lead dog for mfg on a rainy night in georgia

Game time had finally arrived and we five were ready for it!

It wasn't even 6 PM yet and our table was set up and decorated with giveaway treats: keychains, lens cloths, buttons, and stress-relief hearts!

That's me, the lead dog of this event, standing on the left with my thumb up!

With me on the back row were Felicia Shuman, Carolyn Barnett, and Debra Johnson, while Lillian Sykes and Connie Cooper were in their seats, tablets at the ready to check in those coming for the movie.

We're all wearing brand-new AARP volunteer t-shirts except for Carolyn; that's because she wasn't part of my team, she was just there to see the movie.

(Thanks, Emily, for snapping this great photo!)

 

The movie was "Practical Magic 2" and I made sure all four on my team knew that they would be released to watch the movie from its start.

Remember, I already saw the film a couple of weeks ago for that very purpose.

I also assured them that it wasn't necessary to have seen the first movie.

That's because the makers realized that a lapse of 28 years would make it difficult for anyone to recall all the important points from that one.

That's why they did a recap at the start of this second film, to catch folks up.

 

So, there we were, stationed just outside the arcade.

Debra Johnson was the lobby usher, to help attendees find our check-in table.

Here are Lillian Sykes and Connie Cooper, practicing by checking us in!

I had learned how to do that from Gabrielle Richardson after the meeting yesterday, when she gave me a lesson on the use of the tablet and on CVent, the software program that is used for tracking attendance.

This morning, I made sure both tablets were fully charged, then I set them up to both open on CVent.

At AMC, I showed Lillian and Connie how to log in to the program, then I walked them through the use of the program.

They caught on pretty quickly and soon we were all checked in!

That meant we were ready to start interacting with attendees!

 

That was a little slow at first, as the steady rain and darkening skies delayed arrivals to the cinema on this Friday night.

Shortly after 6:30, though, we started having a steady stream of attendees.

That included one of my 'Lunch Lady' friends (Jackie Frant), another of our fellow AARP-GA volunteers (Sheila Bell), and my first niece with her family of four!

Plus, Debra Johnson was good at steering other folks to our table for the free MFG ticket to the movie!

That led to a new experience for all of us: how to register a new attendee who was not on our master list.

Lillian Sykes was the first to encounter that issue and when she called me over, I was at first daunted.

Did we truly have to fill out all those fields on two pages of registration?

Nope, we did not, I determined!

As I showed her, all we needed was their name and their email, then we could press the blue button to bypass all that other stuff - good!

Just a few minutes later, I showed Connie how to work the system, too.

I think we had at least four people that registered tonight!!!

 

That was good, as our numbers were a little lower than hoped.

Of the grand total of 127 registrants for the "Movies For Grownups" event, we had 63 that actually came.

When I checked for a pattern for those who did not show, I saw that the majority were couples.

Most likely they were deterred not only by the rainy weather, but also by AARP's warning that the event was overbooked and they might not get a seat.

That heavy-handed approach might be fine for larger cities, but it's not going to work here in Savannah.

People will come only if they know they will get in.

I'll have to be sure to let Gabrielle Richardson know that.

 

And did all go as planned tonight, on this inaugural volunteer event?

I'd like to say it did, but that was not the case.

I took that photo of the hallway outside Screening Room #5 at 7:42 PM.

The movie still had not started.

We had delayed the start from 7 PM to 7:15, to allow for those slogging through the rainy traffic to arrive safely.

I had apprised the attendees of the delay and the reason... and they clapped!

Very nice!

But the projector did not start up at 7:15 and it took a few minutes for the word to pass along to Chris, the manager on duty.

He'd gone up to the projector and attempted to restart it, even calling AMC Headquarters to get their tech to help.

Twenty minutes ticked by, then the projector started, but only the sound worked, not the video, so work continued.

By that time, the truly elderly in the audience were concerned about the time; it was already a late movie for them, and now it was going to interfere with their bedtime.

They had gone to the lobby and I'd met up with them, trying to be reassuring, trying to get word from Chris on his progress, but finding out his walkie-talkie was having issues.

Seriously.

So, one of the AMC clerks went upstairs to get Chris so we could stave off a growing number of unhappy attendees, now clamoring for refunds for the money spent on snacks and drinks.

Seriously.

By 8:10, things were calmer.

The movie was on and those who came for it were staying in their seats.

There was an orderly line of people wearing the red AARP armbands that marked them as legitimate attendees, eligible for the movie passes - and food & drink vouchers - that Chris was distributing from behind the counter, along with his apologies for the delay.

