NATS vs. Blizzard....
Wow….
The phone started ringing at 5:00 AM exactly, and I fielded 5 phone called before 6:00 AM. The reason was that all the Wyoming highways were closed all the way to the Colorado border due to the blizzard, which stranded all of the UW contingency, among others (and brought the total to four schools withdrawing in the last 24 hours). In the end, 17 judges (out of 50) cancelled less than 24 hours before the auditions, with 10 of those canceling within 3 hours of the start of the auditions. This meant some ridiculous reorganizing of the judging schedule with most rooms having only two judges for the preliminaries. God alone knows how I managed to pull that off. That would be the power of prayer. Truthfully, I felt like God granted me the peace, patience, strength and wisdom that I prayed so hard for almost constantly over the last three days.
I spent the day with a great team of tabulators who worked diligently and carefully while maintaining a spirit of fun, and my colleagues were tremendously supportive. (At the teacher’s meeting, one even jokingly moved to remove the term limit on the Audition Chair’s office so that I could stay Auditions Chair forever! Hehe.) The teachers all communicated really well with my office, too, so that all the little issues that arose throughout the day, I was able to deal with quickly and effectively. They were so awesome. And our hosts at CSU were so hospitable and organized that I had nothing to worry about where they were concerned.
As for the “blizzard,” it hit a lot of the region and made life difficult for several participants in various part of the CO & WY, but overall, its impact on Fort Collins was minimal. The roads in town remained clear, and by the time I left at 6:30, they were even dry.
To put the icing on the cake, one of my students took first place in her division, the advanced open category, which thrilled me to pieces. She’s worked very hard and she deserved it. It is exciting and encouraging to see one's students succeed in a competition.
So, despite seemingly insurmountable obstacles, the event came off better than I could have ever hoped. We even stayed right on schedule and ended on time! I’m still in awe of all that my colleagues and I accomplished today. Imagine how well it could go next year with cooperative weather!
P.S. An interesting tidbit... the building at CSU where the auditions were held is the newly-renovated building of the old Fort Collins High School, where both my husband and his almost-102-year-old grandmother went to school! Granny is the oldest living graduate of FCHS, and the school building was originally constructed while she was a student...there are photos of the construction in her yearbook! I took some pictures of the interior to show Eric, but I doubt he will recognize any of them... it's a state-of-the-art music facility now and surely looks worlds different than it did when it was a public high school.
The phone started ringing at 5:00 AM exactly, and I fielded 5 phone called before 6:00 AM. The reason was that all the Wyoming highways were closed all the way to the Colorado border due to the blizzard, which stranded all of the UW contingency, among others (and brought the total to four schools withdrawing in the last 24 hours). In the end, 17 judges (out of 50) cancelled less than 24 hours before the auditions, with 10 of those canceling within 3 hours of the start of the auditions. This meant some ridiculous reorganizing of the judging schedule with most rooms having only two judges for the preliminaries. God alone knows how I managed to pull that off. That would be the power of prayer. Truthfully, I felt like God granted me the peace, patience, strength and wisdom that I prayed so hard for almost constantly over the last three days.
I spent the day with a great team of tabulators who worked diligently and carefully while maintaining a spirit of fun, and my colleagues were tremendously supportive. (At the teacher’s meeting, one even jokingly moved to remove the term limit on the Audition Chair’s office so that I could stay Auditions Chair forever! Hehe.) The teachers all communicated really well with my office, too, so that all the little issues that arose throughout the day, I was able to deal with quickly and effectively. They were so awesome. And our hosts at CSU were so hospitable and organized that I had nothing to worry about where they were concerned.
As for the “blizzard,” it hit a lot of the region and made life difficult for several participants in various part of the CO & WY, but overall, its impact on Fort Collins was minimal. The roads in town remained clear, and by the time I left at 6:30, they were even dry.
To put the icing on the cake, one of my students took first place in her division, the advanced open category, which thrilled me to pieces. She’s worked very hard and she deserved it. It is exciting and encouraging to see one's students succeed in a competition.
So, despite seemingly insurmountable obstacles, the event came off better than I could have ever hoped. We even stayed right on schedule and ended on time! I’m still in awe of all that my colleagues and I accomplished today. Imagine how well it could go next year with cooperative weather!
P.S. An interesting tidbit... the building at CSU where the auditions were held is the newly-renovated building of the old Fort Collins High School, where both my husband and his almost-102-year-old grandmother went to school! Granny is the oldest living graduate of FCHS, and the school building was originally constructed while she was a student...there are photos of the construction in her yearbook! I took some pictures of the interior to show Eric, but I doubt he will recognize any of them... it's a state-of-the-art music facility now and surely looks worlds different than it did when it was a public high school.
Labels: NATS
posted by DenverSop @ 11:19 PM
1 Comments:
At 4/05/2009 2:15 AM,
Erin Guinup said…
Holy smokes! That sounds like a nightmare of a mess...and to have survived is quite an accomplishment. Congratulations! Now get some rest.
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