HEC weekend, Finishing Touches (Saturday)

Last day at HEC. Ignoring the two prelims I had to study for, I proceeded to spend the entirety of my Saturday in Statler working. The first event of the day was lunch. Since lunch was going to be served in a room with giant floor to ceiling windows along one side, there was a possibility that they could pull it off using all natural light. There was also a possibility that they’d want light in every dark corner. Guess which option the designer chose?

So after finding a cart (we played musical carts throughout the weekend), we dragged wires, power strips, lights, tape, and ourselves back to the event location.  I was actually put in charge of lighting an entire wall . . . I know, the responsibility is astounding.  It took me a full hour and a half.  A few hours later, it took approximately twenty minutes to undo.

When I returned to headquarters (after picking up free lunch), I thought I had most of the afternoon to catch up on homework.  Instead, a couple hours later, one of the managers comes back into the room yelling something about the event starting an hour earlier than we thought.  All hands on deck.  I was sent upstairs with a roll of gaff and told to secure all wires in sight.  So nothing new for me, really.

After frantically taping for about forty-five minutes, things calmed down slightly and I was sent back to headquarters.  I didn't feel like going back to my homework, so I got an early dinner instead.  Hey, it’s not every day you can get free food from Statler.  There were four kinds of cheesecake.  (I had the blueberry cheesecake, and it was fantastic.)

For my last shift of the weekend, I helped put more lights on bases, carted the lights around, took down lights from the afternoon event, and then worked to transform Statler’s new student lounge-area place into a nightclub.  We put more lights under tables, I did the bar lighting all by myself, and then it was fifteen minutes before the event and we were still trying to figure out how to light up the desserts.  My lack of expertise made me a prime candidate for hauling stray equipment back to headquarters transporting the unused lighting to a less obstructive location.

As per usual, the arrival of important guests meant our departure, so we returned to headquarters with all our equipment and began the task of sorting through it to make it easier to transport everything back to the office when the cocktail ended.  I coiled a few wires, took some lights off bases, then signed out, having survived the 88^th annual Hotel Ezra Cornell weekend.

It was chaotic at times, but an organized chaos. People weren't just running in circles; they were running in circles with a destination and a goal in mind. It was definitely a learning experience, but one worth having . (Kind of like the time I had to fake “Give my Regards to Davy” at the men’s lacrosse alumni dinner with the pep band because I’d never even heard the song before.)  And yeah, it was fun. Plus, free food.