COMIC-CON Part 2 - The Harvey Awards

The Harvey Awards are the comic book world's version of the Golden Globes. The awards are held in a hotel ballroom and people tend to dress up, at least a little. Brad and I were seated at a table with several artists and writers, who's names may be impressive to some but were completely meaningless to me. The dinner was very nice - steak and crab cake - and the ceremony followed. It went off without a hitch. What the attendees didn't see was the bit of chaos that happened behind the scenes.

First the programs. There were, of course, last minute changes to it and we ended up getting the final draft on Friday in electronic form. Unfortunately for the programs Friday was filled with Brad and everyone else shuttling all the guests to and from the airport and making sure the Convention Center was set up correctly for Saturday morning. So no actual paper programs could be produced. Finally at about 11:30 Friday night after a room service dinner of really yummy, but way too heavy for so late at night, hamburgers and maybe one too many drinks to smooth the day away. Brad contacted the only Kinkos that is opened 24 hours a day and sent the program over to them to create. Problem 1 solved, but who, oh who could we get to possibly leave the show and drive down to Columbia to pick up said programs. Well, me of course. When I offered to go first running across Brad's face was horror, then reluctant gratitude, and finally the little light bulb went off for him. "Oh, you actually don't care if you have to leave the show (read convention) for a few hours and miss part of it?" ... uh no.. not so much.

Then after our long day on Saturday at the show, complete with my trip down to Columbia to get the programs and then back to the show, Brad finally tells me that the seating chart for the awards dinner has yet to be finalized and that I need to go back to the hotel and pull up the relevant files on his computer; get on the phone with him so he can walk me through the changes that need to be made, and then find the catering staff and tell them to rework some of the tables from their original plan. Oh and then you need to pull all the place cards and put their correct table number on them so they are all ready to go when the cocktail hour starts. "uh, honey, you want me to make it back to the hotel, get the seating chart updated, piss the caterers off, mark all the place cards, shower, and make myself beautiful (clearly the longest part of this project) all in the next hour and a half?" To which he said "yeah, Johanna and KC will help you." Did I mention I love my husband.

I run back to the hotel with the box full of name tags and other paraphanalia, make it up to our room only to discover I can't find his computer... anywhere. Oh F$%@. He took it to the Convention Center at 6:45 that morning 'just in case' and there it sat in the corner of the VIP room all day long. Okay, slight hiccup in the plan. Run down, get my car, drive back to the Hall, have someone run the computer out to me, back to the hotel, up to the room, get the seating chart done, hand draw a quick sketch of the seating changes, call the caterer to tell them they are coming.... "Uh. Really? Changes? Um. We just finished the final set...." "Yeah, sorry about that, I'll be right down." I put on my best groveling and sorrowful look and begged and pleaded his forgiveness that the tables needed to be adjusted and the final count for dinner went up by more then a few at the last possible second (later, the chef came out to talk to Brad to make sure there were no more additions). It all got done and I couldn't possibly have done it without Johanna and KC; they took care of the name cards completely. I think there is a good picture of the 2 of us from that night and if I get a copy, I'll add it here, but the only picture I have from that night is AWFUL and no way am I posting it.

The actual event was fun and everyone had a good time. I took a break in the middle because after my running around time I had had one too many gin and tonics and needed a little breathing room. I went up to our room and IM'd with a friend. I'm confident I didn't have a single coherent thing to say, but it gave me the down time I needed and hopefully I entertained her, until Brad texted me that I needed to come back. Eventually it was all over, congratulations all around, now lets head to the bar...