Balloons by Absolute Value

Yesterday was quite the challenge for me decorating but nothing like the challenges the Mitzvah mom had in putting a party on for her son.

I talked, texted and emailed the mom beginning six weeks ago. Unlike a lot of moms she knew exactly what she wanted and my job was to find the balloons in a balloon shortage. Did find all the balloons but it took four suppliers to make it all happen.

Her first major problem happened 3 weeks ago when her husband had what appeared to be a stroke in Vegas. He got well enough to get back to Denver where he had what appeared to be a second stroke. According to his doctors it was not a stroke but a viral infection of some sort.

Next problem, the florist couldn’t guarantee what the floral centerpieces would look like due to supply chain problems. That would have to wait till Wednesday of this week. The floral centerpieces were cute but nothing like the Mitzvah mom wanted.

This week she got more bad news she had to deal with, the Rabbi that worked with her son for months tested positive for Covid. A new Rabbi who her son had never worked with was brought in at the last minute.

That same day the Temple where they go to called to let her know that the Kiddush brunch was going to be held outside on the patio. Forty degree weather not ideal for eating and that eliminated balloons for me at the Temple.

There were other problems she faced that I won’t mention except the one that caused me to change my décor for her evening dinner party. She picked a really nice restaurant to have the dinner party at. One that I hadn’t worked before and I was just going by the pictures she sent me.

OOPS, the pictures didn’t match the actual room. The actual room was much smaller and seemed very cramped for the number of people who were coming.
Ceiling light fixtures caused a visual impact on Nicholas name in gold mylar letters too.

This is where my problem begins, we had to think of a new location for the name and readjust the spacing between letters several times to get in to fit in the room and under the light fixtures. Not a hard task but very timing consuming one. A job that should have been done in twenty minutes took us an hour and twenty minutes.

Now I have to say that the restaurant was awesome to work with and our final décor brightened the room. Hope the Mitzvah mom liked it to, everyone else did.

Over the years there are certain venues I like to decorate in for one reason or another. The Curtis Ballroom at the Landmark Comedy Works is one.

There are many reasons why you prefer one venue over another. Close to our house for quick delivery, easy to load in, high ceilings, clean, organized, great owner and friendly staff. For me a friendly staff always ranks at the top of the list of things I like.

My firm believe there is basically two types of Mitzvah’s: for the kids and the second one is for the parents / adults to schmooze. The Bar Mitzvah that we did on Saturday the 18th was definitely for the kids.

The pictures I am showing you today is the area where 45 kids and four adult tables were going to eat. The décor is called a balloon topiary. Simple, elegant and yet whimsical.

What I don’t have pictures of is the kids play area. 25 amusement games from classic pinball, basketball hoops, sit down racing, frogger, skee ball and the latest dancing machine game. It looked like a funny night for all.

There is a side benefit of the Curtis Ballroom for me it is in one of Denver’s premier comedy clubs. I get to try out my new word jokes or what is now called Dad Jokes.

Question: Why does a milking stool only have 3 legs?
Answer: Because the cow has the utter.

Question: Where does a cat go when it loses its tail?
Answer: Walmart, there the largest retailer.

Question: Why do seagulls fly over the sea?
Answer: If they flew over the bay then they would be called bagels.

I know what you’re thinking…”Don’t give up your day job” LOL

Yeah, I got to do another Bar Mitzvah yesterday. Not super big or extremely challenging but it was important for the family to have fun.

I loved the look of the dessert area, there is another table that will go behind the dessert table to hold a treasured bike that once belonged to the boys grandpa when he was a kid. Jonah in silver mylar letters will go over all of it.

I got home and got a call from another Jewish Temple that all indoor social events including Mitzvahs have been canceled or put on hold.

Why? Because the Delta Variant is spreading in the surrounding area and Jewish community like wild fires in California and the West. IT IS TIME TO GET VACCINATED AND WEAR MASKS. STOP THE NONSENSE AND LAME EXCUSES GET THE SHOT.

I don’t want another year like last year where almost all venues were closed for weddings, corporate events and mitzvahs. ONLY YOU UNVACCINATED CAN STOP THIS, GET THE FREAKEN SHOT AND WEAR A MASK.

In these pandemic times you never know what is going to happen from week to week let alone day to day. In May I thought we turned the corner then the Delta Variant hit and people are still scrambling as what to do.

This week I had five school openings scheduled to do and then one by one they started to cancel, four cancelled and left just one for me to do. To mask or not to mask school kids caused all the cancellations. That’s the question.

But my competitor and friend Amy had a customer she just couldn’t fit in her schedule so she sent them to me. This client was mine for over 20 years and then the Broncos hired a new person who went with Amy.

The client was the Denver Broncos one of the best sports teams no matter what sport. I should say one of the best corporations in America. Mister Pat Bowlen (owner who died in 2019) believed that corporations should be highly involved in the community they did business in. He was a man of his word.

Mister Bowlen died from Alzheimer’s, his wife and family decided that they would get actively involved in Alzheimer’s Association of Colorado holding an Alzheimer’s Awareness during training camp each year. Sadly his wife Annabel has Alzheimer’s too.

That didn’t stop the Denver Broncos and the Bowlen family. In 2020 they held a virtual Alzheimer’s Awareness event with great success. This year 2021 the Alzheimer’s Awareness was held in person for the Denver Broncos fans at the training camp on August 18th.

Here are a couple of pics of the arch that I did for this event. I want to thank the Denver Broncos and the Bowlen family for letting me a part of this event. First pic features Brittany Bowlen and Annabel Bowlen daughters of Pat and Annabel Bowlen. Second pic has Brittany Bowlen talking to Bronco fans. Third pic has Bronco Fans entering the training camp under the arch.

Hannibal Smith from the A-Team use to say “I love it when a plan comes together”. It is apparent he never knew Murphy who created “Murphy’s Law”. “ "Anything that can go wrong, will go wrong".

As a balloon company we almost always have to adjust plans for one reason or another. Most times it is a communications problem from the customer to me and my company.

That happen on the 28th of May to us, we were told to place a 60 foot balloon arch in the same place we had previously done twice before. But someone didn’t tell my contact that the plan had changed until after we had placed the arch and were ready to go back to the shop.

Ooops, Food Trucks were to go in that location and the new entrance location for student’s cars was switched to the other side of the high school campus. It required taking down the arch and walking the arch a long two and half blocks and finding a new location to rig the arch too…..

I felt tired like most people do on April First …….because they had a Thirty One Day March…… I just couldn’t resist a bad word joke. LOL

The first two pics are of the first location before the move. The rest of the pics are at the second location. Some show what the wind will do to an arch.

It wasn’t all that bad but the wind made rigging the arch in the new location a little tougher. But in the end Hannibal Smith was right “I love it when a plan comes together”. My contact, her boss and everyone else was happy as clam.