Was Greenville prepared for the widely popular
Get Motivated seminar that was held today, 08/10/2011, at the
Bi-Lo Center. It appears there were more tickets sold then seats available and the traffic was a giant mess. Reported backups on
I-385 of three miles during the morning rush hour and parking spaces being filled beyond full. I was wondering how something this big would be handled by the city. WYFF 4 reported that by 10:30 AM after people had waited in line for over two hours that they were being turned away even though they had tickets for the event.
Ticket Holders Turned Away (as reported by WYFF 4)
By 10:30 a.m., some ticket-holding attendees said they were being turned away at the door. Greenville Fire Chief Tom McDowell said that the BI-Lo Center was at capacity, so people were only being let in as others came out.Get Motivated media spokesman Johnny Caloria contradicted McDowell said that the event is
general seating, and some people were standing in stairwells and not taking seats, so that was why people were being turned away.
News 4’s Kim Quintero said she came across a group of people downtown who bought tickets to the event, waited two hours to get in, but were turned away at the door because the center had reached maximum capacity. They said they were not offered refunds, just workbooks and told to wait outside.Lynn Scott told News 4 that she closed her business to be able to attend the event, but she was one of many who were stopped outside.When she found out she missed Guiliani and Forbes speaking, Scott said, “Oh, my gosh! I really wanted to hear what they had to say. Why would you oversell your situation? That’s wrong.”
Image by cobalt123 via FlickrOctober does not seem to be the best month for me. Last year I was out almost the entire month of October because of slin cancer surgery and recovery and now this year October was an almost complete write off for work because of a case of Shingles. Now I had heard of Shingles but had no idea how you get them or the intense pain it can cause, especially when you break out with them on your face. I ended up in the ER twice over a 4 day period because of the pain it caused. Once the pain finally got under control it was just a matter of letting the Shingles heal. Hopefully I will get back to work by the end of this week.
Image via WikipediaIt seems that the folks here in the Upstate of South Carolina have missed the brunt of Hurricane Irene. The days preceding her arrival there was a chance that it could hit as far south as Charleston but as she approached that changed and it was moved farther north. Hurricanes always seem to become some sort of cult phenomenon despite the destruction they can cause. New Yorkers are by far the most interesting when told they could be in the path of Irene. They throw parties, make t-shirts and generally make jokes. While down here in the south people seem to take them way more seriously. I just hope that no matter where Irene hits that people are smart and safe and there is no injuries and minimal damage to property. 
Image via WikipediaAn earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 5.9 struck in northern Virginia, the U.S. Geological Survey said Tuesday.
