I slept fitfully all night, thinking of things that needed to be done and worrying about whether we’d be ready when the Soiree was supposed to start. I went in to the shop at 7:00 AM, and worked in the back room until about 8:45, then headed home to let the air duct cleaners in. Unfortunately, they were running behind, so didn’t get to our house until 9:45. I gave them a quick tour of where the furnace was, where each of the vents and cold air returns were, then left to go back to the shop. They said they’d be there for 4.5 hours today.
The first friend to show up was Ann, shortly after I got back at 10:00 AM. She started vacuuming. Then Bonny and Connie showed up. They set up their areas, then asked what they could do to help me. Then came Suzanne, all the way from Dayton (by Rogers), and a while after that Luda arrived (from Zimmerman). These five ladies kept me sane. Suzanne and Luda are from my floristry school, so they made a few arrangements for the cooler and did whatever I asked. All of them were awesome. Before I knew it, it was approaching 5:00 PM, and the shop looked amazing. Alena showed up with her gourmet cookies, Connie brought back shortbread, and Bonny brought mini-cupcakes. Bev and Sharon also arrived to help. These people are the reason I got through this event.
Although I was mostly numb by that point, I was conscious enough to realize that the event was happening, people were filing in, the CD player was playing Christmas music, and it was going just fine. John, our speaker, did an amazing job and everyone asked him a lot of very good questions. We gave away tons of door prizes, and there were a lot of squeals of delight. I was also ringing up sales, which Ann, Suzanne, and Luda were alternately bagging up for customers. Customers were saying wonderful things about how darling our shop was, and what nice merchandise we had, and that they would certainly be back.
When it was over, Suzanne and Luda helped clean up, while Bonny, Connie, Melody and Roberta were packing up their things. I think it was 9:00 PM when I got home. I, of course, had to tell Al all about everything (and knew I was forgetting things). It took awhile to unwind enough to get to bed, but a nice warm soaking bath helped.
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