This is probably the last entry I'll make for this journal because tomorrow is the last day of the internship. Wow, I can't believe it's gone by so fast.

I have to say that I have a greater respect for people who do this day in and day out. While most of the time it was fairly boring and I really didn't do much, the times when we got busy, the times when I had assignments, the times I was selling tickets or working a show; they taught me a lot.

I learned patience. And I learned a lot about researching and what information you give to the public. I made some mistakes along the way but I've grown from them, I think. Plus, I'm one of like... 4 people in the school who know how to work our crazy ticket system now! Yay!

Anyway, It's been a lot of fun. But I think the job will be a lot more fun once I don't have to worry about earning a grade for it. Yeah, we'll go with that.

Not much work wise because the last few days I've been down in Mt. Pleasant.

But tonight was the Lonesome County Band. They drew in a nice crowd and everyone had fun.

Problems: We keep losing ushers. Tonight we had maybe four. Not good.

Graphics couldn't make our programs so we had to do it ourselves. This was earlier in the week, but I got the task of figuring it out how to do it. I passed the instructions onto Tom and tonight I came in to find pretty homemade programs.

Good stuff: Despite our lack of ushers everyone knew what they were doing and that part was fine.

Despite long line-ups we got everyone through fairly quickly and there were no problems.

This show was fairly straight-forward. The band was fun and they sold a lot of CD's at the end of the show. Even the president of the university bought one. So yeah, they must have been good!

How about this? So awesome!

These guys... wow. They were a lot of fun. And while the attendance was nowhere near what we wanted it, the people who came had a blast, the ushers had fun, Tom was relaxed and I was just soaking it in!

Problems: Show started a little late because some of the band members were trying to help us set up their merchandise table. How do you tell the BAND that they should get going? I mean, it's their gig and no one was really in a rush...

Good things: The ushers are finally starting to get it. But tonight it really didn't matter because Tom relaxed the seating rules so that the audience could feel more at home.

The band was friendly, helpful and approachable.

The box office ran smoothly. Line ups? Forget about it!

Overall, awesome show! Wish more people would have come and experienced this!

My new (and very temporary) title. Gandalf Murphy is coming this weekend and they sure look like a blast!

But, due to very poor attendance over the weekend for the ballet we are trying to get attendance up. So, today I wrote an press release that's going to be sent out to students via their lssu student e-mail address. Usually, I hate getting those things but even I have to think that it's going to be sort of cool to get an e-mail from myself. See my writing being sent to everyone. Yay!

Tom's a little less stressed. Actually, he was in a very good mood today. He seems really eager to be doing this and actually we are having a lot of fun throwing out some ideas on how to promote the band. Needless to say, today's work environment is a lot better than a few days ago.

So, I guess I should get working thinking up some more ideas! This is fun!

Capitol Steps: Very good. So very good. I helped out some with merchandise and they gave me a CD for my help. So I thought that was amazing! The crowds were big but luckly I was working with someone who knew that printing out tickets before had would be a good idea. So we did and it was.

USA Ballet: I'm just going to say this to begin: ugh. They showed up as last minute as possible, which stressed Tom out. Tom got easily aggitated so when I tried to ask him a question he got mad at me and snapped. And then it was like that all. night. long.

I was stuck with the lady who didn't want to pre-print tickets. So when the line up started getting long more people were even more aggitated. Then she started telling people who wanted to sit with friends that, yes, it was okay to ignore what their ticket said and sit wherever they wanted. I tried to step in and tell her when the crowd died down that we shouldn't tell people that, but she just brushed me off. Needless to say, as I was helping the ushers we got a complaint that someone was sitting in the wrong seat, a seat that just so happened to have an owner.

Tom didn't like that either.

I was lucky enough to have to video tape the performance both nights. No offense to professional ballet, but USA ballet? Not so great. They were nice enough, though, and were thankful for the help.

So, I've learned to just stay calm when things get stressful (which they did) because panic doesn't help. Although I've also learned that sometimes, bosses can be jerks. That's okay though, because between the two of us, one of us had to keep our cool.

So what if it had to be the intern?

