My
digital photos (click on the photo above)
Page
One of My 35mm (click on the photo above)
Page
Two of My 35mm (click on the photo above)
Page
Three of My 35mm (click on the photo above)
|
It was such fun,
but a lot of hard work!! They had about 275 various dolls
to be signed prior to the signing for the shop. On
Friday, I ended up organizing the staging of the dolls,
getting all the boxes opened, the dolls flipped over
inside with their heads turned and their right ears
exposed ready to be signed. There was room for about half
the dolls to be laid out and the other half would have to
be switched out to be signed. We had two rooms with all
the dolls. Tracy from Charisma had said that only Diane
and Maria could be upstairs with Marie while she signed.
I was a little disappointed, but what can you do. That
evening, Lisa had invited Diane and Maria to dinner with
Tracy, Lisa and Marie. Wish I could have gone to that!
Tracy came by on Friday to make sure everything was ready
and she and I went over the staging and how it would work
to switch out the dolls to get them all signed. On
Saturday, we were getting ready to go over to the shop
and Tracy was parked next to us in the hotel parking lot.
She offered a ride, so I jumped in her car and headed
over with her. At the shop, we were setting the foyer up
where Marie would sign for the collectors. I told Tracy
that if she wanted help upstairs with the switching of
the dolls, I'd be happy to do it and then laughed and
said I wouldn't gawk at Marie. She hesitated and then
said, fine, but just me. We had arranged for Marie to
come in the back door, but no, she drives right up to the
front and strolls in. Everyone was lined up outside
waiting and we had been giving out water to them. Marie
stops to chat with people and finally we get her
upstairs. I just hang in the background not talking to
anyone. Marie starts right in signing the dolls and Lisa
is flipping the lids for her as she signs. The new boxes
have the lids attached and the bands printed on them so
Marie would sign the doll, Lisa flipped the lid over and
the next doll was ready. Marie gets on her cell and I
hear her say "hi, daddy, I'm doing a doll signing
right next door. Come on over and dress nice cause
everyone will want your picture. I'm calling Virl to come
get you." Then she calls Virl and asks him to bring
her dad over. Marie kept calling people and asking them
to come see her. She signs so fast, I was amazed. She
whipped through the first room, moved to the next and I
started pulling doll boxes from the table and trying to
get other boxes staged. Tracy was helping, but Diane and
Maria were busy in the shop. I asked Tracy if we could
get one more person to help and she got Teresa's friend,
Nenita. Teresa was guarding the prototype table with the
October dolls on it. So Nenita and I bustled around
swapping out dolls as Marie signed. Maria had brought in
some food from a caterer and had a table filled. Marie
signed everything in 45 minutes so she had time to relax
for a bit. I had gone downstairs to get my lipstick and
ran back up to the ladies room. Opened the door to find
Lisa and Marie freshening up so I hastily backed up. At
that point, Mr. Osmond and Virl arrived. They brought him
upstairs and settled him in a chair with a drink. He told
me he was going to be 88 (which I knew) and was happy to
be there. Marie came back and we were all having a snack,
when Diane pulled me over and made a point of introducing
me to Marie and telling her about my site. Marie said she
needed me to organize her life. I told her I would, only
I live 3000 miles away. She started talking about the
fire and how important it is to have a record of your
belongings. At this point, it was time to get started
with the signing. We started it early since Marie had to
leave on time to do hair and makeup for Rachael and five
friends for the homecoming dance that night. It was
Rachael's first date. Marie had talked about how they
went to find a dress and they have to have their
shoulders covered only all the dresses were strapless or
spaghetti straps so Marie bought two of a dress and used
the second one to remake the top of the first. Any how,
Teresa, Nenita, Kristin Ryan and I were going first in
the signing so we could then help out. The signing area
was just the little foyer of the building so there wasn't
room for people to hang around. I was first so I had my
dolls on the table, Marie came over and signed the tiny
tots I had, then a friend came in and she ran off to show
them the dolls in the shop. She came back and signed
