Denouement - Work

The Very Important Work Event is over. Certainly it went off, but how, I am not sure. Some things went seamlessly, others, well there were hitches. At the end of the day on Thursday, I really didn't know what to think. Was it a success? Had we done well? I had no point of reference for judgment.

The Ramp Up
Tuesday night saw me dragging home hours after sunset, straggling through the house trying to prepare for the next few days, while trying to deal with a catastrophic error at the printer's via cellphone. Feed the cat, press my best 2 shirts, find clean socks, decide on the best shoes for the chosen outfit that I could stand in for 10 hours, wash linens for impending house guests, wash clothes for the Very Important Wedding . . .

Wednesday morning I appeared in the office weighted down with an overnight bag. There would be no going home, not that night. We all hit the ground running. Less than 24 hours before the event we were still trying to get collateral pieces to press. A thousand tiny details all needed to be run to the ground. At 5 o'clock members of our Board of Directors began to appear. Despite the flurry of activity and the mountain of tasks that still remained to be finished, we were supposed to be having an Open House to show our new offices off to all and sundry. Pity about the hillocks of torn cardboard packaging and general disorganization. "Greetings Mr. Vice President of Global Corp., how nice to meet you, don't you like our view?" Dinner with the Board was a much needed respite, but it was still work: making nice, facilitating conversations, work.

Around midnight I crawled into bed at the clean, old-fashioned and economically priced Baldwin Hotel. Five hours later the alarm went off. By 6 am we were at the event site, handing over a security list with hundreds of names . . . and so it went. Along the way, I was introduced to state dignitaries, a few legal heroes, and some attorneys I first met a decade ago during my first pass through legal work. Of course I was also on my hands and knees using a dull boxcutter to trim posters the printer hadn't bother to cut to spec . . .

By 4 p.m. we'd moved 3 truckloads of materials back to our office. I checked my email for the last time and went to go meet my houseguests.