Trey, the manager I'd first spoken to about this weeks ago, had come from the grocery store, as he was off-duty when Chris called him for assistance.

Trey and I spoke for some time, with me filling him in and assuring him that Chris had taken all the right steps and had been very helpful for the AARP event.

In turn, Trey assured me that Tom - the other manager I've known for years - would be in at 9 PM for the closing shift.

I asked that Tom be present in Screening Room #5 as our MFG movie ended, to distribute movie passes to those who had stayed, and Trey told me he'd make sure of it.

And there Tom was, smiling and genial as he always is, offering his apologies for the projector issues as he placed passes into happy hands.

Success.

And Chloe had me up in front of the screen, dancing to the credits with her, and Christina even came up and joined us!

Yes, I'd call that a pretty successful first event.

I know the MFG event here on October 29th will run much smoother now that we've had this trial run.

Let's hope that leads to regular MFG events in Savannah.

happy bday8 to miss chlo!

Her birthday party is to be held on Saturday, and I am all set!

Remember, I bought her this "Super-Cute Kawaii Fun Activity Case" before we even went on the cruise.

Just the case looks fun!

And it goes so well with the theme of unicorns in this poster that my first niece made two weeks ago, doesn't it?

I pointed out the typo in her daughter's name, but, as she said, it's already gone out to everyone that way.

I decided to capitalize on that by also giving Chloe this book from my kickstarter days.

See, it's full of zany monsters with crazy names and poetry full of made-up words to describe them!

Plus, it's autographed, so that may well be part of Chloe's retirement fund some day.

Who knows?

That could happen!!!

(smile!)

another meeting with aarp, with a good showing

This was just the regular monthly meeting for the AARP-GA volunteers.

I was so glad to see three of my MFG team members - Lillian Sykes, Felicia Shuman, and Connie Cooper - in attendance! 

In addition to them and myself, the other volunteers in Savannah that were present were Wanda Lloyd, Carolyn Barnett, and Janet Cuttray.

Gabrielle changed up the format for this meeting.

No ice-breaker chat to loosen us up, no training video.

The focus was on the Estate Planning Workshop that's been in the works for three months, since early July.

Yes, the one which was to be coordinated with speakers from the Georgia Association of Black Women Attorneys.

To tell the truth, I had not followed up with any of the other volunteers about that, nor had I heard from any of them concerning it.

At our monthly meeting in August, there had been talk from Wanda Lloyd about it, but I honestly had not paid much attention.

My focus was on the MFG even that I was running for October!

However, I do recall that the Workshop was scheduled for October 21st and was to be a hybrid event, filmed live at the Armstrong Center and zoomed for national attendance.

What a huge event that would be for Savannah to host!!! 

However, at some time since that last meeting the deal with Georgia Southern University had collapsed, so the live portion at the Armstrong Center was cancelled.

Moreover, the event date was changed to Tuesday, October 20th, and the event itself was restructured as a four-hour ZOOM with different topics per hour.

Each speaker will be introduced by a volunteer, then they will talk for about 30 minutes before going into a Q & A with the audience. 

That's a pretty big change from the original vision.

That's also left money on the table that had destined for the rental of the Armstrong Center; now what to do with those funds?

I suggested we contact the lawyers and find out what nonprofit group they might suggest, one that would help folks in need of end of life documents.

Hopefully that will work out. 

Meanwhile, after the hour-long meeting was over, I had a private session with Gabrielle so she could train me on the use of CVent, the MFG software used for checking in attendees at our event tomorrow.

I'd already made sure she knew the box from her had arrived safely, as well as the package with the armbands, but the rolling cart had not.

I've now had fifteen minutes of instruction on the use of the tablet and the software, so I'm hoping to be ready to teach others tomorrow.

I was also able to get Felicia Shuman's email address from that software, as she did register as an attendee, so I'll contact her now.

The Cumming woman had not registered for the event, nor has she responded to any of Gabrielle's requests for contact information, so she's off my team.

Glad I have Connie Cooper as a back-up!

cleaned clothes, mowed front yard

I'm not saying I did both of those things, nosirreebob.

I did the laundry yesterday, including the bed linens.

With my right hip now having joined my right thigh in being aggravating, I just may have to ask for help doing that task next month.

If I can just get someone to get it from the house to the car, then from the car to the house, I can handle it.

Suds Laundromat has a cart I can wheel out to the car to load and offload my basket.

That helps a lot.

As for the front yard, my brother Smitty took care of that early this afternoon.

 

He had to borrow a friend's lawnmower, but he was out there pushing it.

His riding mower is down.

I texted him early this week, so he knew the situation must be bad.

I think he was a little shocked at just how bad it was.

