Today the booth was rebuilt. It wasn't that difficult and the new booth is so much better. I really felt a positive rush from the way things worked out today. Last night people did start a little despondant. When stuff was going down I felt a little helpless being pushed away from the booth that I felt very responsible for and involved in. Well after a brief cool down, my leading instinct took hold. I might not be a booth chair, but for a day I was an equal lead. Since I had cut a lot of the pieces for the original walls I have studies the plans a lot, and that plus my experience with booth and building made me feel like the perfect person to take charge of the rebuild.

Last night I assessed the damage and figure out what would need to be replaced. With a lot of help we cleaned up the good pieces, removing all the broken parts and removing screws. The roof was repaired and all the pieces that could be cut were. This morning we woke up and headed to Home Depot. Armed with new wood I was able to make the rest of the cuts and have Dave direct all the sections to be rebuilt.

In addition to rebuilding there was time for some design improvement. I don't know when I became a structural engineer but after a few meetings the wall that seemed to have the problems was redesigned with 4 new levels of redundant reinforcement. In addition, after the unit was reassembled, a hojilllion extra cross braces were added, solely for move-on, the time when the structure is the most vulnerable.

We lost some time, but we were in great shape before and we made improvements so we are still in good shape. Weather is certainly not slowing us down this year. In fact I have some wicked sunburn, but that's the price.

Meanwhile, while people were putting all the new pieces together and painting, I went over to midway to build another booth. This one for Entertainment Engineering, a mech-e class I'm taking.

The only thing I worry about now is what this is going to mean for my other work. I have a lot to do. I know that my ETC project and finding a job should be first priority, but I really feel that I have a obligation to AEPi. One I can't ignore. Whatever the repercussions, though, I have to work on Booth. It is what I love, what I live for. It is how I know what I want to do. It is the direction in my life. I live more these two weeks than the whole rest of the year. If I ever do make it and get a job doing what I want to and being successful, I'm going to make sure to give back to AEPi booth. I owe everything I am to these years of experiences.