This morning I called in to work around 9am, but the outgoing message did not indicate that we were closed.
Then I drifted back off to sleep and got a phone call from my S.O.
Whee!
Then I got a call from my store manager letting me know that we were closed, plus an email from my department head.

I admit, having the day off did me a world of good.

However, I really liked the Midwest Costume Academy, and highly recommend that you attend next year, assuming that you can. I intend to get involved, though perhaps not this heavily.