He told me it looked like it hadn't been mowed since he last did it.

I confirmed that was true.

He was mowing my front and back yard while I was returning from the cruise. 

i thank You, God, that he still takes care of that for me. 

tina tuesday to finish up the month!

"Okay, girlie, I've seen you throwing around that 'Tina Tuesday' label a right good bit when it wasn't warranted. You, by yourself, having a movie double header does not a 'Tina 'Tuesday' make. Remember, that came about because you were with a friend, having movie and a meal. So, that's how it should be used."

I hear you loud and clear, I do. And I can assure you that was the case today! My dear g'friend, Carolyn, was with me on this occasion!!! I'd invited her to come see "Daniel And The Fiery Furnace" with me at NCG... and she told she would! So that's what we saw at 5:20 PM. My movie was free, my large popcorn was free, and the regular drink cost me less than $5.

"What? How did that all cost you so little? Oh, wait, I remember. You had not yet received your birthday popcorn, had you?"

You're correct on that point! As for the ticket and drink, those were purchased with 'Dane money' that I'd put onto a credit card. Good dog!

"Good dog, he is! (smile!) He knows how you love movies!"

That's right! This movie was a bit slow in places, and it told a story about Daniel that I never heard. I was expecting the one from the Old Testament about him in the lion's den, right? That wasn't this one at all. Yes, there was a lion, but he killed it and Nebuchadnezzar thought he did it to save him, so he took Daniel and his three men into his group. The king worshipped Baal, so he renamed Daniel as Belteshazzar, meaning the one who tames lions. I heard it as "Balthasar" and wondered if that story from the Bible was the source of the character's name in two Shakespeare plays.

"Oh, nice question. Then again, it may just point to the name going back for thousands of years by the time the Bard decided to use it."

Again, I think it would make for a nice doctoral thesis for somebody.

"Perhaps it already has? We don't know, but I know it could be researched to find out. Was Carolyn familiar with that story in the Bible?"

She was not. I think that's a fault of the Christian church, as many of its sermons arise from the New Testament, i.e., the part of the Bible that follows the birth of Jesus. As i told her, I think I will ask Tony what he knows about all that. Not about the Shakespeare, but about the story of Daniel we watched tonight. He's had so many Bible studies from various groups that he's bound to know something about it.

"I bet he would love to talk about that with you."

I agree. Okay, back to tonight! After the movie, Carolyn suggested we go down to OD's Seafood for dinner, but she was broke, as it is the end of the month. I countered with an invite to Chili's, provided the gift cards were still in my car... and they were! I gave her the $20 I'd received from reward points on my Chase card. I used the $10 one from that same source, as well as $3.28 remaining on the third card. What a feast we had, too! I made sure she knew about the specials on the back of the menu, which she didn't know about. I also introduced her to the good lemonade they have there as the beverage included at no cost in the "3 for me" deal. She loved it! Not only did she drink all of hers, but also al of her to-go lemonade, too! That's why I gave her my to-go lemonade, to accompany her leftovers. We both have meals for tomorrow to relish! 

"Very nice!!!"

Yep! My "3 for me" was the lemonade, a very nice salad, and the Old-Timer cheeseburger with fries. Hers was the lemonade, a cup of potato soup, and the chicken quesadillas. The card I gave her covered the meal and tip! As for my dinner, I only needed to pay about $3 after I used up the other two Chili's gift cards. What a deal!!!

"Fantastic! And what a treat for both of you! So glad you had that largesse to share with your friend!"

Thanks, me, too. It's good to be able to do that! (smile!)

who's down with mfg? aarp!

This morning, the meeting was just for those on the Movies For Grownups committee, and I was there before the scheduled time!

Debra Johnson was the only other volunteer on that committee to show up.

Tsk, tsk.

I'm sure that gave Gabrielle Richardson and John Strong pause.

However, I made sure to let them know that I was ready for it, that I'd had the event posted on my facebook page since the registration link went live, and that I had talked it up with family, friends, and my Sisters In Faith!

Gabrielle is sending an overnight box of items for our MFG event: four t-shirts for the volunteers on my team, plus one for me; the AARP tablecloth for our registration table; two tablets for checking in attendees; volunteer cards for the table to encourage others to join; and a bag of giveaway items - keychains, lens cloths, buttons, magnet clips, and stress balls.

She did caution me to not put it all out for this first show, though.

Those giveaway items have to last for both the one on October 2nd as well as the one on October 29th!

I assured her I understood.

She is also sending two other shipments to my house: red paper armbands for attendees to wear after check-in, plus a rolling cart to haul all materials to the event.

That will be nice!

