Friday is Crossover Day at the General Assembly, that annual crush of endurance and deadline pressure that afflicts the Capitol every year.

It's part sport, part spectacle, but mostly a terribly serious exercise in representative government that's purely self-inflicted. By the rules of the state House and Senate, Friday is the last day for a bill to move from one chamber to the other. Make it by the end of Crossover Day or return to the starting line next year.

Of course, there are loopholes. Either chamber can, by a two-thirds majority, agree to accept a bill beyond the deadline, and amendments can be used to move legislation from place to place. But, for practical purposes, this is it.

And for the men who lead the House and the Senate, both of whom most likely face 12 hours of standing on carpet-covered marble floors, the day has significance, but for different reasons.

It will be Speaker David Ralston's first Crossover Day as the leader of the House. While he experienced five similar events while serving in the Senate in the 1990s and now seven as a member of the House, that was as a regular lawmaker. As speaker, Ralston (R-Blue Ridge) will control the action from above the House floor, his gavel nearby. He'll rule on motions and parliamentary procedures, and try to keep 179 other House members moving in the same general direction.

Chaos will be his enemy, as will sore feet.

"I might wear sneakers," a joking Ralston said Thursday.

Turning serious, Ralston said he knows what lies ahead and he wants to avoid stringing the day out longer than necessary. Both the House and the Senate convene at 9 a.m.

"I always thought that we're not at our best in the late hours," Ralston said. "We'll limit debate to some extent so everyone can be heard on their issues, but I don't want to inflict too strict a regimen on our people. But I hope we'll be able to complete our work in a reasonable hour."

Across the Capitol in the Senate, Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle will preside over his fourth Crossover Day, but the first since undergoing extensive surgery to repair disc problems in his neck. That ailment caused him great pain in years past and ultimately derailed his bid to become governor.

But, since the surgery in 2009, Cagle said he's ready to go.

"I'm fit as a fiddle," he said.

It will help, he said, that as Crossover Days go, this one isn't shaping up to be too bad. The Senate will consider 33 bills, the House 36, although the House will almost certainly add more as the day goes on.

Because the state budget is in such bad shape, fewer bills have been proposed because there's no money to spend on new initiatives.

"It's been a much more focused session than we've seen," Cagle said. "It's not uncommon in previous years to have 70 bills on the calendar. It's far more manageable."

Manageable, but not necessarily easy.

"As the presiding officer, there are tempers and emotions that tend to ride a little high on Crossover because people are fighting to the very end to keep their bills alive," he said.

A good example is that in just one day, lawmakers will consider bills dealing with abortion, immigration, new taxes and fees, transportation funding, and more. On a normal legislative day just one of those bills would dominate the debate. Friday, there could be battle after battle.

But one thing lawmakers don't have to worry about is the state budget. The annual appropriations bills are not subject to Crossover Day deadlines, as the budget is the one thing lawmakers are required to do every year.

In fact, Crossover Day was designed largely to give lawmakers the time late in the session to focus more closely on the budget.

There are plenty of other topics to keep them busy Friday. Will the House clear the way for Milton County to be re-created out of part of north Fulton County? Will the Senate declare Georgia free of the requirements of the federal health care overhaul? Will the Georgia Golf Hall of Fame get sliced out of existence? Will hospitals pay new taxes? Will counties be forced to change property tax processes?

That's five of nearly 70 bills to be considered. Pack a lunch. The show begins at 9 a.m.