Last night was a retirement party for my previous boss who I worked for 1/2 my career! It was soooo much fun to return and enter the plaza area to have so many friends come and welcome me with huge hugs and smiles. Dawn said she would have thought the party was for me - and I kinda felt like it the whole night. My boss entered and there were some speeches and gift-giving, then more visiting, laughing, and catching-up. I realize how much I miss 20+ of them and how much I enjoyed seeing them again - it truely felt like I was going home. When you work somewhere for 7 years, it can feel that way. My office staff all jumped up and hugged me when I entered the office - I sure love those ladies and miss them lots. Our former VP, John, who had a stroke 2.5 years ago, walked in and received an applause. He looked great, although very stroke-victim-like. Said he's writing a book about his experience and is doing great with his rehab experiences. Several of our former VPs came it was fun to see them as well. One of the Asst. Area Managers, Mrs. Davies, searched me out of the crowd to come talk to me - that was nice. They had a photo booth set up and we had a good time being crazy in there, too. All in all, it was such a light, pleasant, comfortable evening which I walked away feeling very happy. I know it was time to leave last year and am glad that I left on a positive note - so I could come back and visit and feel like I'm still family.
Afterwards, Dawn and Jen F and I headed over to Outback to visit until they closed - we opened the school together 8 years ago and it was so much fun catching up. Jen has been an AP for several years and had some fun stories and experiences. It's like we've all never been apart. I love that about some friendships. We had no idea we had sat in the booth from 6-10pm!!
Tonight our ward had their annual YM/YW Camps Dinner/Auction. They sell dinner tickets for a reasonable price (I always pay the "family" price instead of the "singles" price - it's going for a good cause, right?) As usual, it was packed with people and the auctioneer was fun. The youth served dinner and then they auctioned off everything from car detailing, lawn mowing, hair cuts, sewn aprons, cakes and lots of baked goods, gift baskets, piano tuning, voice lessons, and a bundt cake per week for a month. It was fun to see which things went high - some went for well over $100. And for our little ward, that was sacrificing a lot. It has become a favorite ward activity and the youth benefit for their summer camps - it has helped lower the costs for the families to bear.
We leave for Peru one month from tomorrow morning (early June 12th). It's coming so fast! I am starting to anticipate the hell we'll go through on the Trail part of our trip, but am excited to accomplish such a phenomenal feat.
I think the picture (thanks to Google) shows a fairly FLAT section - I believe we won't be seeing too much of FLAT!
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