She asked that I check with AMC Classic Savannah 11 to make sure they had the AARP clip to run before "Practical Magic 2".

I assured her I would do so tomorrow night when I went out there.

Now, to try to contact the rest of my team: Lillian Sykes, Cassandra Cumming, and Felicia Shuman.

I still don't have emails or phone numbers for those last two.

At least we have a back-up volunteer lined up!

grateful to Andrew on a music bingo monday

"Andrew, the bartender, at Midtown Sports Grill?"

That's the one. Fortunately, he knows how to do math. Hannah, the new waitress, absolutely was flummoxed. We sat at the table for 20 minutes before we were able to get our tabs straightened out. 

"What?! How many of you were there??"

We were five for this Music Bingo session. Marcia was there with her daughter - Amanda - and with her granddaughter -Batsheva. Merritt had come along with them. Plus, I was there. Like I said, five of us. I'm glad we weren't there last week, as the sound system messed up and the games had to be canceled. All the tunes tonight were the ones that were to have played llast Monday. Really good, too! Summer Vibes #2, with Jimmy Buffett, The Monkees, The Lovin' Spoonful, Bon Jovi, Ed Sheeran... good stuff!

"That does sound like a great mix! Quite a few oldies mixed in there, too!"

You bet! "Build Me Up Buttercup" was a new one for the 11-year-old, but she liked it. Russ then segued into 80's Hard Rock Legends #1, which Marcia said was Elissa's music. Mine, too! Motley Crue, Aerosmith, Def Leppard, Van Halen, AC/DC, Foreigner - I was definitely jammin' out!

"What about the third game? Any of y'all go for that?"

Not this time, so that gave us a chance to chill out and talk. That was actually nice! Then came Game 4, Pop 'til Ya Drop #1! Pink, Ricky Martin, TLC, Britney Spears, Bruno Mars, The Bangles, En Vogue, Spice Girls - I know Scott would have been crushin' on that mix! Maybe I should see if he might want to join us some night. Baseball will soon be coming to a close, so he won't be chasing Braves franchised teams anymore. There will be Georgia Southern football games, but not on Mondays!

"Oh, that's a good idea to invite him! It's been ages since you've seen him. Your ex sees him more often than you do."

That's because the Atlanta Braves play the Detroit Tigers. Scott has yet to see the Braves win in the new Comerica Park stadium. I suspect Scott will cease trips to Michigan when that happens.

"Good point. Okay, so what was the snafu with the checks tonight?"

Amanda won Game 4. Ordinarily, that would be a cause to celebrate, as she would have received a $50 gift card as the prize. Right? But now that there is new ownership, there was a new prize tonight: a fifty-dollar store credit that had to be used all at one time.

"Say what??? You'd have to order three meals at one sitting to use that up! That can't be right..."

Oh, but it is. Amanda was not happy about it. As I told her, at least she had her mom and her daughter there, so they could group their tabs. No, she wanted to have it to use on herself, for multiple evenings out. I totally get that. But then Hannah misunderstood and put all the tabs on one check! Now, all of a sudden, the table owed over 36 dollars!!! No, that would not work. I looked at the check, which was entered in some strange fashion, but I could still see that my part of the bill was correct and Merritt's part was correct. So I asked Hannah to separate out ours from the three others. LOL! That blew her mind! She had to go get Andrew to have him talk to us.

"At least she knew she was lost."

Agreed. Andrew knows I can do math, so he came straight to me. I showed him where my tab was and where Merritt's was, and he understood. He returned with our tabs separate from theirs, which had the $50 credit applied, leaving just $2 to pay.

"My goodness! Just what did they have that totaled that much?"

Amanda had a cocktail, Marcia had a beer. Amanda had the spinach dip as well as he pretzel, plus the huge bowl of macaroni and cheese for Batsheva. Marcia had her usual "pick 3" appetizer platter. All of that is easily fifty bucks, especially when tax is added. Honestly, it really was a snafu, but it was also a misunderstanding.

"So, is the store credit how Quinque Martin's F&B LLC going to handle that Game 4 prize from here on?"

I sure hope not. If so, I guess I will be leaving after the third game. I don't want to get stuck with a prize I can't use. I guess we'll see how it goes next time. Maybe Andrew will tell his dad that he needs to stay with it being a $50 gift card, like it's always been.

"Change..." 

Yeah. But guess what happened on "Name That Tune" tonight? A drama teacher won the Golden Medley!!! Caleb said he's going to book a cruise that docks on all seven continents. Good for him!!! Jane literally had to pick herself up off the floor when he won that $100,000 - seriously!!! I'm so glad to end the night on that happy note!