Friday.
I was set to go to a Toby Keith concert with Jim on Friday night, at the Porter County Fair. Because of this, I had to setup extra early for the Windy City Pet Expo (Saturday / Sunday), so that we'd make it back to the fairgrounds in time for the fair / concert.
Because I'd expressed such a desire to leave early and get there RIGHT when the the setup started (11 am), Jim showed up the night before, at like midnight. We unloaded the van, and re-loaded all the stuff for the expo.
So that Friday morning, we drive out to Schaumburg, getting there just after 11 am. Get there, no one knows anything, there's no hall set for the expo... we're all like... what? But nothing's going on. I look through emails, and find an email from the expo saying there's an insurance hiccup, so we have to wait to setup. Ok. The email says to reach out with questions, so I call... no answer, no return phone call.
We go to Culvers, have lunch. Wait around at Culvers for an hour or two, and then I think to email the pet expo, and I do get an email back, saying they called and left a message (not saying they didn't... but it has yet to show up in missed calls, and I still don't have the voicemail), and that they'd have an answer "right away" and that setup would be either later that evening or in the morning.
So we waited around til about 3 pm, at which time, we decided, we better head back, or else we're not going to get back in time for the concert.
Get home, let the dogs out, leave for the fair. Traffic all the way to the fairgrounds, and my phone keeps popping up thunderstorm reports, but the areas are sunny and dry. Whatever.
Halfway through the drive, about 5 pm, the phone rings, and I ignored the call because it was an 800-number. They left a message, which I listened to, saying that setup for the expo could begin in the morning, and they'd hire more people to help load.
My immediate response, to Jim, was that he was going to be staying until the morning anyway -- rather than leaving immediately in the morning, while I left for the expo, could he take the van back out to the expo and unload, and leave from there? The reason being, that if he didn't, we'd have to unload the van, and then re-load it into my vehicle once we got back to my house. He said that was fine. Yay.
Get to the fair. Now, me and Jim like the farm animals, so of course we want to see the critters, and... no cows... no pigs... no chickens... just a handful of goats and a few rabbits. What the heck? Ok, well, there's still the concert.
So we go to the concert and the opening act plays... and then there's a delay... and it's about 45 minutes between the opening act and when Toby Keith starts. To the point that we're starting to wonder if they're going to cancel the concert, for one reason or another. Toby starts playing. About 5 songs in, I turn to Jim and ask him if he noticed a few random raindrops. About that time, the sky opens up and it absolutely downpours.
Now, if you've never been to the Porter County Fairgrounds, they're not set up for concerts, they just have a stage and the bands set up scaffolding and whatever needed for the lights and speakers and all, but there's no roof, and with this sort of downpour (and raining sideways, at that), the concert was rained out. Boo.
So, we ducked into one of the animal-less buildings, and went building to building trying to not get any more wet... if even possible... as even my bra and underwear were soaked... complete drowned rat status here... anyway, we eventually made it to the car, and went to Wendy's on the way home, to get a snack.
In the drive-thru, the phone must have rung again, but I missed it as it was in my pocket, so when I pulled it out and looked at it, while sitting in the vehicle eating... another call from the 800-number. This time... oh, expo cancelled! Rescheduled to next weekend!
My immediate response was -- well, I have stuff going on next weekend! I had two volunteers set to come all weekend. I had another who routinely comes, now and then, for school, and brings a few friends with her, set to come Sunday. I'd miss Pierogi fest. I'd miss something else we had planned. But... this was a good expo, one of our best every year, so I figured, what the hell, we would go.
But... for the following morning, I had planned on being there... and that was a problem, now with the expo cancelled... cause I was bringing animals and supplies for a variety of people... who now, were going to be like... wtf what happened? So, in the Wendy's parking lot, at around 10:30-11 pm Friday night, I am madly texting / messaging / emailing the people who were set to get animals and supplies from me at the expo. Most of them I got ahold of.
Saturday.
However, I still had to drive out to Schaumburg the following morning, to deliver two chins and supplies, to their new adopter. With it being an hour+ drive there, and even more back... with construction, I left around 8:30 am and got back early afternoon. Ugh. Day shot.
Saturday was pretty quiet other than that. I had one person who was supposed to drop off their chinchilla, and didn't show, and later responded to my texts saying they decided to wait a bit... but that was about it for that day.
Sunday.
Sunday was when all those people who were supposed to come to the expo, made appointments to come to the house instead. Started off with a 10 am appointment, people who wanted to adopt two guinea pigs, and OH! how convenient, they'd pick up the guinea pigs at the expo this upcoming weekend. That was followed by Euphy getting adopted, another guinea pig getting adopted, and some supply pickups.
In the middle of one of the supply pickups, I noticed Toby (my 11-ish year old mosaic pet chin) go up to his fleece tube and stretch out. Paws allllll the way stretched out, like when a chin's yawning and then taking a nap. I saw him stretch out and sort of roll on his side, thought it was cute, and didn't think anything of it... and neither did the next two appointments. After they left, I went to pet him cause I thought he looked oh so cute in that post... yeah... my pretty white boy passed away.
Oh wait, this gets better.
Monday.
Not much notable went on.... saving up for...
Tuesday.
Now, to bring you all up to speed, at this point, I had:
--cancelled the volunteers for the weekend
--made it possible for myself to go to the pierogi fest and still setup on Friday
--decided ok fine I could not do the one thing I was going to do during the weekend, boo
--posted on fb saying yes we'd be at the expo
--posted on my website, and updated both listings for the re-scheduling of the pet expo
--scheduled to have two guinea pigs picked up at the upcoming pet expo
--told several people, yes, we would be there, yes, we could still bring their supplies
--re-started (and mostly completed, for that matter) the 8-page pet waiver for the expo
--emailed the expo people multiple times about various this, waivers, etc.
... and at 11:12 pm... I received this:
I tell you, I could not make this shit up.
So... I emailed the one volunteer. I doubt I'll hear back, or they'll be able to come, on such short notice. Messaged the other... her kids must have the phone, because I got all sorts of interesting messages back... will try again tomorrow and hope I get her. I now get to email the guinea pig people and tell them, haha, SORRY, I cannot bring your guinea pigs to the now-cancelled expo. I now also get to call all the people who were hoping to get supplies from us at the expo, and tell them haha, cancelled, again, nope, NOT kidding! Lord almighty.
Not that they really care, but I do plan to email the expo and let them know about how much effort I'm having to spend re-scheduling all this shit, not for one, but for TWO weekends, cause of all of this! This is ridiculous... but for sure, couldn't make this shit up...
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