So, How Did It Go?

On By LynnIn TurtleHead

So, how was World Trivia Night?

WTN was so awesome. I really get far too excited when I go there, but man, do I ever love the trivia. They asked about Due South! I loved that show! I knew lots of answers but there was also tons of stuff I did not know, so thank heavens for the whole team approach.

And also, I ate tons and tons of candy. Holy cow, there was a lot of sugar. XUP came by to say hello (her team was totally crushing us, they are apparently brilliant) and I think she was pretty horrified at our spread. XUP is a very mysterious woman in that she believes that stuffing artificially coloured and flavoured fake-food filled with refined sugar into her body is a bad thing (what up, XUP?). I think it was the Nestle Crunch “breakfast cereal” — a breakfast food that lists sugar as its first ingredient — pushed her over the edge.

The sugar hangover the next morning was TOTALLY worth it, though.

Julie of Thoughts of a Smother Mother was able to make it after all, which rocked, and she totally saved our bacon on that Ace Ventura question. Also, she’d just spent the afternoon being serenaded by BILLY BRAGG, which OMG, SO AWESOME. I will live in envy forever.

And Bibiomama came too, which was incredibly brave of her given that we had never actually met in person, and she totally saved us on that Lars Von Trier question (think, think, THINK). She came for the chips but stayed for the trivia and I think she’s a convert.

In the end, we answered 85 questions correct out of 100, which put us in 11th place. But they allow ties in the scoring, so although we finished “11th” we’re really probably like, the 60th team down. But out of 188 teams, I still feel like that’s okay. And also, did I mention the candy?

MyFriendJen and I are already planning our costumes for next year. We are SO THERE.

So, how did the Giant Fundraiser go?

Well. I think this is a little fresh in my mind and I’m hoping in a week or so I will feel better about the event. Right now, though, I have to say I am feeling kind of sad about it and I really need to just take some deep breaths and understand that it’s all over and let it go.

I mean, everything went okay — there were a few small crises during the day but we resolved them all with little difficulty. But my biggest fear about this day was that people would not turn out for it, and sure enough, our numbers for this year were way down from the past two years. Looking back, I’m not sure what I should have done differently but of course, the second guessing is killing me.

Also, the thought of all the man hours I put into this thing, only to have it be a so-so event, is not making me too happy right now.

I mean, it really did go okay. So I’m really hoping that in a couple of weeks I will feel more positive about it.

But I can say, I won’t be running this event next year.

And now…a deep breath, a shrug of the shoulders, and on to new things.

8 thoughts on “So, How Did It Go?”

  1. MrsCarlSagan

    I was glad to have the chance to come to the fundraiser yesterday and from what I could see, your organization, hard work and attention to detail totally paid off. The number and wide variety of crafters was really great and at the time I was there, there seemed to be quite a few people and the parking lot was full.

    Despite all the promotion, I think this is just a hard year – people aren’t shopping as much or like they used to.

    Don’t be too hard on yourself – you did an amazing job!

  3. betsy mae

    Re: The Fundraiser
    I’m betting it was awesome. When you are so close to an event it’s hard not to be critical, after all you know what didn’t go right. You should feel good (no fantastic) abour the fact that you took on this volunteer position and followed it through.

    Re: WTN
    I love how enthusiastic you are about your WTN, you make it sound fun (to someone like me who would totally suck at triva)

  4. first, WTN was fun. I feel bad I left so quickly, but I was still cold to the bone and needed to get warm. Glad I was able to help with one question our of 100! 😉

    fundraiser. try not to beat yourself up too much. by the sound of what MrsCS said, people enjoyed themselves and everyone was busy. that sounds like a pretty good success to me. it is kind of hard to get some perspective when it’s been your life for such a chunk of recent time. so you are right to let yourself take some time to get some distance. then you’ll be able to realise what an awesome job you did and be proud.

  5. WTN kicked ass. Thanks so much for the invitation and making me feel welcome.

    I completely understand your feelings about the Fundraiser. First, it’s normal to feel a let-down after something for which the build-up and effort has been so intense. Second, you’re completely justified in feeling disappointed about the numbers, but not about your part in it. I think you’re right — time and distance will be helpful. Way to go.

  6. I won’t tell you that I’m totally jealous and wish I could’ve been there for WTN cause…hmmm…I think I may have mentioned that once or twice or seventeen times already. 😀

    And yes–about the fundraiser–the hardest part about things like that is that a certain amount of of it is totally not within your control. I know you put in a ton of work, so it’s hard when things don’t live up to your hopes, but really you just have to focus on the positive things that did come out of it. I agree with MrsCarlSagan…people just aren’t shopping as much this year.

  7. 11th place is awesome! Some of those questions were so obscure. And ditto what everyone else said about the fundraiser. I’m 100% confident that you organized the beejeezus out of it and couldn’t have done a single thing more. Sooooo, now that you have all this free time on your hands you could maybe think about another blogger event? Like maybe a blogger trivia night and one of the categories could be Ottawa Bloggers. (i.e.: “Which Ottawa blogger continues to suffer from The Curse of the Wasps?”)

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