CONTENTS

I got dropped off at the resort in Carlsbad and reacquainted myself with the team for my third time (previous tours of duty: Houston and Dallas).  With a gigantic campus with events strewn about the buildings dotting the golf course, our team was buttressed with three Gators and some hired day labor hands.  The work started in earnest with the unloading of the two trucks and setting up what would become our backstage base of operations.  We never came up with any catchy nom de plume, but our sprawling area of props, light boxes, electrical cords and miscellaneous tools and equipment was home.

The first couple of days went smoothly - as the schedule wasn't bunched up and events were in single order fashion.  As our setups went up and down, our hired hands and ourselves shuffled through our materials and started digging our own grave as finding materials ("Wingnuts!  My kingdom for a wingnut!!!") cost us time, energy and enthusiasm.  Soon, we were setting up two events a day, and more often than not, striking one down in the wee hours of the morning.

To add to the general chaos of our home base, DMac caught the cold that I somehow acquired and the two of us dragged our feet and tried to make due against a tidal wave of phlegm, coughs and general lethargy.  The team worked hard, but it seemed like we never could quite get ahead, and made some tight, tight deadlines with the thinnest of margins. 

Of course, lots of time was eaten up just driving materials around the resort in the Gators.  With limited payloads, teams of green Gators zipped by a parade of golf carts to set up lights on the sponsor's cars strategically strewn haphazardly around the resort, dropping off materials at the locations of dinners and after parties, and allowing for the smallest of moments of sheer joy of returning back to home base with an empty load and some heavy feet. 

The work, which requires a bunch of heavy lifting, some elbow grease, ingenuity, and a diplomatic sense when dealing with design and the higher ups, wasn't too bad - but the pacing and distances added to the frustrations of getting the job down. 

Our team grew as the week went on, just in time for the weekend's big ballroom events featuring a cadre of performers - ranging from India.Arie, Jeffrey Osborne, Babyface and Tommy Davidson.  With all the little stuff behind us, the three consecutive nights of big ballroom events would be the fine line between a job well done and a job, well, done. 

Read more about the job and see more pics at Work 2

Safety belts? check Ridiculous poses? check

RIDERS CAN FALL OFF AND BE KILLED

DMac checks his notes on the walkthrough