Bazaar Thoughts

I feel like a crazy person right now. The Bazaar is making me an insane woman (again, I actually do enjoy working on this thing). We are now about one week away until the real chaos begins, and the Bazaar really starts coming together. The Hangars are cleared out, the spaces are marked, electricity is created where there previously was none, vendors start arriving, and then people miraculously come to start shopping. It is great to see in action, but so much work to put together.

I have been working full-time hours on this thing now for at least a month. I think people would be shocked to see what I do on any given day.

Chris and I dared to take a few days away so that he got to enjoy some of his reintegration time (more on that later), and we were plagued by phone calls the entire time.

I arrived back in town to find out that the base wanted to change our location around for a third time (TWO WEEKS before the date of the Bazaar), which affects everything from floor plans to telecom lines being put in where there are none. Fortunately, I think I have talked the base out of this latest change.

I also arrived back in time to hear that two of our vendors were denied access to the base by the Italian police. For no reason. Actually, I am thinking it was a mistake, and that it might be cleared, but, seriously, these little details affect a whole lot, and tend to then take up lots of my time.

Both of these issues I was dealing with by 7:00 a.m. on a Monday morning, I might add. And, I don't get paid. But, this hectic pace is what I deal with day in and day out at this point in time.

I'm at the point where I'm dreaming about the Bazaar, and freaking out over whether or not I told our Treasurer that a vendor needs to pay for 10 extra tables. Little things like that all day.

By the grace of God, we are going to have 90 vendors show up next Thursday, and everything will go smoothly, because I have the best team in the whole entire world to work with. I am really excited! And, we have a candy vendor! (This is actually a really huge deal to me for some reason.)

I had someone from the base tell me yesterday that our Bazaar has had the worst year in terms of bureaucratic nightmares that she has ever seen. I would have to agree, even though I've only been a party to two of them.

But, in the end, we will rake in over half a million dollars in three short days, and our community will be the better for it. And, my amazing husband has been doing all the cleaning around the house for the past two days. He's the best helper in the world! Fun reintegration for him.