A few weeks ago, there was a call out for volunteers for the OpportuniTEA, an event put on by the honors program that includes a Silent Auction, a raffle, tea, and treats. (like the British have with their tea. Salad and biscuits and stuff!) =D It was going to happen on a Saturday. At first Emily and I both ignored the calls and pleas for help. Someone else would volunteer, no big deal. And other people did. Finally, a week and a helf before the event, another Email came. "HELP! We need 10 more people!" Me: "URGHHHHHHH!!!!!!!! FINE! Emily? Wanna volunteer with me?" Emily: "You know, I was just thinking about it..." So I did the only thing that seemed right, I impersonated Emily online, and signed us both us for the Tea!
The Saturday of the Tea, we got up and started getting ready. Of course, we had to be all dressed up, and so it took us (mostly me) FOREVER to get ready. We rushed to brunch and had about 20 minutes to eat. (Brunch starts at 10:30, and we had to be at the Tea by 11:15.) It must have been entertaining to see two ladies, in dresses, shoveling our food in our mouths like cavemen. But we're not going to talk about it. We'll just leave it as we had little time to eat. Period.
We fit right in with the other volunteers in our fancy clothes. Emily and I were both assigned to the same activity (tea pouring- were was also registration, greeting, raffle, auction...) and we teamed up. There were two kinds of tea and we each took one of the two, going to each of our five assigned tables in turn to fill everyone's cups.
Pocatello Idaho.... is NOT a fancy town. So as the guests started arriving in fancy dresses and suits, gloves and hats, I could not contain myself, and I started pointing. Urgh! How rude! Emily had to keep reminding me to calm down. This is a picture from the ISU Facebook Page. These are modest in comparison to some we saw. For example, a bow hat that was similar to one once wore by Princess Kate! More gloves! and hats that entirely obstructed the view on all sides because their brims slumped.
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| LOOK AT THE LADY IN BLUE!!! (on the left) REAL gloves and a LEGIT tea hat!!!! And the woman on the far right and her hat! You do NOT see this is Pocatello! You Don't!!!! |
All the tea pour people had to have white rags to lay over our arms to prevent "dribbling" of the tea on the table. I'll let you know right now, if you ever need tea poured, ask Emily. I kept making messes. It was horrible. It wasn't long before my white rag was covered in dark brown tea spots. It was quite attractive. I don't know how she did it (probably because she's awesome) but Emily's looked absolutely pristine! People went around taking pictures of the guests and their customized tables. For example, the pink table in the picture above is for the International Office on campus (hence the Eiffle Tower in the middle- even though I don't think we have any exchange students from France.........) But I don't think Emily and I were in any pics. How lame is that!
I also have to share this story. Since we knew we wanted to team up, and we knew there were two different teas, we decided at the beginning which ones we each wanted to have. I was going to pour the Queensblend tea and Emily was going to pour the Apricot Decaf. With that decided, Jordan Whithers, the guy in charge of the tea people, came around asking which tea we were going to pour. He knows Emily better so he asks her what kind she wants to pour. "Queensblend". Huh!?!?!? So I got stuck with Apricot Decaf. Emily is sneaky! I certainly wasn't expecting that!
Once we were done serving tea, we started the raffle. This required all tea pours to cease their duties and model. So we did! We teamed up, Emily would carry the "prize" of the raffle, and I had the tickets for that particular item. The guests would buy tickets and put them into a tea pot next to their chosen item. Each team of pours grabbed one item and one teapot at the end. The person who had the teapot dumped the tickets into a bowl and then selected the winner as their partner modeled. Emily was a great model! ;) She absolutely refused to carry the teapot. I have no idea why.
After the tea, we went to the store with one of our friends, Rachel, and we didn't have enough time to change. So we were still dressed up. And we thought about it for a moment and realized the last time we took pictures together was at least 6 months ago! (The hair pictures from Valentines Day do NOT count!) So we asked Rachel to take them for us.
Finding a place was an adventure. The first two parks we went to were PACKED!!! It was the first nice day we've had in a while and people were enjoying it. Finally, the third park we decided to go for it! There were still quite a few people, but not nearly as many as there were in the first two. We still got some weird looks though, and when I'm getting weird looks, I wave to people, much to the embarrassment of the people I'm with (Emily absolutely HATES it!) so I waved to a few people too. Muh ha ha ha ha!
Anyway, this is the final result:
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| We are definitely swinging in dresses! well... Kinda. |
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| We're magical. Just sayin' |
-Casey
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