First day of 6th & 8th grade

Summer is officially over - the boys started 6th and 8th grade today. It’s the first year in two years that nobody is starting a new school, which means the anxiety level is much lower than usual. Since the kids are apparently past the school supply age (neither class had any info on what was needed), I just stuffed their back packs with left over folders, spiral notebooks, pens and pencils from previous years, and left it at that. I figure as long as they have something to write with and write on, we’re good.

Theo’s school didn’t announce the teacher assignments until yesterday, so on our way to lunch we all dropped by the school to see who Theo got. It’s another teacher I’ve never heard of; I hope this year goes better than last. Bobby, in a rare moment of affection, said it was weird that this was the last year we would ever be looking for teacher assignments for Theo - he said, to him, Theo would always be in third grade. Hard agree. 

This morning we were all discombobulated and off our game, and we weren’t the only ones - there was a horrific traffic jam leading up to Theo’s school, to the point that I had Theo hop out and walk (I’m going to guess he barely made it by the final bell). Bobby’s school, further down the road a few blocks, was also pandemonium. I don’t remember it being like that last year, although we may have come a different way. 

This year as his elective Bobby chose something called Music Lab, which of course delighted me. Although most likely it’s just composing music on software which is something he already does (one of his songs was chosen for use by a video game he plays), I’m hoping it’ll spark something in him. 

So now we’re back to our old habits. Even though it’s only been two months, it feels like an eternity since I was getting up this early, picking up kids from the library, making sure they do homework, etc etc. I’m kind of glad they started on Thursday so we can ease into it. I’m guessing not much will happen at school in these two days. 

For me, I’m in the thick of it with my event - long to do lists every day that keep getting put off by endless customer service emails. The latest mess was messaging everyone to remind them that the new Thursday night dance is not included in the weekend pass, after seeing that only about 10% of attendees had bought tickets for that night. This unfortunately caused a flood of angry emails of people feeling like they were being ripped off and swearing this was never advertised (it was, clearly, from day one). I had to call an emergency meeting with my staff to figure out what to do when 800 angry people show up on Thursday, shocked that they’re being required to shell out even more money. Because I guarantee only a small portion of people even read that email. Some thought they had a special pass that included the dance (there’s no such thing). Others thought because they were in a dance contest that night that they didn’t need a ticket (what? How…?). Chalk this up to an endless series of “how could you possibly think that??” To me all of this was crystal clear - but obviously not understood by 90% of attendees. I realized I can’t do this this way ever again - but then that eliminates much needed revenue from those tickets (and no, raising the weekend pass price won’t help, because I’m already doing that next year to cover other expenses, and I can only raise it so much). 

Put this together with the fact that, as of this month, my registration is falling off a cliff. There is now no doubt that I will lose people - I’m guessing 100, possibly 150. Which is not good, and what I had feared all along, yet, bizarrely, was not apparent until two weeks ago. Up until end of July I had consistently had exactly the same amount of people as last year, and then BAM, I’m now 50+ people behind. There’s no way I’m going to catch up in two weeks; I’ll be lucky to not lose 150 people. It really sucks, because if I’d had any kind of heads-up I at least could have prepared more. But here we are two weeks out and I’m suddenly looking at being behind by $30,000 - $50,000. I’m just hoping the money I make during the event is enough to just pay for it, and that I sell enough advance tickets during the weekend to survive until February. I hope I just hang in there, although I fear economic and political situations will only get worse by 2026. I don’t feel a need to cancel the extra things I’ve added, although if it gets to February and my attendance is tanking, I may not have a choice. I’ve been through economic downturns before and always survived - I have no mortgage anymore, we can do cheap camping trips, I can tighten the belt as needed. But the worry with events is always that you’ll lose that momentum - as people stop coming, people stop coming - nobody wants to go to a dying event that everyone’s decided isn’t the place to be anymore. I hope to god that isn’t my fate! I need this thing to at least last another 17 years!!