Longest Day Completed

It was 9 1/2 hours of standing all day yesterday. It was nice to see the end come at 7 PM last night. Starting at 9 AM, I was assigned to the National All Star Cheerleading Championship being held in the Jostens Center at the complex. This was different from the High School Championship in that these teams were from athletic groups that had sponsors, and were comprised of athletes from all schools. Anyway, it was slow going in the beginning, so I had time to shoot a picture of the empty stage:

and then, a shot of one of the performing teams:

I worked there for almost 3 hours before being given a break, and they assigned the turnstiles to me which was an absolute zoo. With all the events going on and with the Braves game scheduled to start at 1:05 PM, there were people backed up at the turnstiles the entire 2 hours I worked there. I finally was given my lunch break at around 2 pm, and after rushing through a half hour lunch, caught this shot of the game in the stadium at around the 4th inning:

Clearly, the stadium was packed as the Braves beat the Mets, 11-0.

The National Cheerleader Championships were being held in 2 different facilities, and I was next assigned a spot in the second - and the main - facility where the Senior groups were competing. This was in what they call the HP Fieldhouse and it looked like this from my 2nd floor assignment:

The competition was to go until 10 PM last night. Several of us were asked to work over our scheduled time, and only a few accepted. I was not one of them.

I completed the shift and went on break at around 4:30 PM and caught the kids running the bases after the ballgame ended:

I'm sure most stadiums in Spring Training have this opportunity after games for all the young kids.

My final assignment was again back in the main facility - the HP Fieldhouse - and I worked a location close to the action on the first level:

The competition was interrupted for about a half hour while the medics came out to treat one of the contestants who landed on her ankle and had to be taken off the stage on a stretcher. It's a wonder that more of these performers don't get serious injuries while performing these very athletic moves that they do. At any rate, my shift ended - thankfully - and even though it was difficult standing all that time, it was a fun day.

Today is my last day and I will be working the parking areas on what promises to be another super busy day. I expect to be standing for the full 8 hours. While leaving last night, I saw vehicles parked on the medians for the first time, and it will most likely be the same today.

I found somebody to take my last scheduled day on Wednesday so that I am able to use that last day to run errands before packing up. It's hard to believe that we are getting ready to go to our next adventure, but we are looking forward to it...