One Day Vending Events Can Be Brutal
Published On: 11-25-2011 10:26pm
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Category: The Nitty Gritty
Let's start this by giving you a general sketch of what this one day event was like for me. First, I end up staying up late the night before the event. This is a given. No matter how much I resolve not to do this, it happens. In the unlikely event it doesn't happen, there's still the issue of nerves that make me not sleep well and that convince my brain that I will surely oversleep no matter how sensitive I am to the alarm (I never said this was going to make any kind of logical sense - it's just how it is). So, you can assume you start the day not feeling very rested and/or actually having sleep debt. I don't like to leave stuff out in my car all night if I can help it. I usually try to make sure things are set out where I can grab them easily in the morning (which is especially important now that I live with roommates). So my day goes something like this:
In this case, since I had a sci-fi convention I was going to several days later, I didn't have time to rest up before the next thing nor did I even get a night off before I had to be back to it. When I really wanted to be going to bed early, instead, I ended up staying up late to enter items (a couple of which were not yet completed) into the Art Show database for the convention I was going to because it was the last day to do so and it takes a LONG time to get it done at the convention. There was no rest for the weary and I'm paying the price now.
Most of the events I'd been doing lately have been multi-day events where I load things out and set-up one day and then it's a day or two or three later that I pack things up and go home. I may sometimes put my tables and chair(s) and maybe the displays out in the car in advance but times are tough and I'd rather not leave anything in my car that might encourage people to break into it. None of these things would fetch any kind of price at a pawn shop but they don't know that until they've broken in - usually either breaking a lock or a window in the process - which does nothing but cost me money as the repairs would likely be less than the deductible on my insurance. Multi-day events tend to include more and often heavier luggage but at least one is not having to load and unload everything both there and back all in one day.
I recommend getting a friend to help you load in and/or load out. I also recommend getting a friend to bring food/fetch coffee at some point during the day. It can be the same friend or a different one. I will usually offer to buy these friends food (or a nibbly or coffee if just a coffee run) for helping me out. I wish I had remembered this before this event but I didn't and I didn't want to "bother" anyone - which is just silly. Most people are willing to help and may even be happy you asked as it gives them the excuse to go to an event they otherwise might not if they don't have the budget to buy anything.
I wish I'd thought of this after the convention I was at as well. I packed even heavier suitcases, loaded them out to my car, and drove home. I didn't realize my roommates were home (didn't see their car and there were no lights on I could see from the driveway), so didn't ask them to help me unload. I made myself unload everything to the porch so I wouldn't leave it in my car. The last few days my back has been really cranky at me because I clearly strained something while unloading my car and hauling heavy bags up the stairs. Asking for a little help would have saved me spending the last three days staring at the huge mess in my room that my back is too cranky to do anything about. I implore you, dear reader, to learn from my mistakes!
Repeat after me: Single day events are brutal! Ask for help! For that matter: Unloading heavy bags from a multi-day event can be hard as well! Ask for help!
