snow day

Homeless Connect Day is over! I'm so relieved. It seemed to go really well, especially considering it was Hartford's first year having one. It was funny that I spent so long trying to coordinate a ticketing system for lunch, and explained to the volunteers at the participant sign-in desk which tickets to hand out and in what order, and then after the press conference inside, the mayor flung the front doors open to get his photo op and shake a few hands, and then everyone flooded in without even stopping at the ticket table! But everyone got a bagged lunch (most people got four or five) and it worked out. And Starbucks came through with a ton of free coffee and pastries, and Dunkin Donuts and Panera gave us lots of pastries and donuts too. I knew almost all of the participants that came in, and one of the woman that works at the church where it was held said that the kitchen/dining room area I was in charge of was the only room where everything went smoothly and didn't need extra attention. Tom took us out for appetizers and sangria afterwards to celebrate months and months of planning being over, and now I'm looking forward to throwing all of my paperwork in the recycling bin and moving on to something else.

But I don't think the stress for this week is over, because they are predicting a big snowstorm to start at noon and the agencies that go by what the public schools do are all closed. None of my co-workers who live in the suburbs are coming, so Rachel and I are running the soup kitchen all by ourselves (it usually takes at least five people to make things run smoothly). We're making sure that 100 people have coffee and snacks and then a hot lunch, then closing the doors early at 12:30 and hopefully not sliding on ice again on the way home!