Monday, January 26, 2015

I TOLD you Eric and I are a power couple

On Friday, Eric and I were ever so social, although honestly, we didn't mean to be, and if we'd have had our way, we'd have never left the house all night and there would have been much reading and maybe a little Super Mario Bros., which is Johanna's favorite video game at the moment.

But alas and alack, as we have already established, it's not easy being an introvert in an extroverted world. And yet, we try. Hard.

So for reasons I've never been 100 percent sure of, Eric is the government representative on our local chamber of commerce board. As a member, he goes to a monthly meeting and talks about... chamber-y things, I'm just going out on a limb with that... and then when there's a festival or something, he volunteers him and me, or him and Abby, or him and me and Abby. Jo would help too, except she's too young. As it is, Abby isn't even allowed at some of the functions, which generally include copious amounts of beer and wine and hard cider.

Friday was the chamber's annual member appreciation banquet, and somehow we got out of going last year, but this year our number was up and Eric RSVP-ed us. Bright side: It was at a really nice hotel and the theme was prom, so clearly I would need a ball gown. I have one picked out on Pinterest and everything for just this kind of occasion:

Source.
Pretty!

But then I remembered that I'm a minimalist and I need to make do with what I have. Just kidding. Actually what happened is I kind of forgot about it and since I only happened to remember like two days before the actual event, there wasn't time to go shopping. Plus I'm too practical to actually buy a ball gown.

That makes me sad. I'd really look great in that dress.

I remembered two days before, incidentally, because Eric sent me a text that was all, hey, just FYI, apparently we're winning the volunteer of the year award, and I was all, am I getting punked right now? 'Cause that ain't funny, dude, and he's all, if only I was.

Well... damn.

But! Then everyone was talking about it at the paper, and it sort of came about that no reporter had been assigned to cover it, except we always cover it, apparently, and what were we going to do? I was all, calm down, I'm actually going to that thing anyway, I'll do it, and my editor was all, excellent, but hey, it's this great social event so don't worry about taking copious notes, okay? Just have fun! And I'm all, have we not met? In what universe would I pick socializing over taking notes? Plus PS (and I actually did say this part out loud), the only thing that will keep me from having a full on panic attack is going to be that writing assignment. 

But then it turned out that Chelsea, our lovely general manager, was able to come after all, and that made me happy because yay! Someone we could sit with! And so what if she saw me knock over my chair, fumble with my camera, and run into a table? She sees me do that every damn day at work already.

So I'm sitting there, eating what I hope is a very all-natural non-artificial kind of meal (they had some kind of roasted vegetable dish that I really wished I'd taken two scoops of instead of one. Like, I'm not even sure why it was so good. It was just roasted vegetables. But it was amazing) and writing down the highlights of the speeches given by... jeez, everybody. The mayor, our state representative, the chamber president, everyone. Bite, notes, sip of wine (our wine tasting tour taught me that, while I'd much rather drink coffee, white wine isn't terrible), more notes, another bite. Just doing my job, everyone! Just blending in!

And then the chamber president guy is all, we're now going to present a very unique award for our volunteer of the year thingy (paraphrasing because I had kind of stopped listening as I was too busy trying to breathe normally) and we're honoring a family! The Walker family! They come early and stay late, and they're great and stuff. (Again, paraphrasing. Not panicking is way harder than you'd think.)

Eric and I were looking at each other like, uh, yeah we come early 'cause then we can get it done and get the hell out, but hey, thanks for making us sound less lame than we are, and then we awkwardly stood up and waved and then sat back down.

Hey, though, afterwards, Eric took pictures for me, which Chelsea thought was adorable (totally was), and I went around and got some follow up fact checking done, and then I sniffed out the coffee and had two cups to calm my nerves and then Eric and I cut it up on the dance floor.

Joke. We chatted with a few people we knew and then left.

And just so we're all on the same page, we totally won this award because of Abby. She's the darling of the chamber, I kid you not. They love it when she comes with us because she's a rock star and personable and smart enough to handle whatever task they set her up for, be that making coffee or taking tickets. Too bad she could't come to the banquet with us, actually. That would have been fun.

Not to point out the obvious, but clearly winning awards for being awesome is something power couples do all the time. It's so hard to be so great, you guys. Such a burden, really.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Tried to post a comment on your Power Couple post but the site was being fascist and wouldn't post it. I didn't even curse or get naked or anything! Anyway, this post and your Power post are awesome, of course. I would expect no less from Chamber volunteer award winners.

StephRocks! said...

Yay for you guys!! Can you see me now? I'm jumping up and down and pointing at you saying, "I know them! I know them!". Or something like that ;-) Congrats.

Trisha Walker said...

I'm actually kind of sorry I CAN'T see that... Thanks for the enthusiasm!

Trisha Walker said...

It's hard being awesome all the time, but we're growing accustomed to our Power Couple status.