(Soft) Opening Day

Gainesville

Dense couple of days. Yesterday the Two strange parties. First, Cataloging's "Beach Party" ran from 11 to 2:30, and there was just no avoiding it. They decorated the entire department, including the stair landing to look like a beach (even to showing a video of beach and surfing scenes on the wall, real sand and shells, a row of muumuus) and had a live musician playing keyboard and singing Beach Boys and Jimmy Buffett-type songs. Tons of food, of course. Silk flowered leis for all, and people wore Hawaiian shirts and similar stuff. Wretched excess all around. (I think this group has now jumped the shark, party-wise.)

After work we headed for the Outback party. Mom, you would have absolutely LOVED this affair! They served all their best stuff appetizer style-- steak, chicken, salmon, cut into bite-sized pieces, rack of lamb cut into single chops, etc. -- all you wanted of anything. They held it in the outer room (don't think we ate in there when you visited), which has its own little bar. Mel was working it, and we got a chance to get caught up with her. Bill talked to her husband, but I didn't get a chance to. Angie brought her husband and two boys-- one about 5, learning to shake hands when he meets people (so sweet), the other about 8 months. Angie looked beautiful, all dolled up. It was a lot of fun, and very nice of the local management to put something like this on. About 30-40 people there.

Then today-- The Grande (but soft, soft...) Opening. The "soft" part was pretty silly-- how low-key is it when it was front page feature news in the Alligator yesterday and the Gainesville Sun today? It opened at 1:00 PM, and turned out to be very exciting, and in a good way! A couple of kids actually brought sleeping bags and camped overnight so they could be the first in the door (!!) and there was quite a crowd waiting by the time the doors actually revolved for the first time. I went over a little after 2:00 and there were people everywhere! It was very gratifying, and the staff, who'd been really nervous about what to expect, were all grinning like kids with a new toy. There are the predictable little glitches of course (and poor Bill-- he had to stay til after 7:00, and be on the phone even after we got home working out problems with security) but a great success overall. I'm sure Bill will actually be able to breathe that sigh of relief Real Soon Now...

There are some real howlers in both news stories, by the way. I will send Mom clippings via snail mail, as there are pictures and stuff that didn't make it in the online versions.

This opening has been so all-consuming that we've not had a chance to finalize the WV plans. Nice to have the luxury of being spontaneous with all this. I'll be out of the office until at least August 14, regardless. Getting close to the point where I have more vacation left to burn than work days. Yikes!

Congrats on the sprinkler system install, Mom! And thanks to Charlie for being there to oversee it. I'm really glad to hear this project has happened, and know you will enjoy the convenience of easy watering.