Event Co-ordinating

I'm sitting in the empty screening room waiting for an audience (hopefully!) and the director (already running a bit late) who are supposed to be here in 25 minutes for a screening and Q&A it was my honor/headache/achievement(?) to plan. A series of small disasters required changing the time of the screening, last minute appeals to the Dean for transportation money for our non-budgeted series, and various other stress-inducing nightmares. Why? Because my "collaborator" changed his plans without any notice -- or any attempt to make up for his absence.

This experience has taught me:

1.) that I can write killer letters to beg for understanding, help, money, etc. (did I mention that I managed to get the director to waive the usual $500 screening fee -- we're getting the film for free!)

2.) that if I get involved in anything, I need to try to get a team around me, and failing that, I must simply be prepared to shoulder everything -- just in case

3.) always have work done ahead of time so that these kinds of emergencies (this particular one took up my whole week) won't set me so far back in my writing again

4.) don't rely on that particular team-member again -- no matter how nice and engaging and creative he is.

The thing that has bothered me most, perhaps, is that this activity that has taken over my whole life for a week, and was seriously impinging upon my life for months beforehand (oh, did I mention this is a weekly series of screenings, several with famous-ish guest speakers?) is something that most of the other people in my department are barely aware of -- and those who are aware of it don't realize that I'm actually organizing it all by myself.

But then what else is new? I remember when I started a theater company as a teen, everyone thought my mother ran the company. Sigh. At least I don't have to worry about others judging me as an over-achiever for once!