I miss writing daily posts from the curling world - mostly because I've forgotten what I've done over the past four days!
Sunday, March 3, 2013
Up early. I am not a morning person. In fact, I think volunteering for curling events would be just about perfect if I didn't have to get to the arena before 10am! It was our first 3 draw day so we were still going through some growing pains, but as usual everyone has been super nice to work with. The program sales bankers are starting to develop routines and the sellers are starting to know what's what so everything is running smoothly. And my merchandising volunteers are mostly showing up at the right store at the right time so it's mostly working well.
Today I learned everyone has a story. I spent a good part of my day just talking to people - mostly my bankers - learning more about them and their lives. That's why I love these events: the people are just fantastic. Yes, I had a few complaints from volunteers today ("Why don't we get free parking?" "This job is boring!" "Volunteers get no perks!" - Seriously? You get to watch free curling!) but mostly everyone is having fun. For every complaint I took today, I had three times as many people say they were having so much fun. So that's that.
My volunteers are lovely, mostly lovely older ladies and gentleman. Tonight we had a bit of excitement - we lost a volunteer. He perhaps used to remember things better in his younger years, and had a hard time figuring out where out office was. I can't blame him: it's a maze backstage with all the stairwells. We did find him eventually, and will employ the buddy system going forward. Who knew I'd be dealing with something like this!
Monday, March 4, 2013
Yay for no morning draw! Yay for sleep! Yay for talking to lovely volunteers. Yay for dinner with a friend! Yay for meeting old friends! Yay for meeting twitter friends in real life! Yay for watching curling!
A tilty skip photo.
Tuesday, March 5, 2013
Ditto yesterday.
My favourite view.
Wednesday, March 6, 2013
Ditto yesterday.
Apparently my photo from yesterday made it in to the Edmonton Journal newspaper! Thanks @neilp316 for the heads up!
Another tilty skip photo. Seems to be the thing to do.
We're getting to the point of the week where the volunteers (myself included) show up early for their shifts just to chat to each other. Or they show up if they're not scheduled to work and offer to work just so they can be a part of it all. Or they start asking how they can sign up for the Winnipeg trials (which has already closed volunteer recruitment because it's full). They are so lovely!
I'm also thinking about how I'm going to get to Winnipeg to volunteer for the trials or to Kamloops for the Brier next year. I'm already signed up to do 50/50 tentatively for both, but have decided maybe I could work as a store cashier to pay off some of my hotel/flight costs. I'm also trying to get on with media or IT to do what I've done before if they need me. It's contagious. You think we're all crazy? Come volunteer for a curling event, then you'll realize why we do this!
Today was an exciting day because I got to carry in the flag during the evening draw for my favourite team - Ontario. I showed up at the ceremonies office at the designated time. And waited. And waited. Eventually we were told what to do, which was quite complicated at first. Hold the flag like this. Walk here. Stop here. Wait here. Eventually I got my flag and sign to give to the coach (or 5th in my case, he said the coach wouldn't carry the sign) and lined up backstage. The teams came out, but as I've mentioned before I don't talk to rock stars, and they were all watching the NHL hockey game that was on the tv back there anyways.
I was really nervous - what if I tripped? What if I dropped the flag? What if I didn't go to the right place? But then the pipers start up and it all just happened. It was really cool to walk out on the ice so to speak. There is quite the view from down there. The crowd is clapping and cheering and everything was a bit of a blur. The anthem got sung. The 5th handed me back the sign and that was that. Done. Right before I went out I ran into a photographer I knew from twitter and he said I should smile and he'd take a picture of me - which he did but I mostly looked terrified ha ha. My boyfriend took one from the crowd too, so that was nice. Good memories.
