Victorian love...it's driving me mad...it's making me crazy!

I had my first on-call site manager gig today. I f-ing loved it!! I told Erik, at one point I thought of the guy who is taking the job in a month, and I just wanted to find him and push him out a window. I just had such a good time! For once I actually felt like I had some responsibility, even though I really didn't do a heck of a lot. I met the deputy director at the door at 12:30pm, she showed me how to use the alarm system and what the procedures are for opening up the place, and that was it. She left me there with an hour and a half before anything was going on. I was in this historic 1860's house, by myself, for over an hour. And I loved it! Part of my job when I'm the site manager is to open up the blinds in all of the rooms. Basically you take off your shoes (as to not damage the carpet), go around the rope barrier, and do your thing. It was cool because I got to see things up close and personal that I wouldn't normally get to see. I also used that time to make sure I knew what key worked with what lock and to make sure I knew how to work the doors. I mean, you can't mess with old doors. The key for the very front door to the Mansion (which I don't get to take home) is this 3-4 inch antique key that I thought was so perfect for the opening key to the Mansion. It literally looks like an old skeleton key that someone would use to open up a dungeon door or something. That took a little getting use to.

My volunteers showed up at 2pm. Two of them were board members, so that was nice at least because it meant I had seasoned pros working with me on my first day. But at the same time, I felt like I had to do my best work so that they wouldn't bring me up in a bad way at a board meeting.

Truth be told, I wasn't completely on my own. The giftshop manager is technically the second site manager, and she was there, but she was handling the giftshop. So it still felt like I had the most control over the house, with major backup from the board members.

So the event that was going on was a Victorian girl's tea. The actual tea took place at the Holiday Inn by the Bay since they have more space for that kind of thing. After the tea, all of the girls and their mothers were invited back to Victoria Mansion for a self-guided tour. All I have to say is, holy shit. There were a TON of girls running around the place! Most of the mothers were pretty good at keeping their children in check. Others, not so much. It was definitely a madhouse, but we had enough help with three volunteers and myself. I handed out self-guided tour sheets at the door (actually where the above picture is being taken from....minus the green carpet, that no longer exists), but made sure to do damage control every so often to make sure people weren't overstepping their boundaries or leaving garbage where they shouldn't.

At one point the giftshop manager was apparently so bogged down with sales, she tried to call over to me to come over and give her a hand. But the phone that I was near wasn't working! I felt so bad! I guess she was literally wrapping up one person's stuff and had another person shoving merchandise and money in her face! There were two tea sessions, so for the second one I went over to the shop. Murphy's Law of course, she didn't need my help at all. Oh well. I still had fun and can't wait to help out with Mansion in Bloom at the end of the month.

Btw, not to end this blog entry on a bad note, but it's news (although bad) - there is a very good chance that I'm losing my job at Maine Preservation in a month, so that's been weighing heavily on pretty much my entire existence right now. If you want the scoop, send me an email if you have it or leave a message on this blog.