Meeting The Governor

Last Friday was a rather hectic day, spending most of the day between here and Midland with Julie, then getting back in to town and having to help put on the Danú concert that night.

I arrived at Hannah Community Center and found the band waiting... They were irritated that they had been in town for a few hours but hadn't been informed as to their hotel accommodations. I had left a message on one of their cell phones the day before to call me so that I could give them the details but they said no such message existed.

This was not a very good start to the evening, so I began to think back on the nightmare I'd had about the concert the previous Monday night. In my dream, it was after 8:30pm the night of the show and the band was yet to do their sound check. People who had come to see the show were leaving in disgust; leaving in droves.

Once the band was loaded in, I got them off to the hotel with the plan that they'd be back by about 6:55 for sound check. They indeed arrived by that time, but our crew still wasn't quite ready for them. So, sound check ran a bit longer than planned or desired. People began lining up quite early – before 6:30 and due to the delay, had to wait until 7:55 to get in to the theatre.

As house manager, I decided to make the people wait outside the theatre's foyer – in the hallway/lobby of the community center. My thoughts were that our gate manager, Rita, needed some space – physically and mentally – so I opted to maximize that space so that she could set up and prepare for the oncoming onslaught of people we expected.

During that spell, a rather tall fellow walked into the foyer. He looked rather serious and interested, but he walked past me and Rita and towards the utility area of the theatre. He stopped and came back to me, then introduced himself as he pulled a wallet out of his inside coat pocket and flipped it open revealing a badge. He flashed the badge at me so quickly, and rattled off "Michigan State" something, I thought to ask him to show it to me again... but I didn't. He informed me that Governor Granholm would be attending the concert and that he was there to prepare for her arrival. He wanted to select seats for her and her husband as well as for two additional security people.

Upon selecting the seats, he said that the Governor would arrive very close to 8:00 so as not to create a stir amongst the audience. In actuality, she arrived at about 7:30 and after shaking her hand and introducing myself, I ushered her in to the theatre. This happened in clear view of people waiting to get in, so I was a bit antsy as she greeted someone in the lobby as it increased the likelihood that regular attendees would see her and make a fuss.

The Governor was treated to the last ten minutes or so of Danú's sound check before I was able to allow the rest of the audience in. Later, during intermission, I stopped by her seat and gave her a Fiddle calendar for future reference and joked about putting her on the email list. She asked for my name again – and I walked away not to speak with her again. I was pleased to see that she stayed for most of the show... I think she left just prior to the band's encore.