Photo by @ferguson8610
.jpg)
Yep, I look terrified! I'm actually looking at the person across the rink from me who is holding the BC flag. We're supposed to keep level. Photo by Anil Mungal (@PhotoVagrant)
.jpg)
My favourite shot! Photo by Anil Mungal (@PhotoVagrant)
Sunday, March 3, 2013
Up early. I am not a morning person. In fact, I think volunteering for curling events would be just about perfect if I didn't have to get to the arena before 10am! It was our first 3 draw day so we were still going through some growing pains, but as usual everyone has been super nice to work with. The program sales bankers are starting to develop routines and the sellers are starting to know what's what so everything is running smoothly. And my merchandising volunteers are mostly showing up at the right store at the right time so it's mostly working well.
Today I learned everyone has a story. I spent a good part of my day just talking to people - mostly my bankers - learning more about them and their lives. That's why I love these events: the people are just fantastic. Yes, I had a few complaints from volunteers today ("Why don't we get free parking?" "This job is boring!" "Volunteers get no perks!" - Seriously? You get to watch free curling!) but mostly everyone is having fun. For every complaint I took today, I had three times as many people say they were having so much fun. So that's that.
My volunteers are lovely, mostly lovely older ladies and gentleman. Tonight we had a bit of excitement - we lost a volunteer. He perhaps used to remember things better in his younger years, and had a hard time figuring out where out office was. I can't blame him: it's a maze backstage with all the stairwells. We did find him eventually, and will employ the buddy system going forward. Who knew I'd be dealing with something like this!
Monday, March 4, 2013
Yay for no morning draw! Yay for sleep! Yay for talking to lovely volunteers. Yay for dinner with a friend! Yay for meeting old friends! Yay for meeting twitter friends in real life! Yay for watching curling!
A tilty skip photo.
Tuesday, March 5, 2013
Ditto yesterday.
My favourite view.
Wednesday, March 6, 2013
Ditto yesterday.
Apparently my photo from yesterday made it in to the Edmonton Journal newspaper! Thanks @neilp316 for the heads up!
Another tilty skip photo. Seems to be the thing to do.
We're getting to the point of the week where the volunteers (myself included) show up early for their shifts just to chat to each other. Or they show up if they're not scheduled to work and offer to work just so they can be a part of it all. Or they start asking how they can sign up for the Winnipeg trials (which has already closed volunteer recruitment because it's full). They are so lovely!
I'm also thinking about how I'm going to get to Winnipeg to volunteer for the trials or to Kamloops for the Brier next year. I'm already signed up to do 50/50 tentatively for both, but have decided maybe I could work as a store cashier to pay off some of my hotel/flight costs. I'm also trying to get on with media or IT to do what I've done before if they need me. It's contagious. You think we're all crazy? Come volunteer for a curling event, then you'll realize why we do this!
Today was an exciting day because I got to carry in the flag during the evening draw for my favourite team - Ontario. I showed up at the ceremonies office at the designated time. And waited. And waited. Eventually we were told what to do, which was quite complicated at first. Hold the flag like this. Walk here. Stop here. Wait here. Eventually I got my flag and sign to give to the coach (or 5th in my case, he said the coach wouldn't carry the sign) and lined up backstage. The teams came out, but as I've mentioned before I don't talk to rock stars, and they were all watching the NHL hockey game that was on the tv back there anyways.
I was really nervous - what if I tripped? What if I dropped the flag? What if I didn't go to the right place? But then the pipers start up and it all just happened. It was really cool to walk out on the ice so to speak. There is quite the view from down there. The crowd is clapping and cheering and everything was a bit of a blur. The anthem got sung. The 5th handed me back the sign and that was that. Done. Right before I went out I ran into a photographer I knew from twitter and he said I should smile and he'd take a picture of me - which he did but I mostly looked terrified ha ha. My boyfriend took one from the crowd too, so that was nice. Good memories.
Photo by @ferguson8610
.jpg)
Yep, I look terrified! I'm actually looking at the person across the rink from me who is holding the BC flag. We're supposed to keep level. Photo by Anil Mungal (@PhotoVagrant)
.jpg)
My favourite shot! Photo by Anil Mungal (@PhotoVagrant)
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