Read more in this series here.

I know you normally get these posts on Fridays, but I have something special to share with you tomorrow, so you’ll be able to read this one today instead. In the previous episode, I finished everything I could conceivably do leading up to the party. Two nights before, Partner 1 and I had tickets to a show — Beetlejuice: the Musical — which was quite enjoyable, and then I was off work on Wednesday so I could prepare anything left over to be done. Mostly this consisted of organizing the name badges, getting my books into the appropriate tubs, packing my clothes and toys, and preparing the house for my dog-sitter.

We also found out around this time that Shannon, one of our events coordinators, had had a death in the family and would likely not be able to attend the party. Fortunately her husband would be able to come in her stead and bring us the things she’d made for the spanking games and other events, but it was still a blow to us (as well as to her, obviously), because we were short one coordinator. Of all the risks we put in our risk register (I’m a PM now, so I think in these terms apparently), one of our coordinators not being able to make it didn’t get on there. We considered what might happen if one of us got hurt or fell ill at the party, but not before. Something to consider for next year.

Thursday morning, March 21, I woke up hella early — I always do when I’m excited for something; when I went to a two-week writing workshop in 2013, I woke up at 2:30am the day I left for it — and took care of the dog, and then packed up my car. I waited for Partner 1’s NP (P1NP) to arrive with the U-Haul so I could load in my bins, some party stuff, and my spanking bench, and then I grabbed a quick lunch and headed to the hotel. I got there around noon and, luckily, my room was already available, so I was able to get my stuff in there and come back down to the lobby, where I hung out with some other early arrivals. We also took delivery of a very large Sam’s Club order for the hospitality suites, and loaded that stuff in as well.

Around three or so, P1 and P1NP arrived with the U-Haul, and we began unloading it. There was a lot of stuff — registration stuff, party stuff, decor, linens, food, beverages, you name it. Fortunately we had several carts, and the hotel had three elevators we could use. We got the U-Haul unloaded in about an hour and turned the registration box over to Catsby, our aforementioned registration coordinator, so she could get the registration room ready. We distributed the walkie-talkies, unloaded StormyGin’s car (she had a bunch of stuff for the Littles Suite), checked in with everyone on the staff, put up our pipe-and-drape, and finally it was time to open the doors. I spent the next couple of hours in the registration room, greeting our attendees and thanking them for coming while Catsby and her crew checked people in and gave them their badges.

Oh, but before that, I realized as we were bringing in the spanking bench that I’d left two pieces of it in the hallway of my house. Luckily, Partner 2 hadn’t yet made it to the hotel, and she was willing to drive to my house, pick up the pieces, and then drive to the hotel. She went way out of her way to do this, and I am beyond grateful. (Fortunately, she has an electric car, so she didn’t have to use extra gas to do this.)

Meanwhile, Silverkettle was sorting out our massive pizza delivery and getting that set up in the hospitality suite for dinner — one thing about hotels is that they don’t let you bring your own food into the convention area, and ordering pizza from a local shop cost us about $15,000 less than having the hotel cater it — and people were quite pleased with that offering. There were a lot of our guests in the eighth-floor hallway (we had 6, 7, and 8 all to ourselves, and half of 5 — almost 50 percent of the hotel) but everyone seemed to be having a good time, which was what mattered. My biggest worry had been us not living up to the standards of the other spanking parties in the US, but so far, so good.

At 8:30 (I believe), P1, P1NP, and I retired to the Littles Suite (which had been put together by Assaulted Peanut’s daddy, who actually built a fort out of sheets, PVC, pillows, beds, and vines) for bedtime stories and spankings. P1NP read two books, one of which was Fox in Socks — a major tongue-twister that he read upside-down so the attending littles could see the pictures. He and I (but mostly I) gave some light spankings to the assembled littles who wanted them, and then I went and checked on the hospitality situation, which Assaulted Peanut and Silverkettle had well-in-hand. We ended up with a ton of extra pizza; we had to buy enough to guarantee that everyone would get some, but we didn’t know for sure how many people who’d bought full weekend passes would be checking in on Thursday. That was okay, though; it meant our guests could have cold pizza all weekend, whenever they wanted it (and there was a microwave in the hotel lobby if they wanted to warm it up).

I honestly don’t recall if any spankings happened in the suites on Thursday night. I’m sure some did, but I was pretty tired. Our little polycule met up in our rooms to check in, I said goodnight to my long-distance partner (who had arrived before 7 but I hadn’t had a lot of time to talk to her, given how busy I was), and finally it was time for bed. Tomorrow would be another busy day.