2013 NBA All-Star Event Diary (Day 2)

Have you ever known you were going to be working long hours, so you try to prepare yourself beforehand by drinking plenty of fluids and maybe even getting up early to get in the groove of things? Well, I thought I was well rested and prepared for that extra early alarm to go off…Needless to say I must not have been because when the alarm went off at 5:40am this morning, I, of course, hit the snooze button! The worst part about it is that 5:40 is not that early, especially for us at FILO!

By 5:45am, I rolled out of bed and was out the door and in the lobby for a 6:15am lobby call to set up an event called NBA All-Star E-Recycling presented by Sprint. The event was set to open at 9:00 AM. By the time we were on the road and out the doors, we had two hours to set up this awesome event where people can recycle unwanted electronic products like cellphones, computers, TVs, VCRs (who owns those anymore anyhow?!), copiers, fax machines etc. Not only was it an awesome opportunity for folks to dispose of such products, it was also their chance to meet NBA Legends Elvin Hayes, Calvin Murphy and the Houston Rockets Dancers. The event setup went smoothly! We were open and ready for the event by 9am.

After a good setup, we decided it was time for some breakfast, so KW took us to the “Best place in Houston for breakfast—it was a local taco shop.” Needless to say, props to KW for picking out a pretty decent ‘hole in the wall’ place to grab some pretty awesome breakfast!

Two of our FILOs spent the day at the event to be sure everything ran accordingly, while the other FILOs headed back to the hotel and went to work preparing schedules for unloading trucks bright and early tomorrow morning!

I think afterwards, a few of them took a nap… or maybe they continued working—who knows? Sometimes we find time in a day to catch some zzzzz’s before the next part in our day.

Bibs and I headed to the airport to do endless trips picking up the rest of our crew for All-Star. Let me tell you…driving in Texas is quite the experience and well, to be honest, we may not be the greatest drivers! Yes, I am admitting that I am not a very good driver, but I like to classify it as aggressive!

It is 2:45pm now and Bibs and I are still doing airport pick-ups. However, while we were doing pick-ups, we convinced a handful of our FILO troops to go and help load-out the NBA All-Star E-Recycling presented by Sprint event. The crew was great and it was a SUPER fast load out! They were in and out in 45 minutes and back to the hotel they went. Lucky for some, their day was over, but a few came back to do some more work and prepare for what we hope to be a successful All Star!

At 6pm, dinner time came and a few of us ran to the grocery store to get some breakfast for the next morning. We also grabbed some random stuff for a quick dinner. I had sushi…yes from the grocery store…and yes you guessed it, it was amazing! After dinner, it was time for a little treat that Bibs and I LOVE….I scream, you scream, we all scream, ICE CREAM! Okay, maybe not ice cream but frozen yogurt! :)

Then we were off at 6:45pm for another airport pick-up. And at 8:30pm we were back on the road for our FINAL airport pick up of the day. We made five trips to the airport today and each time had to use a GPS. I promise you after these 13 days I will have the roads figured out… and the last pick up means our day is officially a wrap! Well sort of…. :)

Written by:
Kendra Meyers