Wedding Eve Day, Dec. 11, 2008
A crazy day for Ed at work. My last day in the office for the year, a holiday lunch with my team, and deadlines for our fourth business plan submission this year. I announced the Cape Town job offer as dessert was arriving at our lunch. Surprise. Happiness. And the beginning of lots of questions:
• “When are you going?” — Not sure. Need to get through all the paperwork. Probably February.
• “What will you do?” — Advisor to the Vice President for the Region and helping train mentor their strategy and planning staff.
• “How long?” — 1-2 years
• “Are they replacing you?” — Could they really? (Joking)
Between the well-wishers and the questions, I spent most of the afternoon frantically trying to get stuff done before leaving. To top it off, I forgot my credit card at the restaurant, and needed to get to the airport to pick up the “wedding party” (a.k.a. “our people”). It all worked out okay.
Wedding Eve Night, Dec. 11, 2008
Kate was able to pick up her sister (and matron of honor), Anne, at the airport. I suggested a wine bar that was doing champagne tastings, so they went there. I managed to get out of the office about 6:30pm, pick up my “lost” credit card, and pick up Jim (best man) and (wife) Kathy at the airport. We all met back at our place, and dropped off bags.
Afterwards, the “girls” went to Oliveto Café, while Jim and Ed went” to Ben n’ Nicks for beers with the boys. It happened to coincide with our monthly “GO-BIG” night. It stands for “Greater Oakland Boys Investment Group”. In reality, it is an excuse for a bunch of 40’s/50’s guys to go out and drink beer (and occasionally we even discuss finance.) It turned into an impromptu bachelor party, with the odd twist that the guests didn’t know it was going to be one.
It was crowded and loud at Ben n’ Nicks, so I had to take turns telling the 10 or so folks there, that I had two surprises: a) we’re moving to Cape Town, b) we’re getting married … tomorrow! Big responses: “WOOOWWW!” “You’re kidding!”
After a couple of hours, Jim and I returned home to find girls in the bedroom, in the middle of a fashion show. Anne was amazing. She packed probably 10 outfits in her hanging bag, and Kate was trying them all on. Kate’s fashion conscious sister was not going to let Kate just “pull something out of the closet” for her special day.
Amazingly, we all stayed up ‘til about midnight. (Most of us had been up since 3:00 or 4:00 that morning.) All of us had this kind of happy, giddy vibe going. And Kate and I felt extremely fortunate to have our dearest friends with us for the next day.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment