We have a few organizer volunteers for the annual Pride Picnic who are retiring. So, I was doing my normal neurotic obsessing and trying to make sure that I wasn't going to mess things up.
2 of the folks leaving us had made the Sloppy Joes this year, which made things easier since there were only hot dogs to cook at the event itself. Being totally ignorant about food service, I wasn't sure how the idea would work when it was first proposed, but they really carried it off well.
I sort of dropped a mention to my friend Paula, who said that she might be up for helping next year. I then noticed that Jeremy was mentioning in his blog about going to Drenched Fur next year, and I know that he has been absolutely fabulous about helping run the kitchen at Pagan Pride Day. So I emailed him to float the idea, and also mentioned that I was doing that to Jeff and Gary. Gary thought it was maybe a tad early (which I sort of agree for any major planning, but I think it might be okay for putting out feelers.)
So, I got a delightful email back from Jeremy which started off:
Now see? Here's a man who appreciates my style and habit of planning waaaaay in advance. Actually, come to think of it, I probably picked some of it up from you.
Ooh! So, that makes 2 new folks who are reliable, cheerful and realistic. I am feeling MUCH better now. I wasn't really feeling bad before, just anxious. One of my biggest gripes is folks who talk about stuff and don't follow through. I occasionally hear folks talking about potential projects and worrying that the barriers that they might face would be hostile straight folks. It is usually everything I can do NOT to bellow "Look! It isn't the evil straight folks (most of whom are quite fine when you don't cringe like a whipped dog), it's the ditzy queers! Just get out a calendar, figure when you want stuff to happen and work backwards and actually do the work that goes into making things happen, and you probably will be fine." Okay, sorry for the rant. This is a long standing frustration for me.
Let me be quite clear: the volunteers who are retiring have been wonderful, and I very much appreciate what they have done in the past, and the fact that they were clear about future plans with enough lead time for me to work on finding other people. There are also some terrific people who are staying and who are also fabulous about getting stuff done.
All in all, I consider my faith in humanity validated. Always a nice thing!
