Balloon Fiesta 2006

From Friday, October 6, 2006 until today Sunday, October 15, 2006, I have been working at the Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta for Garduño's on the Green where the hospitality center was located and who operated most of the catering events at the Fiesta. It's been a long, hard week. I feel like I have been run over by a bus, then a large soccer-mom driven SUV, then an ice cream truck and then a fat woman named Florence chasing the ice cream truck. It had its good points though, I was able to see the balloons launch every morning and see the balloon glows at night since I was there morning and night several times with only Friday the 13th off.

Starting Thursday though, I became an addict. That's right, I have a problem. I became obsessed with collecting balloon pins. Most pilots and crew of balloons, especially special shapes and large companies, carry these pins around with them and give them out to sort of promote their balloons. You are also able to buy a lot of collector pins at souvenir booths through the park. Since I had started collecting at the very end of the Fiesta, I did not have time to collect many. Here's the collection I was able to get before the Fiesta ended today starting from left to right in the order I received them.