Abigail Blessing Day then we took a picture. I didn't get
to chat at all but that was fine since we had talked
upstairs. I had on a MOD Squad shirt that Maria had made
up for the workers. You'll see it in the photos. For much
of the signing I was taking peoples cameras and snapping
their photos. It got chaotic sometimes cause M'lissa
Virginia showed up with a couple of her kids, Kesti and
her husband and son came. Kesti is expecting another son
in December. Marie's admin, Amy was there. She's married
to Lisa's brother. Karen Seamons and Paula Hart (she
dressed the Babies a Bloom series and Boo Who) were
there. A lot of the time these people were out walking
the line and signing dolls and chatting. Virl walked the
line chatting with people. I had talked to him upstairs
and told him I had purchased one of the family photos
that are signed by the whole family and thanked him for
making those available to fans. He was very sweet and
told me he would be sure to let his wife know that it was
appreciated. I totally forgot he was deaf till later! At
one point during the signing Marie ran up to the
bathroom. They tried to get her to take the elevator and
have someone with her, but she laughed and said she
thought she could handle it. I then had to block people
from going up to the bathroom till Marie came back. Every
once in a while, I'd grab my camera to get a few shots,
so I did get a couple of rolls done, but basically I was
using other's cameras. Teresa was taking some photos for
people who didn't bring cameras. We got down to the wire
on time and had to start the power signing. We set up
another table and were putting dolls on one table, Marie
signed while we set up the next person on the second
table. It got a bit crazy, but we got it done. They were
down to the last few and I offered to bring bags out to
the car of stuff people had given Marie. Lisa's daughter
and her friend were out at the car. I brought out one
batch, went back for more and Lisa gave me Marie's purse
to bring out. I started out and heard "heh, pick up
the phone. Talk to me, heh." coming from her purse.
I went back in and told Marie her purse was yelling at
me. Lisa laughed and said that was Marie's ring tone so
go ahead out with it. Tracy had walked Mr. Osmond out to
the care and Marie and Lisa headed out and they left
honking and waving to everyone. I went upstairs and there
hadn't been a trash basket so there were plates, cups,
soda cans, napkins every where. Lisa's kids, M'lissa
kids, etc had all hung out up there during the signing.
It wasn't bad, just that they had no where to throw the
stuff so it was all over. I found a trash bag and Kristin
and I cleaned it all up. Then I started closing the 275
doll boxes so they would be ready for shipping. As people
started wandering upstairs, they all started helping so
we got that all done. I went down and brought up the
ropes and stands for the line for Marie. Tracy was
leaving and I got a hug from her with thanks for helping
out. Maria was saying she didn't know what she would have
done if I hadn't organized the doll signing part
upstairs, that she hadn't realized how much work it would
all take and she and Diane had been busy with customers.
I felt good that I had contributed and hopefully if they
do it again, they will include me. I came downstairs at
one point and Lisa was back. She said she helped Marie do
the hair and makeup for the girls and it worked out fine
(Marie had left 40 minutes late) and she had brought her
girls back to clean up the mess they left upstairs. I
told her I had already done it. She went off to talk to
Diane and Maria. Saturday night we did the MDF dinner
at Fridays. Linda Queen organized the dinner and a little
gathering later in the hotel lobby. It was fun to talk to
different people. Linda did a great job and had brought
prizes for different things like who came the farthest,
which I won for within the US. Claudia Lewis came from
Egypt so she won overall. Sunday we were back at the shop
packing up the dolls for Diane's shop and packing up our
own dolls to ship. We did a lot of chatting too which was
nice. We left at about 4pm to go to Salt Lake to stay at
a hotel close to the airport for our morning flights.
Nenita left Sunday night so it was Diane, Teresa and I at
the hotel. We had a quick dinner at Perkins then watched
Diane repack her suitcase a few times. I think it was
nervous energy that kept her at it. Monday morning we
headed home. Diane and I were on the same flight to
Minneapolis and then parted there. It was a fun trip,
tiring, but fun.
|