Friday... What More Can I Say?

I think I have finally gone off the deep end. Grand opening is in one week. Do I have even a *list* of what needs to be done? No. I have a glass of some white wine--I didn't even read the label on the bottle before I poured it, but I think it's a chardonnay--and a scribbled list of things people have been telling me all day I still need to do.

I have a gravel delivery tomorrow morning (that would be *Saturday morning*) at 8:00--14 tons, a full dumptruck load--to shovel (have shoveled) into the crawlspace/basement after we get the sump pump squared around. Dan finished my worktable and the beadmaking classroom table today and he also brought another worker, Kenneth, with him who put the first coats of polyurethane on the salesroom furniture.

Mike (my webmaster) called midday today to tell me about some anomalies on the studio calendar--seems that somehow when I set the time-zone on the calendar page it also changed the times on the open house from 10-6 to 6am-2pm... whoopsie daisies!

I feel like I've been running in place like a headless chicken (and with as much effect) all day. There was no organization, no master plan, not even any progress that I could tell. I chatted with Craig at Arrow Springs for almost an hour this afternoon about ventilation systems and ended up completely redesigning the ventilation system for the beadmaking classroom--and losing a day of construction on it in the process. I have got to get a grip (and a plan) soon. Sunday is my first day teaching and I still have the prototype pieces to make and all the materials to assemble. At least I'm not trying to teach in my studio!

But for all the the crazy weirdness of the day the highlight happened when I wasn't even there. I ran out to make a bank deposit and get everyone Subway sandwiches for lunch, and when I came back there were two people in the hotshop with Dan and Lee that I did not know. Their names were John and Colleen, and they had received Bullseye's email about the open house and came down for it... today. They came from Greenville SC and didn't discover the mix-up on the dates till they were already to Atlanta and then they thought they'd go ahead and come by to see if I happened to be open already.

Wow were they surprised by the mess that is my studio. But we had a lovely visit, I gave them a little tour of the chaos, and when they saw how truly overwhelmed I was, they offered--several times--to stay and help. I thanked them for the offer, but with all the crap I have all over the floors from the moving around, there was barely room for all of us who were already there working without adding two more bodies (Becky arrived not long after they did). So they'll come back next weekend for the real grand opening (and I expect lots of oohs and ahhs when they see the studio in its finished state!).

In the meantime, there are shipments to unpack, stuff to pack up and move out to one of the (nearly overflowing) sheds, a grip to get. You know, real life! Oh yeah, and lots, and lots of lists to make and last minute stuff to buy. That'll be fun--let's smoke the Visa card some more.