July 28th 11:30 pm
I have to say that was an incredible party. For days people have been asking me, “How many tickets have you sold? How many people do you think are coming?”
And I would venture a guess. “Last time I looked we had sold 80 tickets online.” But then there were all the emails from folks asking if they could pay at the door. And the Facebook event that said lots more were coming than had bought tickets.
But all that is unimportant now. Because the party is over.
Except not quite. There is a small child’s red flip flop on the back step, and a couple of knives that are not mine on the dish drain.
I have washed up the myriad of pottery plates we used to serve Angelina’s baklava and cookies, Celebrity Dairy’s cheeses, Joan’s chocolate chip and oatmeal raisin cookies, Donna Bianco’s fresh cannolis, and the stack of bowls that served up local blueberries and cherry tomatoes donated from 3 local farms, and two huge platters that had been full of local sweet corn. And the sticky plates that had been stacked high with Mackenzie’s right-out-your-childhood rice krispie treats.
“I don’t bake,” she told me at the farmers market on Saturday. “But can I bring rice krispie treats?”
Darling, you can do anything you want to. You and Tucker showed up early, set up your tent, grills, and table, and spent the entire evening over a hot charcoal grill pushing out huge grilled barbecue chicken wings for the crowd. Then you hustled over to pair up with Tucker and run a splendidly entertaining live auction, all with a 5-month baby in the oven…then back to pack up your tent, table, coolers, grill, etc. before finally being the last to leave. Can you have anything at all that you ever ask from me? Why yes. You may.
Now, as I write this, at 11:46pm, the rain has started. It is pounding on the tin roof over my office. The dishes are done, and the kitchen is almost back to normal.
There are still 3 or 4 pop-up tents in the yard and field down by the barn, but they will be fine.
What a wonderful party. I spent my time running from cabin, to the barn, to the house, and back again. Replenishing desserts, or cheese, or calling out raffle winners. I kept getting glimpses of people that I would loved to have had a chance to talk with. To catch up on our lives or to talk about Slow Money. Sometimes I managed to get a hug, or a kiss, and a very fleeting conversation. But never more.
I met new people who had come to the event to talk to me about Slow Money. I hope they will try again. To some of my dearest friends I only managed a wave. But I can’t thank you enough for coming. For showing up at our very first Slow Money NC party and fundraiser.
I put this event in our success column.
First we ran out of name tags – I only bought 100. So I rustled up some more. Then we needed to get the PA in place so we could start calling out the raffle winners. About when we thought the auction was over, Amy stepped up and offered piano lessons, and then David offered fiddle lessons. The generosity just kept coming.
I got out-bid on a tennis lesson by one of the sweetest teen-agers in town, and I was in the barn helping a pottery customer and missed out on his younger brother’s blackberry pie. Maybe next time.
We were woefully disorganized about collecting money after the auction, but folks were very patient. Next year we will be better at this!
Tomorrow I will try to put together a list of all the people we need to thank, but it will be incomplete. I will no doubt forget someone.
In truth, everyone who ventured out to our house and pottery tonight needs a note of thanks. Some came from over an hour away. I know. We never spoke, but I saw you from across the crowds.
1:30am
I went back and finished cleaning the kitchen, then picked up a flashlight and took out the compost. “Too wet to woo,” came a call from a nearby tree.
A few hours earlier there were nearly 200 people in this yard, but now it’s just me, and the Barred Owl.
What a wonderful day.
Life just doesn’t get much better than this.