This week is going to be BUSY. Already we've had Creole Stomp (which went well; no problems) and now we have Capitol Steps tomorrow followed by USA Ballet on Saturday and Sunday. DANG!

I have to say that I am SO excited about Capitol Steps. I have been waiting for this show and now it's finally here! A lot of people have been in buying tickets and a lot of people have called to buy tickets or make sure that we're still selling them. We've sold quite a few and even more are expected tomorrow.

Tom doesn't seem to be worried about this show. He's more focused on USA Ballet this weekend. But I can see why. He's really keeping me on my game, that's for sure. Not that I've been messing up or anything, it's just that he's going into overdrive and every little thing is like a bomb going off. But I'm just remembering to stay calm and collected. That's the business. Things are going to get stressful and if you can't deal with it in a calm manner you're in the wrong place.

So, here's to Capitol Steps! Yay!

P.S. Happy Canada Day!

Today Tom let me make programs! Really there wasn't a lot to it. Really he just took whatever he used for Da Yoopers and told me to change everything to match Creole Stomp. So I searched their site looking for information and a picture and after a few e-mails back and forth with Tom I got it right! So, the programs that will be coming out for the show will be done by me!

At least this show will be really easy. You know, just some instruments and whatnot. I hear they are really good, but we'll see.

So, Da Yoopers arrived at around 3 this afternoon and immediately starting setting up. I was up at the box office when they started bringing up their merchandise to set up.

Wow. That was a lot of stuff.

But at least they knew what they were doing and they had their own system so there wasn't a lot for me to do.

Come time to open the box office to sell tickets, we were already busy. A LOT of people showed up at the last minute to buy tickets. Now, here's the thing though. Our little system from Merling Trio? Out the door. The lady working the box office with me this time didn't seem to think that what I said held any weight and through everything that worked out the window. So pre-printed tickets? No. Long line ups? Yes. Student tickets? No. Students buying tickets? Yes. She doesn't even know how to work the program in the fastest way possible... she takes too long to do it. And when someone buying a ticket is a friend of hers? She talks to them and holds up the line! I knew that I should have said something, I was dying to say something but what can I really do? I don't have any real power and she had worked the box office more times than I had so... whatever works for her. It got frustrating though and even more so because Tom saw the backed up line. I just felt like all his pre-show frustration about that was being directed at me.

But the show started eventually. And it was really funny. There were a LOT of people there and EVERYONE was having a good time! The lead singer had to sit the entire time because of his broken leg and that took away from a few of the skits but it still worked out nicely. Anywho...

I need to talk to the ushers too. They are supposed to be taking people to the rows they are sitting in but most of them just point them in the general direction. Not good.

Tomorrow Da Yoopers are coming! I have to say that I am SO excited about this group! A lot of people have been coming in/calling in and buying tickets and telling me a lot of good things about the group. This show should be awesome!

Tom is still worried that he's not seeing the numbers he wants to see but I keep reminding myself (and occasionally him) that there is always a rush of people before the show. Chances are we'll see a lot of people show up then. Maybe not the numbers he wants still, but at least we have people attending.

I heard that the lead singer broke his leg. I wonder how we'll have to accomidate for that?

Anyway, here's to hoping tomorrow goes well!

So tonight was the Merling Trio, a classical music chamber group. Their crowd wasn't the most spectacular for the opening show of the season, but they seemed pretty impressed. After all, chamber music is all about small crowds and intimacy; when you have 50 or so people show up that's pretty good.

The box office work was fine. We got a system set up fairly quickly (student tickets available outside of the box office, pre-printed general tickets for people paying with cash, everyone else to the computer to order) and things ran smoothly. We got a little busy about 10 minutes before the show started but thanks to the system we already had in place we managed to keep the line flowing smoothly.

The only thing that I can see that really was a pain was that the box office got a little crowded. But there isn't really much you can do about that and it was slightly better than if we had student tickets in there as well. Tom was also a little irritable, but that's understandable; it's opening night of the season, he's got every right to be worried.

Overall, it was a great night. The music was good, the ushers were helpful and we had a good show! *thumbs up*

Gabby