a whirlwind, a helicopter and a surprise
Another crazy week in my world.
Youngest's last week of regular school days, incredible heat, and what seemed like a million clandestine meetings.
Why all the secrecy? I was planning a surprise birthday party for my boss for yesterday afternoon.
I had been working on it for a couple of months, planning and arranging. A bunch of us really got into it and we had a great time preparing a speech and a gift and the ruse.
What was fun was delegating our specific tasks. Because he is held in high esteem by the entire staff, people from all different departments volunteered to handle things for me...after all, I couldn't be on the phone with the caterer (miniature fruit tarts and pastries) while he was a room away.
A couple of us agonized over a gift. We brought more people into the conversation and my pal C came up with the brilliant idea of a Jar Of Words.
Each member of the company received a slip of paper on which they were instructed to write a word they associated with our boss. We put the words in a jar and I presented them to him.
Of course, it wasn't that simple. We chose the paper, we chose to tear the strips of paper rather than cut them, we chose to fold the paper rather than curl it or leave it alone. We bought a special piece of ribbon and a tag. One of our designers did the calligraphy on the tag, we tied the ribbon a particular way.
The strips of paper were delivered to one member of each department in a small envelope and the papers were kept in the envelopes for privacy.
It was a very organized project!
One hundred and seventeen slips of paper...and then we had to find the jar...and construct the ruse.
Finally, after weeks of preparation, he was told, during a meeting, that he needed to attend a conference call in the conference room and that's where we surprised him.
It was, pretty much, perfect. He was very surprised and touched and it all went off without a hitch.
So, it was a whirlwind up to then. In fact, I got to the conference room ten minutes ahead of him and my nerves were so shot that I downed a glass of champagne before they were even done pouring.
The helicopter? Middle commuted in one today - something I was not keen on.
Now that he's home, safe and sound, I can brag about it.
This weekend: a dinner party and a concert.
Talk to you later.
Youngest's last week of regular school days, incredible heat, and what seemed like a million clandestine meetings.
Why all the secrecy? I was planning a surprise birthday party for my boss for yesterday afternoon.
I had been working on it for a couple of months, planning and arranging. A bunch of us really got into it and we had a great time preparing a speech and a gift and the ruse.
What was fun was delegating our specific tasks. Because he is held in high esteem by the entire staff, people from all different departments volunteered to handle things for me...after all, I couldn't be on the phone with the caterer (miniature fruit tarts and pastries) while he was a room away.
A couple of us agonized over a gift. We brought more people into the conversation and my pal C came up with the brilliant idea of a Jar Of Words.
Each member of the company received a slip of paper on which they were instructed to write a word they associated with our boss. We put the words in a jar and I presented them to him.
Of course, it wasn't that simple. We chose the paper, we chose to tear the strips of paper rather than cut them, we chose to fold the paper rather than curl it or leave it alone. We bought a special piece of ribbon and a tag. One of our designers did the calligraphy on the tag, we tied the ribbon a particular way.
The strips of paper were delivered to one member of each department in a small envelope and the papers were kept in the envelopes for privacy.
It was a very organized project!
One hundred and seventeen slips of paper...and then we had to find the jar...and construct the ruse.
Finally, after weeks of preparation, he was told, during a meeting, that he needed to attend a conference call in the conference room and that's where we surprised him.
It was, pretty much, perfect. He was very surprised and touched and it all went off without a hitch.
So, it was a whirlwind up to then. In fact, I got to the conference room ten minutes ahead of him and my nerves were so shot that I downed a glass of champagne before they were even done pouring.
The helicopter? Middle commuted in one today - something I was not keen on.
Now that he's home, safe and sound, I can brag about it.
This weekend: a dinner party and a concert.
Talk to you later.
Comments
AND it so happens that I am in the whirlwind stage of planning a very very big surprise myself! This time tomorrow it will be a fait accompli. I dare not breathe another word about it until then. EXCEPT that I have been avoiding the surprise-ees since this all started because I am TERRIBLE at keeping secrets and arranging surprises. TERRIBLE. Let's hope I don't spill the beans.
A helicopter? I would have been plotzing.
Congrats to you all.
A chopper ride, THERE, I always wanted to do it but never had the amount of money they ask for ... lucky Middle.
Also, good work, you. Surprise anythings are so difficult to engineer.