I was up at 8:00 today, and at Sirtage Rental by about 8:45.
The address of this business is listed as 12 Turner Street, which is just after the Arby’s on Hillsborough Street heading from Gorman down to State. The address is of a house, and on the porch that you walk up to there is a sign that says, “Sirtage Rental is next door.”
The place next door is a house—a much older house, which really didn’t look all that safe in terms of structural soundness. I turned the handle of the door, which had no window in it, or markings on it about being a place of business. Inside, was an array of many, many devices that were in black carrying cases—some soft-sided, some hard-sided. Things were not nicely arranged. The word chaotic comes to mind.
No one was in there, and when I turned around to face the door to leave, there was a handwritten sign attached to the wall above the little stickers that indicate that they take Mastercard, Visa, American Express, and Discover. The sign said, “Go to 12 Turner Street for Sirtage Rental.”
Caught in a loop, I went back over to 12 Turner, ignored the big sign on the front porch that said, “Sirtage Rental is next door,” and just as I went to open the door, a young kid came out.
“Hi, I’m John. I called yesterday about renting a (audio-visual) screen for the day.”
“Oh yeah. At NC State, right?”
“Yep,” I replied.
“Follow me,” he said, and he took me back over to 14 Turner, where he fetched a 5’x5′ screen from the back and said, “Here you go.”
“Do you want me to sign anything? Give you a credit card number or anything?”
“No, that’s okay,” he said, “Just bring it back whenever you’re finished with it.”
“If I can’t make it by 5:00 today, our event goes until 4:00, would there be an extra charge if I brought it back first thing in the morning?”
“Nope, no problem. It’s just $10 for the day today. Get it back as soon as you can.”
I got to Clark Hall, where I loaded the two, heavy boxes of 12 easels each into my car, and on the second trip grabbed a bunch of stuff with which to make quilt squares.
I met Myra and Mark over at Biltmore, where we grabbed the boards, to which to attach posters to rest on the easels, from the storage room next to George’s office. I took 11 and Mark took the other 13.
We drove back to Clark, where Myra and I fiddled with a projector trying to make sure it worked. First of all, the plug had a European end to it, that is the prongs that go into the wall were round in stead of flat. And no adapter in the case. What’s up with that?
I tried another power cord but nothing happened. Mark eventually came up, and flipped the “On/Off” switch on the side of the unit near the power connector, which is totally different from the “On/Power” button on the top of the projector, and it worked. Thank &deity.
We loaded two projectors and Myra’s laptop in our cars and headed over to Talley.
By now it was between 10 and 10:30. The luncheon for the event was scheduled to start at 11:30, and the event itself start at 12:30. We all had to be upstairs for the luncheon at 11:30.
In that hour or so, I:
- Set up 12 easels and placed boards next to each one
- Rearranged chairs, tables, and screens for 9 booths
- Set out booth number cards with a program at each booth
The luncheon went well, and it consisted of some bread, a salad, and an Eggplant Parmesan entry that tasted great, but looked like a meatless, bunless hamburger by its presentation. Chocolate cake was served for dessert.
I took several pictures during the luncheon, including of the speakers: Provost Dr. Larry Nielsen, Dr. Mike Davis reading John Saltmarsh‘s remarks, and Dr. Patti Clayton.
Back downstairs at 12:30, I helped two people with projector problems, one connecting to their laptop, the other not being able to get the machine to focus; ran upstairs to set up my laptop for George’s class’s presentation; and then had to run back to Clark Hall to retrieve two posters that we thought were being brought by someone else, but had inadvertently been mixed up with some posters we used at last Wednesday’s event.
All in all, as one of the people behind the scenes, it felt totally chaotic, but I think to the attendees it seemed pretty well-organized. Smoke-and-mirrors.
Before I left, I broke down all of the easels, and re-boxed them; gathered all the boards that went with them, and collected my laptop and the screen we rented for the day.
I loaded all that into my car, drove over to Clark with the boards hanging out of my trunk, brought them upstairs to the S-L office, and stopped by Sirtage Rental to drop off the screen at about 4:40. Boy was there.
“I made it, today,” I said.
“Oh there was no rush; you could’ve brought it back tomorrow,” he said.
“I know. It was just one thing that I could check off my list today though, and not have to worry about tomorrow.”
I waited while he hunted and pecked a receipt out on his keyboard and sent it to the printer. Again, we were in 14 Turner, but I half-expected the receipt to print over at 12 Turner. But I digress…
Oh, but while I’m digressing: click on the link to the meaning of “hunt and peck” just above. I had no idea!
I stopped by the Food Lion on Western Blvd, where I bought Tostito Bite-Sized Rounds to go with my dip for tonight, and picked up some Extra Sharp Cheddar Cheese, and a dozen eggs.
Back home, I threw the chips in the Tupperware bowl made for serving veggies and dip, emptied the dip from the mixing bowl into the center compartment, showered, and left for class at about 5:40.
Tonight was the last round of defenses for ENG 675 and Paula, Michelle, and Christin all did quite well. Paula got absolutely drilled (criticized, more than asked questions of, actually) by one of her consultants, but she stood her ground and we were all on her side.
Most of us went to Sammy’s afterwards, where we enjoyed a few pitchers in celebration outside in the patio area. Jason joined us for the first hour or so, which was nice. I had the most fun conversation with Jenn. She is such a delight.
Kim asked me about the drag show tonight, and one of the other people there, Maryellen, who I’ve met on just one or two occasions before heard me talk about Trailer Park Prize Night, and she said, “I want to go!”
Turns out she used to live in San Francisco, and misses going out without being pestered by all the men surrounding her.
I picked up the tab for the three pitchers, rode with Maryellen to her mansion in Cary, where she changed into a sleek, black leather skirt outfit, drove us back to my car at Sammy’s and followed me down to Flex.
The most irreverent Jackie O’Knight was hosting, and of course started off with her usual, “Where all my Hispanic folks be,” going through each race until eventually getting to, “And where all my Caucasian people?” As always, after the roar from the majority of the place, she said, “I hate you mother-fuckers” with the biggest smile on her face possible.
Oddly, and coincidentally, I’ve never seen David with a woman, and I imagine vice-versa, and tonight we both had women friends with us.
We laughed a lot during the evening, and Maryellen and I left right after the grand prize drawings, which essentially is the end of the show.