Reunion Success!

Well ladies and germs - my reunion was held this past Saturday and I would go so far as to say it was a success!

We sold a grand total of 19 tickets in advance.  This was a HUGE concern to me.  We rented this space for a certain amount and based on the number of advance tickets, we ordered food based on the money we had from those sales.  Basically, let's say the room was (these numbers are made up to give an example) $1000, we need to order food and sell enough drinks to pay off $1000.00.  So we ordered half the dollar amount in food, which happened to be pretty much the exact amount of advanced tickets, less fees we had to pay in to certain websites.  So going in we know that we have half the balance covered and that we need to sell X amount of tickets at the door OR sell X dollars in drinks at the bar (can I just mention that I love how the bar sales go towards our room balance, it's fantastic, 'cause Nordeasters can DRINK)!  More on this as the night goes on...

I make myself even more beautiful than usual:

I go to Party City to pick up balloons - due to be ready at 4:00.  They ask my name, "Angela", I tell them.  "Angela, Angela... Angela..." - no balloons to be found.  WTF.  This is not the way I wanted to start my evening.  Finally the dude who took my order the other day comes over and says "Yeah, they're blue... right here" as he grabs a brown bag of balloons not even remotely close to full of He (helium for those not familiar with the periodic table of elements).  SoooOOOoooo... Long conversation short - I was out of there no more than 10 minutes later.  ugh.

I shove 24 balloons into the backseat of my little Yaris:

and drive to NE Minneapolis.

I arrive just after 4:30, and Pam got there about 5:00.  Our reunion was set to start at 6:00 - we didn't have money for decorations aside from balloons, so we set our our balloon bunches and stand around talking to the bartender, Buck.  I know Buck from my previous life in NE, so it's a pretty casual conversation.  He offers to buy both Pam and myself a drink before this event gets hoppin'.  I opt for a shot of tequila to calm my nerves and Pam asks for a weak captain diet as she is hungover from Friday night.  lame.

6:00 rolls around and we have our first pay at the door purchase with a spouse!  2 tickets down at the door, so far, so good!  We didn't really expect to see anyone right at 6, but whatever.. the more people arrive, the less I feel worried.  Shortly after, another couple arrive, prepaid.  Now we're talkin'.  I feel comfortable talking to these people and we talk about music and school... life in general.
I don't even know what time it was when the rest of the people started to arrive, but before I know it we have kind of a lot of people in this room!  On top of that, we've sold a lot of tickets at the door!

The shots and cocktails are flowing like mad - I can just see dollar signs in the are over the bar and I'm thinkin' "We're gonna do this, we will drink the balance away!!".  A bit later Pam comes up to me and says "Paula (the lady who she's been coordinating with to plan and book this gig), said we are good at the bar and we can pay her anytime for the food"  SUCCESS!!  I figure, rather than try to pay with the money in the bank account, let's see what we have sitting at the door for cash.  We have enough to pay her, plus I got the $200 I put in to open the bank account.. PLUS some extra to deposit for our next reunion!

I heard from a lot of people that they heard people talking and read comments about how people were commenting on the price of the reunion and, while it was good feedback, it made me kind of pissed because a) do people think this shit is free; the food, the bartender, the space? b) who the fuck cares!?  Its a fee you have to pay once every 10 years, it's not like we were charging $50/ticket and having nothing to offer?  c) we had NO money before this, as a class... now we can maybe do some fun stuff in another 10 years OR lower the price based on the money we have...   dumb bitches.

The day before the reunion I was contacted by the school's Yearbook advisor and was asked if I wanted a box of year 2000 yearbooks to try and sell - he'd split the cost with me.  OKAY!  Those were a huge hit!  We sold 8 of them and had one out on each table for people to look through!  The people who purchased were walking around having people sign their yearbooks, which was so much fun!  Seriously, I think having those out really helped save the night!  We went through and talked shit about people who didn't come or had lame excuses for not coming (serious excuses were excused).

All in all, it was a super fun night!  People showed up who I generally wanted to see and talk to, no fakey stuff going on... a few faces that I didn't remember but we got past it and made friends now - I think I've added like 15 new facebook contacts since Saturday!

Some pictures to share from the night:

Me before the shot of tequila:

 Pam and I before everyone got there and after the shot of tequila (I absolutely love this picture of us):

Me and my girl, Amy: 

The entire group, at one point, I think more people arrived after this:

Shanee and Ang (I love this girl!!):

A few of the hot ladies, with Shadd P (the ladies man):

So in all... I told you we paid off the space, I got my $200 back, we have some money accruing interest in the bank for the next 10 years... I think about 35 people were there (not everyone signed in, so I can't say for sure).  Not the best turnout, but more than we expected and all wonderful people to see!

The super odd thing... remember the girl from this post - she bought a ticket in advance, you know, cause we were planning it, and she didn't show up.  I felt really bad and everyone was asking where she was - all I could say was "I don't know".  I really thought she'd be there.  I did send her an email the following day and told her she was missed and let her know that we made some money and it was a successful evening.

Parts of me want to try again in 5 years, because since picture have been posting all over facebook, there are a lot of people who regret not coming (whether excused or not) - and I feel like we'd get a better turn out now that one has gone down.  HOWEVER!  HOWEVER!  HOWEVER!  I most likely will not plan another one in 5 years - maybe we'll just have a night to get together at a bar or something.

It's done now - I can sleep soundly again.