"my life is rock-n-roll'

Can I tell you how much I love my job? So I've been a little quite in the blog-o-sphere because I've been absolutely slammed at work. In less than a month I had to put together an event for work for what I thought was going to be 600 people. Turns out that my RSVP list was a little off and we had almost 900 people show up.

But it's not the logistics and planning that made this one project particularly exciting. It was the fact that I got to plan a concert as part of the event. And all the while, having to keep the headliner under wraps to help build the buzz.

Well, yesterday was the day, and everything went beautifully. Ok, there was a moment when I found out that I-90 had all lanes closed because of a horrific traffic accident that I was worried that 1) the event would not start on time, 2) my presenters wouldn't be able to make it, and 3) that my attendees would decide that it wasn't worth the effort. But in the end, I got the full house that I wanted.

So back to the concert....our headliner was Joan Jett.

Oh yes, in the flesh. And since I was the event owner, I got the perks.

First off, on Sunday night, I had to go downtown to the facility to do a walk through and make sure everything was going according to plan. Rick and I had spent five or so hours at the driving range, but I really thought it would be fun for him to get a behind the scenes tour of a "day in the life" of my job. Or at least a glimpse into a very damn cool project I was working on.

My colleague/friend from New York was in town as well, and I really wanted him to meet her too. So we trucked it to the event center where we dodged moving forklifts and all the while I was talking to the event crew to answer questions and give directives. It was pretty fun to be "in charge" and have Rick be able to shadow me. As we were leaving the stage check, the event company asked if Rick would be attending the event the following day.

It hadn't even occurred to me. It would be easy enough to get him into the concert portion of the event. Afterall, I own the guest list. Sure, get him on there!

Rick was ecstatic. He arranged to get off work in the afternoon so he could drive over. And I had someone meet him at the front door to let him in while I was running the first part of the event.

I had made sure I had my event mojo going, so I donned a recently acquired t-shirt that said, "My Life is Rock and Roll." I looked like a regular roadie. As soon as we wrapped the meeting, I met him in the green room and we scurried off with a handful of select people who were treated to a "meet and greet" with Joan. She didn't have much time before she went on to perform, so it was a very quick session, but long enough for us to get our photos taken with her. Rick and I got a photo taken with her. She autographed some stock pictures, and handed out autographed CDs. Score!!

Within 15 minutes, she and her band took the stage. Incredible live performance. It was fun to see all of my attendees enjoying themselves. And Rick got a chance to meet some of the people I work with while we sipped on beer and munched on concert grub.

Then came the real treat for me. A tap on the shoulder and my event vendor helps me put on a black, zip up sweatshirt. On the front, it said "Joan Jett and the Blackhearts" and on the back, a white, thorny heart. He told me, "This is from Joan." What I didn't realize until later was that it literally was from Joan. It was the sweatshirt she was wearing before she went on stage. FABULOUS!

We stayed to the end, watching the room clear as the band left the stage. Rick was sly enough to keep an eye on the band and was able to get himself a couple of the band's guitar picks with their logo on it. And as if manna from heaven, my event guy comes back to me with the playlist in hand.

Of course the night was still young, so we met up with a few of my colleagues to have a few drinks and celebrate the success of the event.

Yes, it's days like this where I wake up and realize that I have a pretty, freakin' cool job.